Why do many people not use their signal indicator?

[raccoon]

I can understand it if you aren’t familiar with the road and maybe you see the last minute that you need to turn somewhere so you didn’t signal. But it happens too frequently to be that all of the time.

So why don’t they use them? It’s so much easier than using hand signals. And of course it’s annoying to other drivers when they don’t use them.

[walkingman]

1. I've said for years that most of the drivers in Texas learned to drive on a tractor.

[MLAA]

2. I hear ya and agree.

[MerryHolidays]

3. Laziness and sheer inconsiderate

Unless there's a cop behind you, there's very little downside.

It's crazy not to use the turn signals, but I'm also noticing this more and more.

[elleng]

4. Foolish, and

didn't have Mr. Mazujian as driving teacher!

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Courtesy and the law was to use turn signals and dim headlights

People hold a door open for me more than they use turn signals

[Goonch]

6. Because.....

"42 percent of those drivers say they don't have time to signal. -- 23 percent said they were too lazy to do so. -- 11 percent said it's not important regardless of how often they change lanes. -- 8 percent said they don't do it because other drivers don't."

[rurallib]

7. This is to make up for the people who never turn them off

There are only so many blinks in the universe so they must be balanced somehow.

[Grins]

8. A friend asked her father...

… why didn’t he use his car’s turn signals because he didn’t most of the time.

The 83-year old’s response…?

Using them burned out the light bulbs.

For real. He’s now 93 and still driving.

[Diamond_Dog]

11. Sheer inconsideration

[MyOwnPeace]

9. What's REALLY special......

is when they put on the brakes (all lights glowing), slow down ("WHAT are you DOING?!?), and THEN put on the signal.

"OK, Genius, that little 'lever' over there is to help the people know what you are planning to do. When you WAIT that long, you'd have to be a MAGAt to not realize that 'Oh, he's turning!'" ).

[Chainfire]

10. Because is is none of your damn business where they are going! VENT WARNING

It is because, we already know, that nearly half of the people in this country are ******* idiots.

It infuriates me in heavy traffic, waiting to turn, when someone fails to signal and it causes you to remain stuck in traffic, when you could have gone. Just so you know, I uses my turn signal, when I am leaving my driveway. My driver's ed teacher beat it into us in the 9th grade. (Yea, even rural schools had driver's ed in the 60s) The worst place that I have seen for the failure to use the signals is Georgia. It made me wonder if it was unlawful to signal a turn up there.

Another thing that bothers me is zoomers on the interstate. New car, you know they have speed control, start to pass them and they speed up. Drop behind them and the slow five mph. Start you pass again and they speed up 15 MPH. You end up having to approach the speed of light to get around them, then you can slow to a decent traveling speed and watch them disappear into the distance in the rearview mirror. I haven't had a ticket in 40 years, but when I get one, it will be because of passing a zoomer.

I drive a lot on I-10 (Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fl.) I encounter a lot of Texan left lane homesteaders. The will be in their pickup at 69 MPH the whole way from Dallas to Jacksonville. Traffic can backup for 200 miles behind them and they stay there as if they own the fast lane. It causes the Californians behind them to go crazy and uses NASCAR tactics to try to get around them in the right lane. When I spot one of those guys I bet with my wife on them being Texans. I never lose....

Another lovely is when you pass someone who has been drifting around their lane from warning strip to over the center line, pass them and see that they have a novel open on the steering wheel....And, if I get started on cell phone drivers, I will keep you all night...

[MyOwnPeace]

12. I feel your pain, friend!

"Far Side" has a cartoon with a special door in HELL for people who 'live' in the left lane!

[cos dem]

13. Using a turn signal gives away your strategy.

Al least this is what I assumed when I lived in Boston, where driving is a full-contact sport.

[Backseat Driver]

14. IDK, Muliple choice:

1) It's a long-standing "freedumb" and nobody's business which way they plan to go?
2) How would they know if they're being followed; mirrors are such useless pieces of vanity requiring one
to take eyes off the road ahead; best used retroactively, anyway, after the turn, for long stretches of
roadway that really means "back off because I might turn." Of course, no one believes that - they're
already getting ready to hard charge a pass across the yellow line (Better watch for flying debris).
3) Oncoming defensive drivers will allow non-users to make the first move? They OTOH play on the
offense.
4) Takes too long and nobody's going to give 'em a ticket anyway?
5) Best answer: "It's annoying to other drivers when they don't use them with intention."

Well, you asked -- though I've likely missed a few.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. I think most people learn to drive by watching their parents ...

so bad habits are transmitted down the generations, from the days of oxcarts (literally -- those w i i i d e turns).

Driver's Ed can only do so much after years after watching other people drive.

[Genki Hikari]

18. My mother is one of these

I learned to be a more careful driver when I got away from her. I hate riding anywhere with her--she hardly ever signals, she doesn't wear her seat belt half the time, and, the scariest of all, she doesn't pay attention to her speed, going 90 then realizing she's speeding and hitting the brakes. Then she's driving 20.

Before diabetes, my husband would meet me at the door with a big glass of bourbon after I got home from an outing with her.

I needed it to calm my shattered nerves.

[OhZone]

16. I seriously think some foolish peeps make a conscious effort to decide -

when to use them.

I've seen people on the Parkway not use them for this lane change, and not for that lane change, and then use them for a different lane change, and then use them belatedly when exiting. I've seen others not use them when turning onto a minor road, but then use them at a light to Route 9.

I mean it. I've seen people while I was jogging, not use them because they didn't see any cars around, it looked like. But there may be people on bicycles or walking you didn't see, that would be happier if they knew what you were doing.

I'm thinking, if you just automatically used them for every turn or lane change it would be easier than having to decide if it's worth clicking the lever.

[Croney]

17. My neighbor has a good bumper sticker:

"Visualize using your turn signal."

[bahboo]

19. because they're assholes...

[Midnight Writer]

25. I agree. They are the same drivers who tailgate, who round off corners, who speed,

who jockey through heavy traffic, who pass school buses, who park in handicap spaces, who won't slow down for work zones, who won't change lanes for cars stopped on the shoulder, who won't turn on their headlights after dark or in the rain.

The people who think rules are for other people.

[Marthe48]

20. Just like every other lapse

People don't care if they are courteous. In Ohio, it is a law to use signals, even for lane change. Hahahoho. Stop signs, traffic lights, and speed limits are also laws. But I digress.

In Ohio, state troopers run the testing for drivers' licenses. Or they did. Given that they'd pass a monkey that could turn the car key, I put the blame on bad, rude drivers right on them. At least in Ohio.

[CentralMass]

21. Use ya blinkah..

[Emile]

22. I am a retired truck driver. I use my turn signals all the time.

[magicksmom]

23. Cell Phones

It’s just them and Siri.

[Sibelius Fan]

24. In CA, you need only signal once you're within 100 feet of a turn,

and then only if other cars are close enough behind you that your turning affects their driving reactions.

[LuckyCharms]

26. Because they're stupid. n/t

[LudwigPastorius]

27. Because they're solipsistic assholes...?

[Wicked Blue]

28. In the DC area, it's to avoid giving out government secrets

like which way you're turning

[3catwoman3]

29. Because they are lazy, inattentive...

…inconsiderate jackasses.