IT SEEMS LIKE ONE OF THE most basic of driving skills, but anyone who travels Australian roads knows, many motorists simply don’t know when or how to use their indicators.
Used as they should be, indicators advise other motorists and pedestrians of our intentions.
You may not be aware, but it is a legal requirement that indicators must be used when turning to the left or right, changing marked lanes to the left or right, diverging to the left or right, entering a marked lane, or a line of traffic to the left or right, moving to the left or right from a stationary position, turning left or right into a marked lane or a line of traffic from a median strip parking area, at a T-intersection where the continuing road curves to the left or right when you are leaving the continuing road to proceed straight ahead onto the terminating road, when making a U-turn and when exiting a roundabout.
Things start to become a little non-specific, though, when it comes to how long or how far before turning you are required to indicate. In most cases, the driver is required to give a change of direction signal “for long enough to give sufficient warning to other drivers and pedestrians of their intention to undertake the manoeuvre signalled”. Like far too many of our road rules, that is open to interpretation – what seems like “sufficient warning” to one may be deemed ‘insufficient warning” by another.
Complete clarity is applied to only two situations: when leaving a stationary position at the side of the road or from a median strip parking area, the driver is required to indicate for at least five seconds before changing direction.
Confusion still reigns at roundabouts, with some drivers continuing to indicate a right hand turn when, in fact they are going straight ahead (probably under the impression that it tells drivers waiting to enter the roundabout, that they will not be exiting at the first exit). However, just as many drivers fail to indicate their intention to leave a roundabout, leaving motorists sitting when they could have safely entered.
And here’s another fact that many drivers are either unaware of or choose to ignore: it is a legal requirement to cancel the indicator as soon as the change of direction is completed.
Failing to indicate as required is an offence, as is failing to cancel a signal, and both will incur a penalty and demerit points (varying from state to state).