Cycling UK Forum

today while cycling home i had someone tell me i 'need to use hand signals' while i was going straight ahead at a roundabout https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0241643 ... 312!8i6656 - the person giving me this advice was turning left and i was going straight ahead and we were on the roundabout at the time - i was in the 'straight ahead' marked lane at the time - just curious if there is a hand signal for 'straight ahead'?

When I am past the first i.e. the left, exit I like to signal left. If you see what I mean. I don't know a straight ahead signal, but by positioning to the left of the second lane I try to indicate my intentions.

Cars don't have to signal straight ahead, why should you?

Those of us of certain age remember a hand held straight forward palm outwards, was the convention. Even in a vehicle!
Maybe it's still in the Highway code.
Though of very limited usefulness in today's frantic traffic, IMHO.
On a bike who would still recognise it as a sign of intention.

Preserve your life.
Keep both hands on the bars and signal left or right as appropriate.IMV.

PDQ Mobile wrote:Those of us of certain age remember a hand held straight forward palm outwards, was the convention. Even in a vehicle!
Maybe it's still in the Highway code.
Though of very limited usefulness in today's frantic traffic, IMHO.
On a bike who would still recognise it as a sign of intention.

Preserve your life.
Keep both hands on the bars and signal left or right as appropriate.IMV.

As the approach to the roundabout is a steep decent i normally have both hands on the brakes and normally only signal left to *leave* the roundabout if it looks like other traffic will be joining the roundabout from the entrance prior to my exit

The hand signal for straight ahead used to be in the Highway Code and had to be learned for the driving test! (Along with the other hand signals, including the pot-stirring one you had to do for a left turn).

boliston wrote:today while cycling home i had someone tell me i 'need to use hand signals' while i was going straight ahead at a roundabout https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0241643 ... 312!8i6656 - the person giving me this advice was turning left and i was going straight ahead and we were on the roundabout at the time - i was in the 'straight ahead' marked lane at the time - just curious if there is a hand signal for 'straight ahead'?

If you are in a lane marked as straight ahead then you have signalled your intention by your road position.
My commute home has a roundabout where there is a lane marked straight on or 'right' which I ride as per Mike Sales' advice above. However occasionally someone coming from the left fails to give way so I keep both hands on the bars to brake and steer. Often these drivers then shout that I should have indicated. The idea that I haven't in order to stop colliding with them doesn't seem the cross their mind.

We use a signal on our club rides for straight ahead. Put your hand straight up and then point forward. This is mainly for the benefit of riders behind the leader rather than other road users.

Mike Sales wrote:When I am past the first i.e. the left, exit I like to signal left. If you see what I mean. I don't know a straight ahead signal, but by positioning to the left of the second lane I try to indicate my intentions.

This is conventional, but there is no signal for straight ahead. The right "stirring" signal is for motorists who (obviously) can't reach to signal out of their nearside windows.

PDQ Mobile wrote:Those of us of certain age remember a hand held straight forward palm outwards, was the convention. Even in a vehicle!
Maybe it's still in the Highway code.
Though of very limited usefulness in today's frantic traffic, IMHO.
On a bike who would still recognise it as a sign of intention.

Preserve your life.
Keep both hands on the bars and signal left or right as appropriate.IMV.

That sounds like a stop signal!

Surely the convention on a roundabout is if you're going straight ahead, the only signal you give is a left signal once you're past the previous exit.

Total nonsense. As others have said, if the turning you are taking is after the first exit but 'before 12 o'clock' you just indicate to the left after you pass the exit prior to the one you are taking. Sadly indicating on roundabouts is something that a large number of road users seem to get wrong

TrevA wrote:We use a signal on our club rides for straight ahead. Put your hand straight up and then point forward. This is mainly for the benefit of riders behind the leader rather than other road users.

Interesting. Ours is to point up twice. For signalling to drivers ahead that I'm going straight ahead, I point at myself, then straight ahead, but it's not used often and definitely not on roundabouts.

A similar group navigator signal that you don't want to see anything like as much is pointing straight up and circling, which is "we've gone wrong: turn around!"

Bmblbzzz wrote:

PDQ Mobile wrote:Those of us of certain age remember a hand held straight forward palm outwards, was the convention. Even in a vehicle!
Maybe it's still in the Highway code.
Though of very limited usefulness in today's frantic traffic, IMHO.
On a bike who would still recognise it as a sign of intention.

Preserve your life.
Keep both hands on the bars and signal left or right as appropriate.IMV.

That sounds like a stop signal!

Yes pretty much the same as a policeman signalling one to stop. The (right)hand is held in a line with the shoulder (so not quite body central) and the arm is not fully outstretched (because of the windscreen in a car!!)

I bet TC knows for certain but that's how I remember it.
Last time I used it at a junction, the intended recipient looked at me in a puzzled way.

I remember seeing two policemen directing traffic at some incident, one at each end as it were. Policeman A had let some traffic through. Policeman B waved at him for something, and of course the oncoming motorist interpreted this as a stop signal. Copper B seemed both surprised and slightly angry.