Biking downtown - streets vs sidewalks

People who don't use their turn signals should die in a fire. The only time I don't use mine is when I make one turn and then another immediate turn (i.e. my parent's place is the first house on their street - the driveway is fifteen feet from the road I turn off of).

Honestly, it's laziness in the most dangerous fashion. The turn signal is literally inches from your finger, and you can't use it to tell people what you're doing, prevent a serious injury, or possibly save a life? Who knows what would have happened had you hit that car, Moiraine. This is the exact problem with biking in downtown areas, as I mentioned above. People in cars don't want to surrender their roads to bike lanes, but they consistently fail to pay attention to these people.

I often wonder how many people would fail a driving test if they were being watched without their knowing.

 
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The turn signal thing is partly an urban/rural issue that you see in states like Nebraska with a mix of urban/rural people. Farm kids grow up seldom using turn signals out on the farm. It seems sort of silly to use turn signals on some gravel road out in the middle of nowhere. When they head off to UNL they don't always lose their lax turn signal habits. At least that's my theory anyway.

 
NUance said:
The turn signal thing is partly an urban/rural issue that you see in states like Nebraska with a mix of urban/rural people. Farm kids grow up seldom using turn signals out on the farm. It seems sort of silly to use turn signals on some gravel road out in the middle of nowhere. When they head off to UNL they don't always lose their lax turn signal habits. At least that's my theory anyway.
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I get the impression that there are a lot of people on Lincoln's streets who are, for the first time in their lives, driving on paved roads.

 
NUance said:
The turn signal thing is partly an urban/rural issue that you see in states like Nebraska with a mix of urban/rural people. Farm kids grow up seldom using turn signals out on the farm. It seems sort of silly to use turn signals on some gravel road out in the middle of nowhere. When they head off to UNL they don't always lose their lax turn signal habits. At least that's my theory anyway.
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You might have a point, but it's still inexcusable. People know they're there, they know they're for safety, and they know how to use them. I think most people make the conscious decision to not use their signal simply because they don't care, and they should. Any time you involve others' safety, you should care.

 
knapplc said:
NUance said:
The turn signal thing is partly an urban/rural issue that you see in states like Nebraska with a mix of urban/rural people. Farm kids grow up seldom using turn signals out on the farm. It seems sort of silly to use turn signals on some gravel road out in the middle of nowhere. When they head off to UNL they don't always lose their lax turn signal habits. At least that's my theory anyway.
Click to expand...
I get the impression that there are a lot of people on Lincoln's streets who are, for the first time in their lives, driving on paved roads.
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Or driving for the first time ever.

 
I posted in another thread, but John Cook was hit by a car on his bike yesterday. Just proves the awesomeness of the drivers here in Lincoln and their regard to cyclists.

 
Lack of turn signals is definitely not just a rural thing.

Actually I have a story of the opposite from just last night. I was making a left turn at a yield-on-green intersection. Cut right across a very confused (but polite, I guess, he didn't honk) driver traveling straight through. He had his left blinker on the entire time and I figured he would be turning left. Turn signal overuse :P

 
I get that bikes have the same rights as cars but...its a bike!

You might have the same rights but a bike getting hit by a car is probably not so good for the bike or the spandex wearing, colored shirt having, apexed helmet dude on it.

 
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