[Rant] Drivers that don't use turn signals/blinkers?

I was cruising along on the freeway at 15mph over, and a guy was trying to cut over to get to the exit ramp ahead of me.

There were freaking acres of space behind me. But he decided he needed to go to warp speed to try to get ahead of me. I would've needed to slam on my brakes hard to let him in.

I didn't.

He dropped behind me, sped up some more while heading up the ramp, and flipped me off.

Whatever dude. Sorry I cost you half a second.

Come on man... really?

I was about to come in this thread and mention that nothing pisses me off more than people who signal and change lanes at the same time.

What's the purpose of a signal? It's a visual indicator to other drivers that you are about to move.

If you're already moving as you start to signal, guess what? I already have a visual indicator that you're moving. It's called: YOU'RE MOVING!!!

People should always signal ahead of time... that's how signals work.

This is my biggest wish too.

Changing lanes all willy-nilly without signaling is so much more dangerous than going 20mph over the speed limit. Yet the latter is enforced all the time, while the former almost never is.

 

I wasn't talking about karma on the freeway. I'm talking about in life in general. lol

I don't do what I was talking about. What I said is that I need patience with the idiots amongst us everyday on the road.

Got stopped today in the same traffic. Sat patiently because I was early. Just saying that it is frustrating. Thanks for article though. Hadn't seen it and that gives me some hope.

 

Yeah, this was back in 2008 or so was not as common. Would have been awesome though for him to be caught on video though.

 

Exactly

 

Respect the police in my job, have the toughest job, blah blah -- police in my town will never enforce it because they're too busy rolling through stop signs and not signaling themselves while looking at the computer.

Another thing to look out for, as we hit summertime and parets around the country start to move Junior to their new college environs, is the Crappy U-Haul Dad.

The guy thinks he's still in his stately, mid-priced sedan, but instead he's in a massive U-Haul filled to the brim with his kid's futon, working on a skinflint rental engine, and yet he's still driving like he's borrowed his wife's V6 Accord. Stays in the left lane, tries to pass every trucker he sees, makes late decisions, doesn't account for his new blind spots ... the worst.

 

Cop said it would have been his fault for hitting me. That is exactly what happened to me but I was in a civic and the car i hit was a tahoe. Natural reaction was to pull away from the car coming into my lane. Me and the tahoe just started spinning in the middle of 35 in fort worth. Luckily, it was a saturday morning and not many people on the road. I hit the tahoe, we spun and hit each other again, then I ended up facing oncoming traffic with a big white van driving right at me. It's driver slammed on the brakes and hit me but could have been worse. I just could not stop shaking after but for the next year or so I hated driving next to anyone on the highway. I still do and its wrong but i immediately think that anyone who does not use a signal to change lanes is a horrible person.

 

Happened to me this morning. I was merging onto I-10 west from the feeder at Shepherd. If you have merged here you know it can be stressful with the nonexistent on-ramp. I usually start looking for my merging spot the second I start down the ramp and its almost never an issue. The mid 90's beat up MPV minivan in front of my doesn't speed up past 30 and I have no choice but to follow and merge because of the short ramp. It scares the crap out of me merging that slowly. I change lanes and speed up ASAP and look over at the idiot. He looked like he didn't know he was in a car, absolutely clueless.

 

I disagree. Hate it when people put on their blinker in the right lane when they're currently going 10mph slower than the left lane and no openings. It causes confusion. Like are they going to come over anyway, do the expect me to brake for them, did they forget to turn off their signal or something because there's no way they're getting over anytime soon.

I'm not sure about the "simultaneous" wording in the original message. But yes, I think you should check first and make sure there is at least some opening. If it's open, put on your blinker, then check again and start moving over.

The only time I think the the "lazy blinker" is warranted is if you really need help getting over. Like you're in traffic and need to get over a lane to exit.

 

What annoys me you are waiting to make a left across a 2-lane road. With oncoming traffic a little ways away, I decide to wait. Then the oncoming car makes a right with no signal. arggg. If they just signaled their turn, I would have made my left hand turn long before they got there. Now I have to wait for another string of cars.

Another one that drives me nuts is I approach a stop light and there are cars already stopped in front of me. Light turns green and THEN they signal left. FREAK! If they simply put their signal on while stopped, I'd have moved to the other lane instead of now being stuck behind your left turning ass.

 

My exit home is the Washington Ave exit. No idea what they were thinking when they built that off ramp. I'm a nervous wreck every day trying to get to my exit when I see 20 cars flying down the Shephard ramp to I-10 praying I don't get hit, again.

 

The government makes more money by allowing these idiots on the road huh? Thanks Obama.

 

Yes, exactly. Glance over and make sure there seems to be an opening, flip the blinker, take a second to turn your head around and check your blind spot, then start moving. So really, I think we agree.

I'm not saying it's a good idea to turn on your blinker when you don't expect there to be an opening for another 30 seconds.

I'm just saying, if you literally only turn your blinker on when you're already making the switch, your signal is the very definition of useless.

 

Is it as bad as the I-45 entrance from Allen Parkway? Both of them (north and south bound) are so short that I actually prefer when there's bumper to bumper traffic. That way I can just merge without worrying about getting rear-ended. I won't take that entrance when there's no traffic.

They should just demolish the entire Pierce elevated. I think I saw a plan to do that on here a while back.

 

Bunch of superstar drivers in this thread. I wish you were all on the road at the same time as me.

 

What I'm gathering is that it's pretty unanimous that we should all use our signal lights whenever turning or changing lanes.

If only the rest of the drivers out there would listen....

 

How about this... Just let people over! So what if they cut the line, or you're currently occupying the spot. Within reason of course, move out of the way and let them in. If you see someone trying to get over, let them over!

Novel concept, I know. But just relax. No need to get your blood pressure all high. It's going to take however long it takes for you to get to where you're going. So turn on some music or good talk radio and enjoy the ride.

 

As one of the people flying down the ramp I don't blame you. It is easily the most dangerous part of my commute every day. I wonder how many accidents have been caused by that design, you get one maybe two seconds to properly merge before the ramp runs out. If there are 4 or 5 cars tightly packed in the right lane its probably ending in an accident. I have been thinking about taking a different route just to avoid that.

 

The sound of my blood pressure rising is music for me in the morning.

 

But I live in Houston?