Here's an observation I've made: When I am coming up to an intersection, and a car on the cross-road is coming from the right and also approaching the intersection, and he is in his rightmost lane, I often can't tell if he's got his right blinker on. As such, when I'm trying to cross the intersection, I don't know if the other car has seen me and so I'm always wary crossing - he might try to jump out and turn at any moment. I'm wondering if there's anyway for him to be able to signal to me that he wants to turn, so that I know to be cautious (speed up or slow down or what).

Perhaps simply a light on the left side of the car that is in the shape of an arrow pointing left then up (which you would interpret correctly) that goes on whenever the right turn signal goes on? (take the return-key arrow shape and rotate it 90 degrees clockwise).

Ok, here's the evolution of this idea: Do away with the static turn signals altogether and have LED programmable light arrays in place of each signal, which can display any of several different arrow types, and whenever you activate a signal, it displays on all 4 light arrays, so you can always signal exactly what you want to do. If you want to turn left, then cars behind you see arrows pointing up then left, cars to your right see arrows pointing right then up, cars to your left see arrows pointing right and down, and cars opposite you would see arrows pointing down then right. It all may sound horrible confusing, but I bet you that if you saw it in real life, it wouldn't be too bad, and you could quickly grasp its meaning.

I think that this could be adapted without too much trouble to also display intent to U-turn, thus removing double duty from the turn signal; I know I've almost gotten into accidents because I followed the car in front of me too closely through the intersection and he suddenly stopped moving forward because he was turning hard left to U. If I had known ahead of time that he wanted to U, then I would have known to keep my distance.

Now, what I'd REALLY like to see would be giant green floating arrows on top of your car that indicates what kind of maneuver you wish to make, a la video games.

What do you think of this idea or comment?
(You can change your vote at any time)

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I disagree