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! 😂

I find this happens a lot, even in my small quiet town. It's as if they just don't actually know how to use a roundabout. It's probably more that they believe they are the centre of the universe and should be able to vdo whatever they like

I give the first exit without indicating brigade the two fingers as I continue to wait to pull out

@Eckhart yes I pointed out I hadn't actually stopped, was already slowing as I was approaching so just gently applied a bit more brake to allow time for me to see where the van was going.... I didn't actually stop or slam the brakes on so not causing a danger...... but examiner said it was "obvious to him which way the van was going"

So annoying because I only had 1 minor fault aswell

@cologne4711

Of course you should indicate, it should be second nature when driving

Exactly. There may be a pedestrian who wants to know what your plans are.

Pretty sure when I read the Highway Code 25 years ago that indicating was also for the benefit of pedestrians as much as it is for other motorists.

Exactly. There may be a pedestrian who wants to know what your plans are

You are supposed to know whether there are or aren't any pedestrians, though, as part of basic observation skills. I always found this questionable, because somebody could be just coming out of their hedged garden path or something. And it still doesn't answer the question of how indicating to nobody does any harm.

@FrangipaniWHOOOOO

It's so much a call of judgement, and that seems unfair to you given how many DESPERATELY hesitant drivers there are on the roads.

[quote Eckhart]@FrangipaniWHOOOOO

It's so much a call of judgement, and that seems unfair to you given how many DESPERATELY hesitant drivers there are on the roads.[/quote]
That was my point, I told him I could've understood if I'd slammed the brakes on or even if there's been a car behind me!

I waited 2 weeks and resat, ended up with the same examiner but he passed me second time

@FrangipaniWHOOOOO - you failed with 1 minor fault? In the UK?

Yeah because "hesitation" used to be classed as a major fault so an automatic fail, regardless of how many minors you had (could be zero minors and 1 major, you'd still fail).

That was 22 years ago though, not sure what the rules are now.....