Huh. I had never considered this, but in countries where they drive on the left, they must use their right arms to signal instead of the left!
?
On a bike you use the arm of whichever way you’re going. Or do you stretch your left arm across your face when you’re going right?
That is very incorrect. The hand signals are universal between bicycles, motorcycles, and cars, so you use the arm that you could stick out the window in a car. In places with left hand drive, you’d use your left arm. To indicate a left turn, you stick your arm straight out to the side. To indicate a right turn, you stick your arm out, but bend your elbow 90 degrees so your forearm is pointing straight up.
Those are the correct signals in the US, but most drivers don’t know them.
Pointing with the arm nearest to the turn is very clear.
That’s not universal at all and completely wrong in large parts of the world.
In all the Nordic countries, who do ride bicycles very much, and in much of Europe, the right arm is used for signalling right turns, and the left arm for left turns and stopping/slowing. The stop sign is almost what you describe as a right turn: left arm up as an L and open palm. The left arm is used for stop, because it’s most visible when riding/driving on the right side.
Left turns are mostly used on small roads, because in larger intersections the cyclist should preferably make an “orientation stop” to make two straight crossings instead.
This signalling system was introduced many years ago when most bikes had pedal brakes, so there were no issues in braking while signalling with either arm. It can be slightly annoying for bikes with hand brakes only, since the front brake is on the left (which is also not a universal design). But it works, people do use it, and they do expect others to use it when it makes a difference. For instance, it would be considered rude to make a right turn without signalling if there are cars waiting to turn right, because the bicycle has the right of way it were to continue straight.
It’s also not the same for mopeds and motorcycles, because they should always use indicator lights, but in case it doesn’t have those and since the accelerator and front brake are on the right hand, they can only use the left arm to signal in those rare situations.
The only times I’ve seen cars using hand signals have been at veteran shows where the passenger would do the right turn signal.
that is not done in the Netherlands. For cyclists you just point in the direction you’re going with the arm closest to that direction.This is taught to children at a young age.
For driving a car I was never taught hand signals, I suspect that if you drive while your lights aren’t working, you’ll get a fine if caught. Wikipedia says that when driving oldtimers, which often don’t have a cab, you just point in the direction you’re turning, same as on a bike.
This is a Dutch artist, and a Dutch landscape. The Netherlands is a right-side driving country.
I guess your comment is true for car drivers sticking their arm out of a window, but for cyclists it really doesn’t matter. You can use both arms to indicate direction.
Yeah I just point with whatever arm is nearest the turn or merge.
No one acknowledges the actual correct signals at all. Pointing at least seems to work.
In the United States you can use either arm, from the nhtsa website
This is strangely compelling as an image
Syd and Mackey’s latest video on YouTube shows Mackey’s 79 year old father competing in a mountiain bike race. https://youtu.be/-YGnoBC0I1o
Why isn’t the full picture being posted?
I will update the post if you can find a high resolution variation of the full painting
I found a 2000x2000 via this page: https://tsjiess.net/2023/02/26/marius-van-dokkum/
Is that high res enough? It’s tough to find something larger
Oma fietser completely ignored those shark teeth. She’s zoomin’ hard 'round that turn
I mean, they indicate to give way, but if there’s nothing to give way to she can zoom around as fast as she want!
It seems an odd way to indicate to me. In the US we are taught to signal with your left hand, the one closest to traffic.
With indicate I was referring to the “shark teeth” on the pavement. This means if you come from that direction, you have to give way, but it doesn’t mean you need to make a stop. If the way is clear you can make the turn.
As for indicating by hand, that’s interesting. By using the right hand, traffic from your left won’t always see the hand behind your body. This makes it hard to see where the cyclist is going sometimes.
How do you indicate going right with your left hand? Here you extend your arm in the direction you want to go.
Just looked it up to check and it’s in the “wegcode” (traffic law), artikel 12.4 and 13.
