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Are Light Signals Good?

28th April 1961, Page 33
28th April 1961
Page 33
Page 33, 28th April 1961 — Are Light Signals Good?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

ACRIMONIOUS statements are regularly made in the popular press and motoring journals about light signals given by private cars and by commercial vehicle drivers, particularly the drivers of heavy trunk vehicles. Even Members of Parliament have on occasions bent their all-seeing eye towards the subject. The plain fact is that the increasing, illogical, and indiscriminate use by motorists of light signals has tended to discredit the practice and to add substance to pleas that light-signalling recommendations should be included in the Highway Code.

Thus does a useful practice by commercial drivers become distorted. into a public argument point that can never be settled—certainly not by trying to give it the neo-legal status of inclusion in the Highway Code.

Originated by lorry drivers, the usual forms of light signalling follow a simple and well-known procedure. Probably the most useful is a single flash of the headlights or driving light of an oncoming vehicle, intimating that the driver is willing to give right-of-way to another vehicle. Few non-professional drivers adopt this signal, use of which often enables a build-up of traffic behind a waiting vehicle to be avoided.

Lights that are switched on throughout the critical period purport to show that a driver intends to maintain his course. Properly used by professionals, this can be a useful signal, but it has been utterly abused by private car drivers and can now be regarded as little more than a selfish attempt to usurp road space by a driver who considers that the switching on of his headlight entitles him to charge ahead regardless of the rights of others. Originally useful as a warning, this signal is now more deserving of a ban than of inclusion in the Highway Code. It is significant that professional drivers only use it—and then rarely—to warn of a wide load or some similar danger to oncoming traffic.

Another useful signal, solely by commerCial vehicles, is the flash of a driving light to indicate when an overtaking vehicle can safely pull in front. There is also, of course, the less widely known warning of the presence of authority on the road!

Can be Deceptive Any form of signalling can be deceptive, or even dangerous if not properly used. The intention of a driver who has switched on his traffic indicators cannot always be accurately assessed unless qualifying factors are taken into account. The signal may clearly show the driver intends to overtake the vehicle in front, or it may indicate that he plans to turn left or right at an intersection, or to stop by the side of the road. A newer variation by private car drivers is to stop, for instance at a pedestrian crossing, with right indicator flashing as a lazy, unsafe and stupid alternative to the Highway Code-recommended hand signal to following traffic. This is definitely dangerous and confusing. Alternatively, a self-cancelling system may be faulty or the driver may have failed to cancel manually.

A driver's handling of the vehicle should give warning of his intention before a signal indicates a definite move. Precise definition in an official code of light signalling procedure could increase the confusion which, not to put it too high, is rather overstated. In any case, who is to say what signals are suitable?

It is doubtful whether codifying light signals could be justified. Commercial vehicle drivers started the practice, and it is a good one if it is not vested with rigid implications that would, to say the least, add a lot of light movement to our already confusing roads.

If an official code were introduced, professional drivers might in any case decide to signal to each other in a different way.

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