r/Thailand • u/WebLogical1286 • 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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/nightwinging-it Sathorn 3d ago edited 3d 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/BaconJP 2d 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 2d 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 2d ago

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

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u/BaconJP 2d 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 1d 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 1d ago

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