People who don't indicate at roundabouts!

[LordLancington]

Having been reading the 'who's at fault' car crash thread, it got me thinking about something which really annoys me which a lot of drivers seem to do.

I'm a truck driver and need a fair bit of space to pull out, which means being fairly on the ball when at a city centre roundabout. Usually, I'm waiting for somebody to turn left so I can pull onto the roundabout.

What happens a lot is that a driver won't be indicating, so I wait in the assumption that they are going straight ahead. But then they turn left without indicating, which is infuriating as it means I could've gone had they signalled their intentions earlier, but now it's too late and I'm stuck in the stream of traffic behind them.

Even worse, but less common, is those idiots who turn right but don't indicate and almost cause a crash as drivers opposite them pull out not realising they are continuing around the roundabout. Had a woman slam on brakes and beep me today for almost pulling out in front of her, but she wasn't indicating that she intended to turn right. Had me muttering to myself for a good minute or so after! 😂

@FortyFiedWine because its a small roundabout and left is for exit one, right lane is for exit 2.

When seen (which you don’t) its clear to see.

I swear people have just stopped indicating as much. Not a driver story but a walking story we have a road that we have to cross on the dog walk (which for reference I often have my two DC with me) and this road leads to a rat run. Fine , no problem , we know it as we live on a nearby part of said rat run.

So we are really careful watching for cars as it's an odd junction with two different ways to turn on to it both from dual carriageway. Regularly lately people have just come flying off the dual carriageway with no indication at all.

Initially we just started to get good at spotting the likelihood.....people slowing slightly before the turning, I look to see if the driver is looking up at the road meaning they tend to look the direction they ar going.

But twice lately someone has flown round and just missed us. On one occasion I did lose my temper (fortunately DC were not with me but this guy barely missed ddog tail. He didn't look or indicate at all , and it's not a slip road but an actual turn) , so not my finest moment but I did yell at him. He actually screeched to a halt (I did tell you prick quite loudly.....I did say it wasn't my finest moment ) and yelled out of the window that everybody turned there and I should have known.

No , hundreds of cars go on that dual carriageway , maybe 30% know the rat run. Ergh it's still making me cross. And no , quite frankly I did not respond in a ladylike manner. My dm would be horrified (although my gran would have been really proud!!)

What about cars like BMWs that don't have indicators?

What about cars like BMWs that don't have indicators?

This is either an extremely wry or extremely daft question. 🤔

YANBU. I shout ‘INDICATE’ at these idiots in the summer when my window is rolled down.

More frustrating in winter as not enough time to roll down window and shout INDICATE.

The city I live in has so many people complaining about the roundabouts saying how crap they are, badly designed, always causing accidents. The only reason they cause accidents is because of the idiots using them, pulling out without looking, not indicating, speeding round them, not even going round them etc. You can't blame a road, you can only blame the drivers. It's not like the roundabout suddenly sprung to life and pushed you into that car. These are big standard roundabouts too, nothing slightly difficult like double roundabouts or a big one with mini ones around it. I do find though the more entries/exits to the roundabout, the more complaints there are. Maybe they just struggle to count.

Delighted to see this thread! DP and I have actually started to wonder if they don't teach people how to indicate at roundabouts any more.

But I think indicating generally seems to be regarded as optional. A couple of years ago, I followed a car practically all the way to the supermarket (I wasn't stalking, we just both happened to be going there at the same time). There are at least 7 junctions, including 2 roundabouts, where indication should be given, and this driver didn't indicate once.

He was getting out of his car as I walked up to the store, so I let him know, very politely, that his indicators appeared not to be working.

He assured me that they were. I suggested that he fucking well use them, then.

He obviously didn't think that well-spoken, middle class 60+ women used that sort of language and was .

Someone on here said that learner drivers now are taught to only indicate if there is another car there. Could that be the problem?

I indicate even if it’s 3am on a completely deserted road. Why wouldn’t you? If you get into the habit of doing it every time then it becomes second natures.

There is a roundabout near me where I frequently cross as a pedestrian. I wait until it is completely clear as no fucker ever indicates that they are coming off, including a police car yesterday and I’ve lost count of the number of people having driving lessons who don’t do it.

@NewPapaGuinea

Roundabouts are a brilliant design when used correctly. Unfortunately many drivers are selfish and block exits/entrances, fail to indicate and try and race other cars onto it. If drivers relaxed a bit and allowed other cars to flow on/off a bit more freely traffic flow in general would improve. What we’re now seeing is perfectly adequate roundabouts being torn up and replaced with traffic lights.

Yep, half my town used to get gridlocked some evenings pre-lockdown because of this. People on the main through route would block a busy roundabout, despite the words "keep clear" being painted at each entrance to the roundabout in letters about 2' high.

Imo, all roundabout entrance points should be yellow box junctions, monitored by cameras and drivers should get points if they block them. Twats.

