Is this the best way to signal your intentions?

Question

whilst driving a car why if you wish to turn left do you indicate left, when signalling was invented we could have decided to 'indicate' the direction other motorists should take in order to avoid you

Answer 1

If you signal to the other driver which direction 'they' should be taking and they have an accident, who's responsible? You. Much better to signal your own intentions and let other drivers decide what they need to do about it - then, if they decide to c**k it up, their problem, not yours.

Common sense really.

Answer 2

I agree wth everyone else - I know where you are going with this, but it would only really work if you were turning off the main road into a side road.

What would you do when coming up to a roundabout and turning right?

Also it would be really confising, and hard to do, to signal the opposite way that you are steering.

The current method works extremely well - the MAIN problem is people being too lazy to signal in the first place - if everyon signalled live would be heaven!!

Answer 3

Well if I signal to you that I'm turning right by sticking my hand out and pointing left...the guy in the oncoming car will think I'm directing him to turn right..and what if he wanted to go straight? I may wind up getting him lost? What if he's not from here? Is that any way to treat a foreigner? And if you are behind me and go left to go around me, I've just directed you into the path of an oncoming cement truck..will he be able to stop in time? Doubtful...good question though :-)

Answer 4

That would be ridiculous!

How can you expect to tell another driver which way to go when it may not be the direction that the person wishes to go.

You come to a crossroads and are about to turn right. Do you tell all the traffic to turn left? Some will want to go straight on whilst others will be following you to the right.

Traffic signalling has logic behind it. If it did not work well it would've been changed by now.

Answer 5

I think the key to the answer is in your question.  The idea is that I use the turn signal to tell everybody else on the road where I'm going, then they use that information to decide for themselves what course to take (they are humans after all.).  Thus I have "signalled my intentions."