They do it because they are fucking idiots who don’t care about the safety of others. No exceptions.

Since when has using turn signals been the “normal”?

For the last 20 years, 90% of the drivers are so lazy that they can’t be bothered to lift their finger a half inch even if it means preventing an accident or death…

As a motorcyclist, fuck each and everyone of you that’s not using a blinker…

It infuriates me too, my mother sometimes forgets to do it, and when we told her, she said she did put them on, so I assume that a lot of people forget to turn them on.

Some other people simply don’t care, “why would I need to do it, it’s not their business” is one phrase I read somewhere.

Personally, I always put them, even in empty parking lots with no soul around, better to always have the habit even when it isn’t necessary, that forget to do something because you actively have to choose to do the task, when it should be automatic.

Why would anyone use them when you can keep your opponents on their toes? Driving is essentially a full-contact sport, and you don’t win by playing it safe with turn signals. It’s all about the element of surprise!

Seriously though, some people see traffic in a really weird way. You can expect them to do the exact opposite of what you would do.

Had two girlfriends (in a row!) that hated turn signals because they kicked off their “repetitive noise disorder” (misophonia). My wife hates the regular motion of her windshield wipers, fucks with her head, uses them manually.

We can’t expect this many humans to play together nicely.

I don’t know, but it fucking infuriates me when I’m waiting to turn, and someone turns at the last second next to me without signaling. My brother in Christ, the only reason I’m stopped here is because YOU appeared to be passing in front of me, and I could’ve turned ages ago if I knew you were going to be turning

Ah, so you have BMWs in the States as well?

My friend is trying to save the bulb because it’s not been designed to be replaced, you have to disassemble a corner of the car (Opel Corsa).

I’m just trying to give you something to bitch about on the internet.

Basically. It comes down to habit and some times laziness.

There are a few times I intentionally don’t use mine, mostly because there’s this one intersection that if you’re turning left, for whatever reason people get into this “no you go first” bullshit that’s hard to read. So I turn it on after they start going.

Other tkmes, I fail to single entry into a roundabout. All the round abouts here are single lane and it’s pretty obvious you’re gonna enter. Also, they’re small so it becomes easily confused with signaling an exit from The roundabout. I do signal the exit appropriately, though.

But in MN the 2 things people don’t know how to do is a zipper merge and round abouts. It’s embarrassing, really.

People do or don’t do things depending on three variables: motivation to do it, the ability to do it, and the prompt to do it.

• Motivation could be lacking in some cases. People need to understand the purpose of turn signals. However, I don’t think there’s an anti-turn signal discourse going around. At least as far as I know.
• I don’t think it’s ability, because activating turn signals is relatively easy for most people.
• I think prompts could also be lacking.

How do we change this?

The Behavior Design answer would be something like this: We need to patiently and kindly train people to recognize prompts to the turn signals. “When you get to the corner, put your left hand on the turn-signal control and move it up. Then turn right.” We also need to celebrate it the instant they do it. “Perfect”. Of course, you need to have a good relationship with whomever you’re doing this with.

Now, that is not the only solution; there are many. We might have one solution if we zoom in on one person. We might have another solution if we zoom out to a whole city or country.

In any case, if we want to solve the problem with Behavior Design, you could check out Tiny Habits.

My secret shame, which is bad apparently, is that if I’m in an adjacent lane on the side lane of the road, waiting stationary, trying to merge into oncoming traffic, I don’t indicate until I feel like there’s less cars coming and more gaps. This is where my wife freaks out at my lack of assertiveness, it isn’t a lack of confidence and I’m not hesitating, I feel that having turn signal-fu can be an ace up your sleeve in my opinion.