I cut someone off before.
Totally my fault. I was in the strip mall entrance lane going straight across into the lot for Kohl’s. And this woman in a Volvo was coming towards me at right angles. She was just about to reach the exit lane. And even though she didn’t have her signal on, I totally anticipated that she was making a right, so I continued across, cutting her off, and she honked with a complete “I’m honking at you, bitch” honk.
So in addition to blaming myself, I blame all of you who don’t use your signals, thereby confusing me about whether a person driving straight and not signalling a turn actually intends to drive straight and not turn.
Deal with it.
Here in Fla, signaling your intention just encourages folks to do crazy things to cut you off.
When I was taught to drive, I was told to ignore signals and never make assumptions whether someone was going to turn until you saw their wheels turn
I often classify what I see (or think I see) other drivers about to do as “auto body language.” Occasionally this is accompanied by ‘hand signals’ especially if I got it wrong.
Here in England, believing signals is a frequent cause of accidents. Too many people hit them by accident or fail to cancel them. They’ve become suggestors more than indicators.
The other, far more dangerous one, is when some idiot approaching from the right waves you out to turn right – and then you get collected by traffic from the left and that’s classed as your fault :-/ Trust no-one on the roads.
(I usually cycle, so I have a very low opinion of motorists, especially the wallies who lean out of the passenger window while overtaking too close.)
Oh, and roundabouts! Why can’t hardly anyone drive around roundabouts properly? They’re used to keep traffic flowing, but the number of people who stop dead at the give-way and *then* look is amazing. Look on the approach, morons! (It’s far more annoying on a bicycle, as a dead stop from 20+mph wastes a lot of energy.)
Ooh, I could rant on traffic for ages…
In the U.S. we call them traffic circles. The odd thing is they tend to cluster in regions. There’s an area near the Jersey Shore that has circles every few miles, and then you drive 30 miles north and you never see them.
In Northern NJ, we have a thing called a “jughandle” which is very sensible, except drivers from everywhere else are baffled by them.
Had she signaled, who would have had the right of way? It sounds to me like you would have, but it’s unclear. I’m having a hard time believing you did anything wrong.
And turn signals: In California, the law might as well be ‘use a turn signal, go to jail’. Hardly anyone uses them here, and it drives me up a tree.
You know, Tom, it’s hard to say. We were both going straight, and it was an uncontrolled intersection. Parking lots suck.
The thing is, I acted as if she wasn’t going straight when she was, and I probably would have stopped if I’d been using the “she’s going straight” part of my brain.
I have to say that I’m impressed with the generosity of your readers that you just blamed for your fuck up.
Way to go, guys.
I’m sure deb is deleting all the firebombs from her readers that don’t use their signals as we speak.
I use my signals. I even signal properly when on my bike, which sometimes involves sticking my arm into spaces where idiots are trying to put metal boxes (but shouldn’t be – got to love traffic lane systems – remember, give cyclists room).
I missed one bit of crucial information on the first reading: she was driving a Volvo. Case closed; she’s a lousy driver. 😉
See, I was going to point that out, but I thought I’d get in trouble.
Fortunately, I don’t mind getting into trouble…as well you know. 😉