To think if you don't use your f*cking indicators, you shouldn't be allowed on the road??

[Quodlibet]

It's getting unbearable where I live in London.
Today, trying to cross a crossroads with a buggy and I swear 1/4 of the drivers pulling out of the road opposite me didn't bother indicating before turning left. They are clearly expecting other people to psychically know whether they are turning or going straight on.
DP, who is a very careful cyclist, nearly got knocked off his bike today by an uber driver pulling out without indicating, and then swearing at him (DP).

THE HIGHWAY CODE STATES THAT YOU HAVE TO INDICATE BEFORE UNDERTAKING A MANOEUVRE! Do people not understand this anymore??? Clearly they don't in SE London.

It's fucking annoying when people can't use basic things like indicators. I almost got hit by a lorry the other day as it was indicating left but turned right. I could see the driver gesticulating angrily. There are loads of utterly terrible roundabouts round here that have become accident blackspots thanks to people's idiocy.

Oh God, my indicators failed the other day - they seem to have decided to work intermittently and I couldn't do anything about it at the time. I became 'one of those people' and ended up taking a very round about way home to ensure there was no-one behind me when turning left or right! I could have been driving for hours at that rate but got lucky. Where I had to, I used hand signals ( ) but wasn't even sure I was using those correctly until I got home and could check the Highway Code! Fortunately I was right, but I looked like a t*at for 20 minutes.

I don't know what it is in Lincolnshire but nobody indicates. I've been here 4 years and I am sure people think they get charged per use.

I also think that they're given special dispensation to use their mobile phones at the wheel. I see it so much when I ride my motorcycle it is the norm.

I am resigned to it now.

I indicate when I'm in a right/left hand only lane where it should be obvious which way I'm going because it is ingrained in me to assume every driver is a bit stupid. It was how I was taught.

I hate people who don't indicate, especially on roundabouts. There was one the other day and he was hovering in the middle of both lanes so I had no idea where he was going.

There is a roundabout near mine which you can use the right and left hand lane to go straight ahead. I wish they would change it as so many people use the right lane as it is often quicker but there is fuck all room to merge in when you come off. There are quite a few accidents on that roundabout.

And don't forget the 'special' indicators, that flash all four at once to allow you to park on double yellows outside the local shop....

I failed a driving test indicating left off the round about when going straight on. It was a big round about, most mini ones if your going straight there's not the time.
Now I've passed I do indicate as I come off the round about, I think it's just good practice letting people know what your doing.

When I walk to school I cross a busy road with poor sight lines but a crossing. It's rarer to see an indicator and people are too busy on their phones checking Facebook (I can see through the window!) at the junction to notice us crossing

YANBU I hate this. It's not as if indicating is difficult either. I do it automatically, bit like putting my seatbelt on when I get in the car, it feels wrong not to do it.

IMO it's pure arrogance to think you're so special in that you are not required to follow the highway code.

And don't forget the 'special' indicators, that flash all four at once to allow you to park on double yellows outside the local shop

Oh yes. You can park anywhere you want so long as you've left your hazard lights on. I'm never sure if it's a secret bylaw or if the hazards are magic.

I'm never sure if it's a secret bylaw or if the hazards are magic.

The resulting fines must be magic too

I understood that indicators flashing cannot be relied upon as describing the true intentions of the driver - legally and practically speaking - so although I use them, I drive like everyone else doesn't - even when they do.....and that also means I don't feel the fury when driving that many on this thread seem to.

Maybe they need to stop fitting them if they don't work

YANBU, but even worse are those people who believe that putting your indicator on, in whatever circumstances, gives you magical right of way to pull over/swap lanes/etc. without checking your mirrors as your indicator will make a space appear for your car out of thin air...
(This species may or may not exists in the UK, I have never driven there)

I only passed my test last year. My instructor told me in no uncertain terms that absent or incorrect indication is grounds for failure so get it right! I've been left waiting at roundabouts due to people turning off with no signal.

YASNBU - It fucks me off no end when people don't indicate. It is completely selfish and can cause bloody accidents.

