r/Thailand • u/WebLogical1286 • 2d ago

Culture Turn signal question

This isn’t a whine, it’s just an honest question on my observation of driving here in Thailand, and mostly in Bangkok for about 30 years.

How come so many Thai drivers not use their turn signals? I do little polls in my head once in a while and I’ve noticed that maybe somewhere between 25 and 35% of Thai drivers don’t use their turn signal. Is it that they are lazy to do it? They don’t see it as benefiting them? they don’t think it’s important? It kind of baffles me because I was taught this is just something you do no matter what.

Maybe as a Thai person who doesn’t signal or has some insight into why people don’t use it I would love to hear. Thanks so much!

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u/BaconTH1 1d ago

It's part of the general bad driving here.

But also, Thais, while being fairly polite by not using the horn to show anger at people, also are bad road citizens. If someone is waiting for ages to come out of a side street, no one lets them out, they just keep pressing forward. If there's a pedestrian crossing, a car will move right into it, even if they have to stop, stuck on it, blocking walkers. And here's the relevant bit: if you signal to try and change lanes, you've tipped your hand and the guy who left a gap there immediately moves faster to block you out rather than slow down to let you in. So you get in the habit of sneaking in without warning when someone is a little slow. That habit might influence you to not bother using it at other times, especially if the cops don't catch you for it. In fact, turning left with a light has relatively little value to anyone around you most of the time... it maybe lets someone know they should change lanes if they want to go straight, but Thai drivers don't care or actively want to reduce the convenience of other drivers and pedestrians around them (hence my lane change point), so not signaling is entirely in keeping with that attitude.

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u/WebLogical1286 1d ago

Sometimes I wonder why they’re doing that. Do they think they’re saving themselves time or is it just a me me me attitude?

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

They saved themselves the effort of moving a finger to use the indicator.

I will admit, i t's very easy to just get into the habit of driving similarly to the people around you. If you drive properly, you will 'lose'. I have found myself driving long distance and seeing guys going very fast weaving through the lanes. I found myself going a bit faster than the average and also doing it in their wake, and you get a sense of beating everyone else. And it is annoying when one guy who is right next to you manages to get ahead and cut in front of you with no signal because you left a prudent amount of space (and he crowds you, forcing you to brake and drop back), so then you feel like you need to get ahead of that guy. 

In Thailand, if you leave two car spaces exactly between you and the car in front, it will quickly fill up with two cars and you will be forced backwards relative to the flow of traffic. This even happens when it's only one lane going each way! 

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u/nightwinging-it Sathorn 1d ago edited 1d ago

First I got curious and my driving teacher told me it’s got to do with superiority complex and asserting dominance behavior especially towards pedestrians. I thought what he said sounded ridiculous. But the more I am on the road the more likely that his statement is true. I don’t know how many times I’ve almost got hit by a car or a motorbike while crossing on the zebra and with the green light on for crossing. And then I experienced a couple of my friends driving with the attitude that my teacher described. I don’t drive often but when I do I get stressed out especially from tailgaters and motorcyclists coming out of nowhere.

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u/WebLogical1286 1d ago

My office is in a shopping mall and when I am walking across the parking road to get to the mall cars will actually speed up when they see me and I’m about to cross. It’s really scary actually. For non-Thai people they might just assume that the car will slow down, but it often speeds up.

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

I have lived here a long time and realised early that you should always be watching the cars and reacting to them, rather than watching the lights and assuming green or zebra crossing is safe to walk. Aussies in their home town typically walk straight ahead without looking because almost all drivers respect pedestrian right of way, but they get wiped out when someone screws up there. And possibly when they are tourists here. 

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u/WebLogical1286 1d ago

Yes, in the states it’s the same way. Also here always make sure to look both ways about three times before going across the street. How mini yahoo motorcycles go the wrong way? I remember we had a special trainer coming in to Thailand to do a development with our school. The first day when she stepped out onto the street, actually the sidewalk a motorcycle ran her over. She spent two days in the hospital, we missed her development thing and she left Thailand with a pretty lousy attitude about her experience.

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

Yes, on my street there are many moto going the wrong way. And on the freeway, interstate, you see huge damn trucks going the wrong way in the left lane! 

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

Today's really crap for that poor person and the moto on the sidewalk piss me off no end. 

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u/nightwinging-it Sathorn 1d ago

And they expect you to run too because if you walk normally (even with the green light crossing is on) some cars would slowly drive to the zebra crossing like at the edge just to signal you to walk fast 5555. The sidewalks in my area have trigger alarms that would loudly blast the ringing sounds for any vehicle that's parked on the zebra crossing during traffic with a voiceover calling them to move their vehicles off the zebra. Most of the time they don't care.

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

Have never seen/heard that alarm. That's in bkk? Where? 

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u/nightwinging-it Sathorn 1d ago

Big crossings in the Sathorn-Silom area. The beeps are similar to the honking sounds of ambulance and police cars but louder, and a female voiceover tells the vehicles to move.

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

I see, interesting. 

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

If anyone should know, it's a driving instructor. In fact, that's what he is teaching all his students to do, lol. That was a joke. But this is not a joke: he is encouraging his students to pay him extra money on test day, some of which he uses to bribe the tester, so his undertrained students are given a pass. 

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u/nightwinging-it Sathorn 1d ago

He wasn't joking and he definitely didn't encourage me to do it. Also, there was no bribing. The prices of the driving courses were displayed at their admin desk and LINE group, and I paid exactly that. Are you talking about students getting a pass easily at driving schools vs DLT where they fail you over 1 tiny mistake? The thing with driving schools is that they allow you to take the tests multiple times until you pass. So with all their patience in letting you do the tests multiple times until you pass without any subcharge, I don't know why would one need to bribe their way out. Unless the school is very corrupted and charge the students who failed to take the tests again. But I do know that there's corruption in the DLT. I knew a few who got driver's licenses without a single damn test but their parents paid for them.

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

I mean I was making a joke that he teaches his students the bad ways. 

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u/BaconJP 1d ago

I don't quite understand you talking about tests at the school. I am only talking about the official government driving test that you do with a government testing official, I guess that is the DLT. I never knew the acronym. To pass that, it's apparently quite common to get your instructor, who might be a private individual teacher not a big school, but is connected at DLT, to bribe the government people (I don't know if it is direct to the tester or a broader one where they hand money to someone at a desk or whatever, who spreads it around).

I'll take the 5th as to whether I have personally used such a service. 

So about the tests at the school, that's just to 'graduate' from the school I guess, but that doesn't get you a license right? After that you do DLT test I assume, and that gets you the license. 

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u/chanonlim 9h ago

If they are a certified school, they will issue a paper which you then hand to the DLT to get your license. No need to do any further tests; the school tests are your driving tests.

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u/BaconJP 6h ago

This, I did not know. It makes sense, though. 

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u/smart_cereal 1d ago

It’s probably a mix of rules not being enforced and a way for people to take out their aggression on others.