One of the great things about bike commuting is the ability to make a personal connection with drivers on the road. Not having that metal shell encapsulating you leaves you vulnerable, yes, but also allows you to interact with drivers in ways you'll never get to do from inside a metal shell. Here is a case in point.

Coming from the West, I needed to turn left (Northbound) onto a four lane divided highway with a nice wide median (and a bike lane!) The Southbound lane cleared so I rode out into the median and stopped there to wait for the Northbound lane to clear.

There was a car on the opposite side also waiting for the Northbound traffic to clear. He had no turn signal on, and I couldn’t tell if he wanted to come straight across to go left (South), or if he wanted to turn right and go North. I didn't want to turn left only to find him turning right into me when that Northbound lane cleared.

So I looked over at him as we were waiting for the traffic to clear, and I pointed left, then right, then left, and so on, letting him know that I was just a bit curious as to which way he intended to go.

Now, my pet peeve is people who don’t use turn signals - drives me nuts. This was a great opportunity to point out to someone that their lack of using a turn signal was actually leaving another person (me) in doubt and ill at ease.

He figures out what I’m asking, and with his finger he points to his right. And then I’m muttering under my breath “great, now how about using your TURN SIGNAL!” and just as I’m muttering that he wakes up and puts on his right turn signal.

At this point I smile and give him an OK sign, as if to say “Yeah! You got it! You have a TURN SIGNAL! And now you know you should use it, and I know which way you are going! Good job!” That was fun.