cale

I don't know. That, knowing how people remember stuff, isn't my expertise. But I am convinced that safety issues have no place in a "system of rules" that place sock apparel concerns near the top of the "list".

dr_lha

So is using a turn signal, and yet I see drivers fail to do that every day also.

cale

The absence of signal use is unrelated to memory. They aren't forgetting to signal. They are non-signalers.

dr_lha

Yeah ok maybe not the best analogy. The one about how clueless motorists are to basic rules of the road is a better one. I think it's better to treat cars as driven by idiots and to make clear signals. I don't buy the argument about visibility of the right arm signal, and I believe that the intent is clear. I was also taught that both arm signals are legally valid, but that may depend on where you learned to drive.

cale

Okay. I don't mean to suggest you're wrong. I just go by what I know. As far as drivers being idiots. I suppose that includes me.

WhyFi

Pointing is not at all confusing. Babies point well before they can speak. Even dogs understand pointing, for gods sake.

As far as driver vision being obstructed by a cabin pillar - how does this sway in favor of left arm only signals? If anything, I would think that a pillar would be more likely to obscure a vertical arm (left arm signaling a right turn) than it would be to obscure an arm held out horizontally.

dr_lha

Me too. For example a few years ago I saw a cyclist lift up his left hand, I my immediate thought was, "who is he waving to?"

I know this sounds facetious, but I genuinely had no idea what he was doing. It wasn't until I started doing group rides that I figured it out. My excuse is that I learned to drive on the other side of the road in the UK, so I might have remembered lifting right arm means turning left (as I was taught back when I was 17). However, I have passed a driving test in the USA apparently without learning to immediately recognize what "left arm lifted" means.

cale

Pointing is NOT the universal sign for turning.

SpeshulEd 

Both forms of signals are acceptable. You do your way, I'll do my way.

I bet most people will be happy we chose to signal at all.

WhyFi

I didn't say that it was. I said that it's not at all confusing.

Are you really suggesting that a driver that understands that pointing left with a left arm will understand the intentions of the rider, whereas the same driver will be confounded by pointing right with a right arm? No, of course not. Conversely, if someone's not familiar with, or not regularly exposed to, left-arm-only signals (aka: the majority of drivers), will they be more likely to quickly interpret a left arm held up at a right angle or right arm pointing right? I really don't think that there's any debate.

I don't care what the *correct* signal is, I care about what's going to be more quickly and easily understood by the majority of drivers.

RPK79

The only time I would use the left arm up to signal is if I am also extending a digit.

happyscientist

My road bike is covered with stickers from any mountain greater than 12,000' that I have ridden over and from riding across Death Valley. It's Fredly, and I don't care.

indyfabz

Phil_gretz

Gasp! Fred Astaire. The pinnacle. "I'm in heaven..."

TassR700

According to Michigan Vehicle Code, either signal is legal for bicyclists signalling a right turn. Of course it took until 2014 to get common sense into the vehicle code. Most other states were way ahead of us, as usual.

Wilfred Laurier

I don't know when it was added, but in Ontario, Canada (just across the lakes from MI), pointing to the right is specifically mentioned in the Highway Traffic Act as an acceptable right-turn-signal for a bicyclist. I have heard the same arguments as above from Ontario people, though, who don't know the law and disagree because it doesn't match their experience.

Personally, I point left to turn left and point right to turn right, and have taught my kids to do the same when cycling.

badger1

Correct.

cale

Most people are either right or left handed. A good thing, in my mind, because it makes controling a bike easier with one hand. Anyway you look at it, signaling with the right hand or the left, the fact of the matter is that the cyclist is going to have to take a hand off the handlebars to signal.

It is great to teach your kids to signal. I think if you want to teach them the, ahem, wrong way to signal, that's better than nothing. (JK) The hand signal, in this country, is designed for the left hand leaving the right, or dominant hand, to steer. I have always felt that the ability to consistently control the speed with brake and direction of the bike with one hand to be important and find this much easier to do with my dominant hand. Just one more reason I favor the left hand signal.

SpeshulEd 

The hand signal being designed for the left hand is because if you're driving a car, the driver can't reach the passenger side window, so we have left handed hand signals.

Since every car made for the past 50 years has had blinkers, hand signals are no longer necessary. Which means, most people no longer pay attention to them, or expect to see them, hence why everyone thinks you're waiving when you're signaling a right turn with your left hand, making pointing a more obvious signal that you will be turning right.

WhyFi

Wow, is that absurd.

caloso

Frame pump
Saddle bag
32 spoke box rim training wheels
Blinkie
3d bottle in the jersey on a hot day

cale

Hand signals may be on the left because drivers are on the left but why are drivers on the left? It starts to make sense when you consider that most people are right-handed.

Blinkers can break or malfunction. Hand signals are an important last resort. They are clear and uniform.

caloso

So it would follow that most Brits, Aussies, and Japanese are left handed.

cale

Okay, Mr. WhyFi, are your comments always so full of insight? What is absurd about planning which side to drive a car on? Big head scratch here!

cale

Don't ask me why they choose to drive on the wrong side of the road.