Is it necessary to turn your signal lights on when passing a parked vehicle?

Aaron P

An excellent question!

Firstly, you must be absolutley sure that you are not driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Also, make sure you always yield to pedestrians when it is their right-of-way. IF ytoure not sure about your understanding of pedestrian rights, ask another question later.

IF there is ever a passenger in a parked car, then the universal (and practical) way to communicate your presence is a friendly toot of the horn.

Next, be especially careful when driving across painted LINES. when doing so, a partial lane change is still a lane change. You should signal when crossing painted lines.

If there is no painted line, this still is not as simple as it looks, many people do not yield correctly.

If there ARE painted PARKING SPACES on one or both sides of the road, then the remaining road remains to be equally divided between the two (head-on) lanes of traffic. no signaling, people will think that youre tying to turn. You can communicate to ohters that they need be careful by just going slow yourself.

If there are NO painted parking spaces, then more right-of-way should be given to the car on whoever's side does not have an obstacle, such as a stopped car, or parked car, or any other obstacle. Many drivers on the road think that right of way is had by whoever gets there first. WRONG! No signal necessary...in fact it would be miscommunication. You can communicate your intentions just by moving slowly.

Right of way should only be given to "whoever got there first" on roads whose original design (without obstacles) is a one-lane two-way road. ( some alleys, a one-lane bridge, tunnel...)

Good Luck!

Axiomatic Paradigm

Nope.
Be cautious of freshly parked cars, those opening doors pop right off if you plow through them.
I know youre just trying to be safe, but driving down the middle of the road is illegal regardless of whether or not your signal lights are on.
Its the parked cars responibility to take a look around before lunging out into the middle of the street
Its your job to stay in between the lines and obey all traffic laws.
If a cars parkING and youre behind them, its illegal and kinda dangerous to pass them. You should just give them enough room to get it done quickly instead of tailgating and telling the to hurry the **** up

spax

Not necessarily.

If they have just pulled in make sure you watch out for the opening doors.
If the car is too much of an obstruction and you have to almost go fully into the other lane which goes the other way definitely use your indicator. apart from that you don't really need to.

UCANTCME

Yes, you always use your turn signals when changing lanes for whatever reason, safety first...

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