Yanbu - my BIL thinks indicating is optional, on the motorway. Drives me bananas

YADNBU! Just how lazy do you have to be to not bother to indicate? It's not as though you have to wind down the window, stick your arm out and do big rotating circles, just flick your wrist a few cms and hey presto!

I'm sure there's a correlation between non-indicators and people who don't bother to acknowledge you when you let them through, too.

Gah, was behind a car the other day on a road with 5 roundabouts and they used their indicators incorrectly on them all. so many near accidents that I turned off the main rd and took longer route to destination to stay safer!

I had heard that people are now taught to only indicate if there is someone there to see. I don't see the point in that. There is no harm in indicating every time even on a country road at 3am.

I personally think that the standard of driving instructors has gone down too.
Where I live it is very flat and the end of my road is just about the only hill in town that isn't a main road. There are sometime 3 or so people practicing hill starts the problem is that the top of the hill has a blind bend coupled with the crest of the hill. Therefore the learners force you into on coming traffic. I have also seen more that one learner coming off a roundabout without indicating

Yes MeeWoo we do get those people 'I am indicating and therefore have every right to push in in front of you and will get very shitty when you don't let me.

One problem we seem to have here is people stopping on round abouts to let people on! Not when it is busy and blocked up but when the road is empty.

YA -D- NBU - this is my number annoyance when driving.

The amount of people I see, who start breaking way, way before they engage their indicator (if they bother at all!) really boggles my mind.

It can't be that difficult surely?

I'm feeling all now.

Driving instructors don't teach you to only indicate if others are around. I only passed my test six months ago, so I have recent experience of driving lessons. Mine was very insistent on indicating even on quiet roads, as pedestrians and cyclists could be around. I do it out of habit.

I don't think it's necessarily learners and new drivers who are the problem. In my experience it's white van drivers and other professional drivers who have no doubt been on the road for years and pick up terrible habits. The driving test now is really thorough compared to 20 years ago.

YANBU.

As someone who walks almost everywhere, this is one of my pet hates.

Only yesterday I nearly got hit by a twat in a massive 4x4 who decided, at speed, to turn into his drive. Which I happened to be in the middle of passing.

Apparently I should have waited to let him go first.

Never mind that, first of all, I had right of way anyway, seeing as I was on the foothpath, and second, he had given no indication that he wanted to turn of the road.

I also detest standing at the edge of the road, missing countless opportunities to pass because people cannot be bothered to indicate. Evidently, I am only a pedestrian so I do not actually exist or something.

And don't forget the 'special' indicators, that flash all four at once to allow you to park on double yellows outside the local shop....

Ah, yes, BUT... my local dry cleaner has double yellow lines right outside with absolutely nowhere else to park. They have a sign up in the shop to let people know that there is special dispensation for the yellow lines outside and that no-one will be ticketed for parking there. It's a local shop for local people...

YANBU.

Plus, they don't seem to realise they have ashtrays in their cars, not flicking it all out the windows where it can blow into cyclist/other drivers with windows down eyes.

plus they don't realise the volume button on their car stereos goes DOWN, not just up.

or that they need to be at least a car distance from you, not shoved up your backside, and if you brake suddenly and THEY come into YOU, YOU are to blame, not them. twunts.

A couple of years ago a local driving instructor wrote in to the local paper bewailing the general inability to negotiate a particular local roundabout appropriately. He included a lot of rather patronising detail about which lane one should be in for any given combination of directions.

Said roundabout is fiddly enough that they've now completely dug it up to make a mega junction.

Anyway, in the following edition of the newspaper there were about eleventy-six replies to his letter, each pointing out that he had it completely wrong and was presumably teaching his pupils to ignore road signs (photo) and road markings (photo) in favour of a half-remembered generalisation.

Technically on roundabouts you should indicate right to stay on, and indicate left to come off. On big roundabouts you should definitely indicate right until you're ready to indicate left, as drivers waiting will have no idea where you came from.

What frustrates me on roundabouts I don't know is when it is decided that the normal rules of what lane to be in don't apply but the arrows are painted on the road and therefore impossible to see if there is traffic.