Query from a Learner Driver

Thanks for the responses guys!

Whenever I do indicate when nothing is there he pulls me up for it and says it can be a fault. I just went along with it until my family started pointing it out to me.

I just don't get why he would lie about it unless he wanted me to fail to buy more lessons! Which I'm aware could actually be a thing, haha!

Are you 100% sure that he's saying your indication is unnecessary because no one else is around? Are there no other reasons why he thinks it's unnecessary indication?

It's seems a strange thing for an instructor to say when it obviously isn't a fault to indicate when there's no other cars around. There could be pedestrians around of cars that you cannot see. You should indicate if it's correct to do so and it's irrelevant if you can see cars or not.

As a result, some will advise their learners to always signal whenever they move off or pull up. This is wrong, even though the examiners will nearly always let it go if the correct observations have been made and any other traffic allowed for. Personally, I always teach my own pupils to signal only if there is a need – it gets them checking their mirrors – although some will fall back towards signalling when it isn’t really needed as their lessons progress. I don’t really have a problem with that… as I say, as long as they have checked their mirrors first.

...Although a PDI who was doing their Part 2 test would probably pick up a fault if they signalled when no one was there.

This article is surprising/enlightening:

https://www.diaryofanadi.co.uk/?p=17076





I don't understand what the problem with always signalling is when moving off / pulling up. Does anyone know why it's a problem if no one else is around?

I was told by my instructor not to bother indicating when moving off for the reasons of: I wasn't parked... which never made any sense. It also only seemed to apply if there was nobody around. Although because I'm stubborn and know best (pshhht) I ignored him and indicated on my test when moving off, was not given a fault and passed.

The article says that indicating when no one is around wouldn’t be a fault in a test but they don’t encourage it. I’m wondering why they don’t encourage it.

It makes no sense to me... do we have any ADIs on the site?

Signalling as a response to it being a habit can lessen concentration and lead to driving errors.

Signalling as a response to a concious decision based on evaluating the surroundings continues to encourage appropriate concentration levels.

If a driver signals to park up every time, rather than as a response to effective observations and assessment of the information gained by those observations, it can quickly result in ineffective observations or complete lack of observations all together.

Ineffective observations can then have knock on effects such as stopping unsafely etc.

signalling by habit can also lead into misleading signals that might result in confusion to other road users.

Signals should be applied if they inform and assist other road users.
Signals should not be misleading

If a signal is applied out of habit, how does the driver know if it could be misleading or not?

Here's another quote from an ADI:


http://www.driving-instructor.tv/forum/thread/4575/unnecessary-signals

I can see what they're saying about signalling as a habit without observations is a problem. But I don't see this as a reason to not signal every time you pull over.

Their argument seems to be that you should only signal as a response to observations so that it doesn't become a habit. I think telling learners to observe and signal is a better idea but I I'm not an ADI...

It makes no sense to me... do we have any ADIs on the site?

The article says that indicating when no one is around wouldn’t be a fault in a test but they don’t encourage it. I’m wondering why they don’t encourage it.

OK, that sort of makes sense actually. But I tend to agree with you more...

Yes it's making more sense to me than it did earlier. But going back to the OP, I think we're all in agreement that teaching a learner to only signal when others are around is probably not the best idea.