I just *knew* that someone would take issue with this; kind of surprised it's you.
Let's be clear here, I'm passing on the received wisdom of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the National Police Driving School; it's not just my opinion, it's also the opinion of a lot of people who've amassed a lot of research and experience and boiled it down in a system of driving.
Argument by authority? Definitely, but not by my authority.
What? That's ridiculous! First off, who actually takes their hands off the wheel to activate the turn signal? I don't know how cars are setup in the U.K., but here in the US I can activate my turn signal by merely moving a single finger, with the rest of my hand still holding the wheel. (This can be done from both the "10 and 2" and "9 and 3" positions, depending on when/how you were taught to drive.)
You've still modified your grip, it's not as secure as before and not as ready to deal with something unexpected (given, if you're driving properly and following all the rules, there strictly shouldn't be anything unexpected). But it's a minor illustration of one downside of automatically signalling when you don't need to. The principal point is "
Why are you signalling?", "Out of habit" is not an adequate answer, "To let the guy in the rusty blue Bronco know I'm going to turn" is.
Anyway, by sheer chance I happened to watch your video on the Keithley 197A last night, so I've seen your hands up close for around 20 minutes. I don't think
you could reach the turn indicator and hold the steering wheel properly at the same time, not with those
*ahem* presidential fingers.
Second, just because nobody is behind you, doesn't make a turn signal less useful. Somebody could be pulling onto the road from a parking lot or otherwise be somewhere where you can't see them. You should *always* use your turn signal, even if you don't think anyone is around. Why? Because it's signaling your intent. That's the whole point!
I don't believe I limited it to the simple case of "nobody behind you" and I was very careful to say "road users" not 'vehicles' so as to include pedestrians and other moving hazards. One
should give a signal if there's a concealed entrance or exit, or a large vehicle that might hide a pedestrian who can see you but whom one cannot see, but you should be giving the signal because you have actively spotted the hazard and are communicating with someone one actively believes
might be there, not out of habit.
Third, the previous poster is correct in that it does train you to not use it. There have been several studies over the years that prove this.
That's got to earn a [Citation needed].
Hell, using a turn signal is so engrained into my driving behavior, I don't even actively do it anymore, it just happens. In fact, the other day, I realized I out on my turn signal when I was in my driveway, pulling into my space on my own property! XD
I think you just made my point for me. This isn't actually about signalling per-se but about being comprehensively aware of your environment and thus knowing why one is signalling and making a deliberate choice of it. One shouldn't be doing anything unconsciously, every move on the road should be deliberate and calculated. One should have a plan for the immediate section of driving one's doing and that should include visible hazards, invisible hazards suggested by the environment (e.g. a line of trees or lampposts can warn of an, as yet, out of sight turn in the road, a reflection in a parked car's door can indicate another vehicle around a bend, a foot visible
under a vehicle can indicate an unseen child) and a planned response to them (which might be as simple as "that driver looks unpredictable, I'll slow down and hang back from them").
That might sound like a lot to be thinking about, but when you've been following the 'system' for a while the forward planning becomes routine. For instance, when I'm driving along in traffic and intend to turn (so the need for a signal is established), I actively plan where I'm going to give the signal. I aim to start signalling around 9 seconds before the turn. I look for turns before the one I want to take and delay my signal until it cannot be interpreted as a signal for one of those prior turns, unless it would give another road user less than around 4 seconds of warning, when I'll turn it on earlier. All that thinking occurs in a split second and leads to a conscious decision to pick a point on the road ahead where I'll turn my signal on. The mechanics are almost automatic, but the planning process is quite deliberate and conscious.
I actually chide myself if I find that I've made a signal automatically and don't know why. I imagine a former instructor sitting in the seat next to me asking "
Why did you make that signal?" and knowing that I wouldn't have an answer and would be getting a telling off because "If you don't know
why you did it, you don't know
what is on the road.".
[This is the same instructor (an MPS traffic sergeant) who would put their hand over the rear view mirror and ask "What is behind you
now?" and would expect an answer that ideally included the make, colour, road position and speed of every vehicle and a list of pedestrians with safety relevant descriptions, for example "Mother and toddler, old man with a cane, blind-deaf man (man with white cane with two red stripes)". And yes, I actually spotted that last one once and was very pleased with myself for catching it. This is the same man who used to say that you got a speeding ticket not for the speed itself, but for driving at a speed where you couldn't take adequate observations - "There's two big ugly constables in high-vis jackets with a speed gun over there. If you can't see them, how would you see a small child?".]
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