We have a T-junction with "keep clear" on the carriageway because although it's a smallish road, most of the traffic heading out of town in one direction goes that way.

It cracks me up when I pull up there to turn right and there's a car in the queue of traffic blocking my exit. Sometimes, they'll acknowledge they've been a dick and mouth "sorry" or even back up to let cars out if there's room, but more often than not they sit there, staring fixedly ahead, as though making eye contact is an admission of guilt or something.

They have to stop there for ages, too, as the lights at crossroads 100 yards away have 4 phases and give priority to the other road.

I wonder if anyone's ever done a study to see how much congestion is being caused by the arseholes who do this sort of thing?

I must shout "indicate" a million times a day.
Mini roundabouts are just generally chaos, either got the person who's right of way it is just sat there, or some tosser who doesn't have right of way comes flying straight over.

Someone on here said that learner drivers now are taught to only indicate if there is another car there. Could that be the problem?

It certainly could be, and it's bloody stupid. Pedestrians and cyclists need to know what drivers intend to do too, it's not just other cars/lorries etc.

He was getting out of his car as I walked up to the store, so I let him know, very politely, that his indicators appeared not to be working.

He assured me that they were. I suggested that he fucking well use them, then.

Brilliant! 😂

People who dont indicate in general are arrogant arseholes

And while we're complaining about drivers.
Theres a very busy roundabout where we live with traffic lights on all entrances. My route home the queue is about 1.5 mile long. And then when you get to the front you realise that every stupid fucker is stopping three lanes of traffic to let people from the side road in, the side road that doesn't go anywhere but further up the queue of traffic. You can save yourself about half an hour by going the way that you DONT have right of way because each time the lights change about 4 cars from the side road go through and one car from the main road.

If you have right of way, and there are cars behind you, do not stop traffic to let someone out. Just like you wouldn't let someone in front of a queue of people at the supermarket just because you're at the front.

@TruckinRight

YANBU. How are people getting their driver's licences? A good three quarters of local drivers don't obey the rules and are discourteous generally.

I guess any competent driver can behave themselves for the 40 minutes or so of the driving test.

It's how they keep them mystifies me.

An F-type Jaguar pulled out in front of me yesterday, on a 60 mph road, in the wet. Thankfully, I was only doing 45 but it was a close thing. I had to brake so hard the nose of my car really dipped down and I honestly thought I wasn't going to stop in time.

The stupid thing was, he pulled out and then stopped when he saw me coming. If he'd put his toe down instead of blocking the carriageway, it would have been a case of cheekiness, not "Are you trying to fucking kill me".

He waved an apology though, so that's all right. And if he's got any lip reading skills at all, he'll now know he's a stupid cunt.

Someone on here said that learner drivers now are taught to only indicate if there is another car there. Could that be the problem?

When I took my advanced test with the IAM, they said to only indicate if there is somebody else who would benefit from it, including pedestrians etc.

When I met my husband, he took issue with this. His argument being that the people most likely to benefit the most are the ones that you are not aware of.

I now indicate at all junctions and when changing lanes.

When I took my advanced test with the IAM, they said to only indicate if there is somebody else who would benefit from it, including pedestrians etc.

But why wouldn’t you indicate every time? It’s not like it costs money and as you say there is a chance of someone you can’t see who needs to see it.
What a stupid thing to teach people.

Yes absolutely boils me up & it takes all my strength not to swear with the kids in the back !!
People who don't indicate at all so you're supposed to guess whether it's safe to move.
People with their right indicator on, in the left lane who then take exit number 4. How can you not know you are in the completely wrong lane.
People with their left indicator on, who don't turn left at the first opportunity.
Shoot them all!!!!!!!!

that's true as I have done the advanced driver training but it's applicable to say , driving along a country lane with no one in sight, making a turn wouldn't require indication if there's only you around.
Very different to a town roundabout when there's dozens of others who benefit from a signal.

I’d quite like to conduct a study to find the daily wasted time of the nation due to drivers not indicating on a roundabout.

I figure that if I’m delayed by a couple of seconds at every roundabout on my commute, then most other drivers will be too. It must add up to a significant amount of wasted time nationally.

It's interesting that on these threads very few people admit to not indicating yet we all see it happening. I know a few people have said their dh/dp doesn't. So that could be it. Or is it that indicating protocol has changed? Is this a thing?

I think people are getting their licences from a box of cornflakes. A neighbour just did a turn outside my house and it was at a modest guess an eleven point turn.

@RosieCrumpet

What about cars like BMWs that don't have indicators?

Hahahahaha

@RosieCrumpet

What about cars like BMWs that don't have indicators?

@FrangipaniWHOOOOO

Did your instructor tell you what you should have done instead? I mean, was it that you had time to do your thing before the straddler got to you either way, or was it that you were meant to assume the straddler wouldn't be coming your way?

If the straddler was 50 yards away from the roundabout, and doing 3mph, your instructor was right, despite the straddler being a blithering cock-womble.