Left turn hand signal

How to read it

California Vehicle Code §22111 says hand and arm signals are given from the left side of a vehicle, and defines a left turn as “hand and arm extended horizontally beyond the side of the vehicle”. Florida’s §316.157 and New York’s Vehicle and Traffic Law §1165 define it in almost the same words. It is the only one of the three arm signals in which the arm is straight: for a right turn it points up, and for stopping or slowing it points down. The driver handbooks of California, Texas and Pennsylvania show it in drawings as the arm held straight out of the driver’s window.

Also searched as: arm straight out signal, hand signal for left turn, left hand signal driving, left turn signal hand.

When drivers use it

The California Driver’s Handbook says drivers can signal with the vehicle’s signal lights or with hand-and-arm positions, and points to the hand signals when signal lights are not working or bright sunlight makes them hard to see. Pennsylvania’s Driver’s Manual shows them for a vehicle whose turn signals do not work, and the Texas Driver Handbook notes that hand and arm signals are usually difficult to see during non-daylight hours. They stand in for the turn signal lights. California’s and Texas’s handbooks and Florida’s §316.155 all put the signal at least 100 feet before the turn.

The same signal from a cyclist

A cyclist’s left-turn signal is the same straight left arm, given from the bike: see Bike left turn signal.

In the UK and Ireland

Drivers there sit on the right, and a driver’s left-turn signal is different. Ireland’s Road Traffic Regulations describe it as the right arm and hand extended to the right and rotated anti-clockwise; only cyclists hold the left arm straight out. See UK arm signals (Highway Code).