If you just use them all the time, you don't have to remember to use them in the right situation. That was a concept more than one person I know couldn't understand.
This was in California with other licensed drivers.
She's an intelligent person, accomplished in her own scientific career and a stimulating person to talk to, all great signals about her brain, but dumb driving sense pervades all intellectual capacities I think. I sincerely worry she will die in a car accident. She is positive it would be me, though - she thinks I'm "overthinking" driving and driving safety, which introduces far more danger.
I've been in two car accidents. Maybe that helps. In one case my friend backed us up into a street light really fast because he seemingly didn't realize the accelerator was the brake. The other time I was crawling down a steep driveway in bad weather and my car slid off the driveway, down a hill, and ended up in the ditch below. It looked like a severe accident at a glance, haha. It was actually very slow and boring as it happened.
At any rate, these events instilled in me that small errors can have large consequences. The feeling of your car not doing what you want it to, then being in a situation out of your control, really sucks. I'm not interested in the slightest in finding out how badly that can go. Whether it's because I left my seat belt off, I had a beer, I couldn't see out of my rear window properly, I got stranded in the cold - these are all enormously bad reasons to get hurt or die.
A lot of people have never faced consequences or witnessed the disproportionate result of minor errors, so perhaps driving is one of those things were (unfortunately) many of us learn the hard way, often bringing innocent bystanders with us.
Of course she thought it was silly too, but yeah, we cycle everywhere and I've fixed a lot of flats now.
In their defense, I only figured out why you should bring kit everywhere because I've been stranded badly, totally unprepared. I was finishing a 400km ride, around 40km to go at 1am, and my tire went. It was cold, raining, low/no traffic, no cell service for most of the trek back, etc. I got home as the sun was rising, haha.
Here's more info if you're curious, it's a fun sport called randonneuring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randonneuring
Here's an example 400km route from an area near me run by the BC Randonneurs: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33536016
It's a great way to get to know areas better. Very meditative, challenging, and rewarding.
The times when I think "no one is around me" are the times using my turn signal has been MOST useful. Same thing in parking lots. If I see all the other cars on the road then I can drive defensively and avoid them. The turn signal is important for the cars that I DON'T see because it gives them a better chance of avoiding ME.
My blind spot indicator in my car has 100% prevented me from merging when I shouldn't, though I can't say with certainty how often. I'm a little embarrassed to say, too, that I've been honked at in the past for merging when I shouldn't. I think twice in 20 years, but still. I have no reason to think those incidents couldn't have been severe.
No one is 100% sure what's surrounding them at any time, plain and simple.
This is one argument I see for autonomous driving which actually seems valid to me. Those vehicles will be able to see far more than a human facing forward with a few mirrors. At the moment I think the problem is that the human can make far more sense from what they see, though.
If you can see the side of your own vehicle in your side view mirrors, they are set improperly.
When set properly, cars in the lane next you on either side should transition from your rearview mirror to your sideview mirror to your driver or passenger window without any gap in coverage.
The sideview mirrors are to see other cars, not your own car. You're in your own car, so there is no reason to set it to see the side of your own car. If you can see the side of your own car, then angle the mirrors out until you can't. Next time someone passes, check to make sure you see them transition your mirrors properly, it they don't tweak your mirrors a little more.
Incidentally, last week we were installing a fridge, and while cutting the packaging with a sharp knife, he told me, without looking, "be careful!" (without saying "yo, I'm cutting stuff with the sharp knife"), around 0.1s before cutting my hand ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This made me realize how prevalent and dangerous are poor communication skills.
This is the real reason. People aren’t incapable or put out by having to use the turn signals, they are choosing not to signal precisely because it reveals intent, and they are afraid of revealing intent. (Same is often true in many other social situations and at work!) I know I’ve done this myself in the past, and I know other people who will admit it. Fear of being cut off, fear of having someone not let you in, general fear of someone using your intent against you rather than accommodate you.
I think we need to figure out how to teach not just that signaling intent is safer, but that it works and people will accommodate a signal far more often than not. We also need to learn as drivers to respect other’s intent, that when a signal is on and it’s close but they have room, it doesn’t mean accelerate to close the gap, but that we should let them. Being nice is how we get others to be nice back.
The Chicago way
I know of dead cave divers who followed protocols only when they really needed to and then one day made a category error and didn't follow the protocol when they really needed to.
I've gotten crap for following through the motions of protocols when they I "didn't need to" but if you do it all the time then you never make those kinds of category errors. There's no downside to always following protocols, there's high downside for making category errors that you wouldn't make if you just always followed protocols.
Similarly you should always use your parking brake, even if you are on flat ground so that you never make a category error there (or just get hit by someone when you're on flat ground and have a rollaway).
Similarly, signal your intentions every single time. You're doing it for the pedestrian you didn't see, or even just some idiot flying up the shoulder of the highway who shouldn't be there, but signal your intentions to take the exit so you move predictably.
See also the normalization of deviance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljzj9Msli5o
Yeah I was pretty shaken up about that one, because if he had clipped me, I would have ended up being crushed by a line of lorries.
Moral of the story: always indicate even if you don't think you need to.