To wonder why no one uses indicators when turning right on a roundabout?

[JacquesHarlow]

Does anyone else notice this?

I'm not talking about mini roundabouts. I mean proper ones where knowing where a car is going is the sole thing that help people get out correctly.

I drive a LOT unfortunately due to family ill health, and work. For the last 5 or so years I've started to see that nearly everyone doesn't indicate right for any road past 12 o'clock.....yet they are seemingly really keen to indicate left to leave the roundabout!

It's almost a running joke now in our family. You see the bizarrely neutral road position (they're not to the right of the two lane roundabout, they're either left or weirdly central)... they look as if they're about to go straight on, but then veer to the right, continue, and then "voila!" , on goes the left signal!

Does anyone use the right hand signal any more on a roundabout? am I just weirdly out of date, and actually things like signalling, road positioning, or anything else, just doesn't matter?

(Don't get me started on middle lane hogging on motorways, mobile phone use while driving, using right hand turn only lanes to go straight on, nearly causing crashes...)

AIBU?

There is a roundabout near my house and 9 cars out of 10 will indicate right when they exit on the left. Boils my piss every time as I am sitting there like a mushroom trying to guess where they are actually going by road positioning.

Ha I've seen this also!

I wonder why they do it....

I think tbh this thread will fade out quickly, because anyone who does do this sutff, just doesn't care enough about driving to either comment or defend the practise.

I don’t think it’s anything specific to turning right as it seems very 50/50 as to whether people indicate at all on roundabouts, regardless of what direction they’re going. That being said, I also have noticed recently that people don’t pay any attention to indicators for cars on the roundabout anyway, three times in one recent trip I was turning right with my indicator on, in the right road position (or lane, if there was one) and had to slam on the brakes as someone just sailed out right in front of me!
All in all, people are stupid.

Or more annoying not signalling when turning left.

Honestly I've never seen this and drive around a lot for work.I always indicate left and right or don't indicate if I'm going straight over.In my experience most people do.

Yes, people don't know how to indicate or don't bother. Always makes me think of kids in the lunch queue pushing in. They seemingly don't think of other road users at all or understand how it is safer for them if other road users know where they are going.

Another side note is how many drivers don't seem to know that your driving should not make other road users change speed or have to break. A lot of people start driving at you on your side of the road (if there are parked cars etc) and just expect you to stop and tha k you with a hand up. Cynically perhaps it's seemingly largely men doing this and feels very arrogant.

Driving standards in general have become very poor imo. No one seems to have the mental capacity to look the correct direction at junctions- or use the correct lanes at a roundabout... not to mention big cars being over the centre line instead of close to the left edge of the road.

Indicating right and then not indicating to come off is a more annoying problem to me. It's like they're taunting me, making me wait for them to pass and then turning off last minute before they get to me!

I have a theory about that. People will only indicate when it affects their own safety/comfort. So, turning right on the roundabout, they will indicate to everyone ahead of them on the exits they are not taking to avoid someone emerging. Once they reached their own exit, they don't bother changing indicators because it no longer affects them. They forget that people ahead of them are waiting to emerge. It's like they just tune out as soon as they reach the point where roundabout is no longer anything to do with them. Selfish driving, I'm afraid.

I don't think it's just roundabouts where indication is missing. I'm strongly starting to suspect that many cars have indicators as an optional extra as they just don't get used at all.

Round here of those that indicate at all, most will indicate right but then don't indicate when they are going to turn off, meaning you're sat trying to enter the roundabout giving way to cars who appear to be continuing round, only to find they turn off unexpectedly.

But yes, driving standards in general seem to have plummeted in the last 3-4 years.

Yes, this is the absolute worst as you sit there thinking you need to wait for them and then they bloody turn off anyway 🙄. I love giving them a thumbs up shout "great indicating, dickwad" not that they ever notice 😂

It's the just staying in the outside lane no matter what exit they're going to use that drives me mad (no pun intended)

The standard of driving at the moment is at an all time low.

Personally I think part of the problem is that the need to think is being removed from peoples every day lives, there was a time when workmen simply dug holes in the road and got on with the work, nowadays an entire mobile traffic control system is installed; usually days before the actual workers arrive, and left up afterwards as well. People are just becoming so used to there always being someone or something to tell them what to do they are losing the capacity to deal with things as they go along.

It varies by country. In Germany at least the way you've described is the correct way, you don't indicate on approach, only when coming up to your exit. I'd imagine there are likely to be other European countries with the same rule and seeing as there's no requirement to do anything before driving in the UK on a European licence, it might not be too surprising that things like that infiltrate a bit.

I was taught by my driving instructor how to indicate correctly. I still do as I was taught - and learned and passed my test in 1964. I was also taught to indicate before I manoeuvre - not, as many people do, start to turn or whatever, and then indicate.

I once saw someone put on a righthand indicator, move into the left lane, then go straight on. They did not signal off.

Another time a driver pulled up to a roundabout to the right of me with a lefthand indicator on so I pulled out. Turns out they were going right and got really angry with me for pulling out in front of them. They were quite a long way down the road before they turned off their indicator.

It's really interesting that a third of readers of this post who voted, think I am being unreasonable.

You should briefly indicate left when you're coming off though, when you go straight over? That's what I was taught.