Does anyone know where most accurate and comonally used list of hand signals can be found? I found this web site but some of the hand signals seem foreign to me. http://www.inlandempirecycling.com/Cycling/hand_signals.htm
There's actually an article every month in Bicycling magazine about safe road riding rules. Do a quick search on their website and you will find pictures of the signals to use for left hand turn, right hand turn, stop, etc.
If you're signaling to cars that author preferred right turn signal using the right hand will NOT be what motorists are expecting. They are expecting the bent left arm signal. That is, assuming they even know what a hand signal looks like.
I think he said that either arm is okay. The rule has been changed to the right arm, but it's not as well known as the left and/or doesn't feel as safe for some bicyclists to do, so whichever one feels best to the cyclist is the one that should be used. And any signal is better than no signal, I reckon.
I had no blinkers for a bit on my old car and when I used the prescribed DMV hand signal to turn right (left arm bent as you can't get your right arm out the passenger window) the cop waiting at the light across the street waved to me. It took me a minute to realize that he had no idea what the hand signals were and thought I was waving.
I think people are so used to lights (actually they are required to work to register in CA now)that no one thinks about hand signals anymore.
For signaling to motorists, the right hand signal also is incompatible with motorcycling, so I'd stick with the standard left hand signals. For the OP: And of course, assume nobody sees or understands what the hell those signals means (especially the driver on a cell phone behind you) and you'll have half a chance of surviving yet another thrilling ride in suburbia. As for the roadie signs in a group ride, got me.
LOL.... so thats what the lady was doing during the triathlon last weekend. I am a "super" clydesdale (300lbs+) and sucked ass on the run so when the bike came I was waaay in the back and passed probably 50+ people on the bike screaming "On your left Passing!" for 30 minutes. Is this correct as well??? Or whats proper passing etiquette? The slower folks seemed to stay inside so I went around.
Im not an a$$ when riding on my bike, but sometimes you just have to do it because some drivers really deserve it.
I just tell the popo "Sorry toots, I keep me hands on the bars while riding." Which is true, for the most part. Unless I'm strangling someone. And that happens only rarely.
If rolling and not braking...use the right hand to signal the turn, otherwise use the DMV left hand signals...I gave up using the DMV signals because nobody driving behind me knows what the left turn or stopping signal is...I've had fewer close calls over the last 20 years using the right arm rather than praying somebody remembers their driver's ed course hand signals. For passing during rides...slower riders should always be to the right (like the road) or on the uphill line of a single/double track. Faster riders should always call out the side they are passing on. I've had newbies swerve into me on both road and mountain thinking that when I call out a side, that's where they should go.
Yeah, since calling out "on yer LEFT" while gasping for air often sounds to someone ahead like "mpfmmLEFT!", noobsters seem to take it as an instruction. I rode with a guy who'd say "Hold your line" instead and though at first I thought it sounded bossy and demanding, it did make people aware there was another rider coming up to pass without the dreaded swerve.