On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, Steve Firth
I consulted a friend today who is an instructor and has numerous advanced driving qualifications with around 30 years experience of driving. The use of some signals is bit of a hot topic amongst driving instructors because of conflicting advice from the DSA. The DSA definitely prefer drivers not to signal when moving past stationary vehicles unless another road user would benefit from the signal. Instead they prefer drivers to adopt the correct road position for pbutting the stationary vehicle in plenty of time, and move back over when the pbutted vehicle is fully in view in the central mirror.
When pbutting moving vehicles, the Highway Code says:
Overtake only when it is safe to do so. You should * use your mirrors, signal when it is safe to do so, take a quick sideways glance into the blind spot area and then start to move out
However this is only a "should" and not a "must-must not". The HC also says that signals are warnings of intended actions and that care should be taken that they do not confuse others.
The HC also states for moving off that you should signal if necessary before moving out. However this is also actively discouraged for the test because if you are signalling to move out then there are other vehicles which will benefit from the signal, and if that is the case then you are very unlikely to be in a situation where it is yet safe to move off and should wait. The most likely exception is if you are parked and a line of cars has formed behind you waiting for oncoming traffic to clear before moving past you, you may signal to show your intent to start moving and no longer block them and then move off, providing that the cars will not be in a position to move past you during the time it takes you to do this. I imagine if you were legally and safely parked on a road and despite being very patient there was simply no break in the flow of traffic, use of your indicator would quickly result in a driver slowing down to let you move off. My experience so far is that a bit of patience provides a natural space without needing to disrupt the flow of traffic and so I've never yet had to signal to move off.
Thus there is some grey area depending on interpretation and conflicting information, but my previous instructor, my friend today and the test examiners do not require a signal for pbutting a moving vehicle where road position alone is sufficient to show your intent, but you may signal if it will give additional buttistance to other road users and does not confuse them. That seems to be the major consensus and it is certainly how it played out for me when I pbutted my test (I pbutted a couple of cyclists at different times without signalling with no faults). It seems there is constant review by the DSA of the information that they make available to test centers, and naturally all the instructors and examiners regularly debate the ins and outs of it.
-- Chris
