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Should Motorcyclists Use Hand Signals?

As a Lawrenceville motorcycle lawyer, I want to talk about a safety tip that is good to incorporate into your daily riding habits.

It’s one that you don’t normally think about, especially in this day and age with the bikes that are coming out with safety features like better lighting, hi-def signals, etc.

We Already Have Turn Signals, Why Should We Use Hand Signals?

I think we’re growing more reliant on turn signals than in the past. The point of this safety tip is that we have to realize that riders are not visible to the general driving community, especially now with smartphones and things like that.

Anything that you can incorporate to make yourself more visual is a good tip to take. And this is a simple, easy one. It doesn’t cost anything.

The more you can put that into your habit, the better and safer you’ll be on the road. The safety tip is using hand signals along with your turn signal.

Can Hand Signals Increase Your Visibility?

When you’re going off of the perspective that you already are not very visible, if you can use a hand signal, it could catch somebody’s eye behind you or across the street. The #1 type of motorcycle accident is someone turning across in front of you.

If you can use your hands, that might add a little bit more visibility to you out there on the road and you could avoid someone running into you thinking you’re not turning, not paying attention to your bike itself, but they catch your hand signals.

I advise that you make it become an almost automatic thing that every time your turning left or right, you’re throwing up your hand to the side that you’re turning and see if that makes you a little bit more visible.