Signaling your intentions

I think it is important to signal your intentions, so as not to waste other people's time. When your intentions are unclear, people have to wait for you to take action before they can respond. It is, in effect, telling people that their time is not important, that they can and should wait for you.

I think everyone's time is important. Thus, we should not be selfish. We should signal our intentions so that people don't need to wait for us before they can act.

An example. If you have the option to go straight or turn left when at a T-junction, and there is a car on your left waiting to exit into the main road. If you intend to turn left, signal your intention by using the signal lights. That way, the car on the left trying to exit into the main road knows that you are not going straight, and that he is free to exit into the main road as you will not get into an accident with him. By not signaling your intention, he ends up waiting because he is not sure if you will go straight or turn left.

So respect the time of others, signal your intentions.