The Myth"If there's no one else on the road, you don't legally have to use your turn signal." |
The Reality"One vehicle code section says something close to that — but a second one overrides it. In practice, California requires a continuous signal for at least 100 feet before every turn, empty road or not." |
This is one of the rare cases in the vehicle code where two statutes seem to disagree with each other, and knowing both is the only way to actually get the rule right. CVC §22107 conditions the signaling requirement on whether another vehicle "may be affected by the movement" read narrowly, that sounds like permission to skip the blinker on a deserted road at 2 a.m., since nothing's around to affect.
CVC §22108 closes that reading before it goes anywhere. It requires that any signal of intent to turn "be given continuously during the last 100 feet traveled" before the turn, without carving out an exception for empty roads or light traffic. Officers and courts apply §22108 as the operative rule for the mechanics of signaling — continuously, for the last 100 feet, every time — which leaves §22107's "may be affected" language doing much less work in practice than it looks like it should.
The practical result is that "nobody was around" isn't a defense that holds up. A driver cited for failing to signal a turn or lane change can't point to an empty road the way §22107's wording might suggest, because §22108 doesn't ask whether anyone was affected — it just requires the 100 feet of continuous signal, full stop. The same 100-foot rule applies to lane changes as well as turns.
For traffic school students, the simplest version to actually drive by is the strict one: signal every turn and every lane change, for the last 100 feet before you make it, regardless of who else appears to be on the road. Treat it as a habit rather than a judgment call, and the gap between what §22107 seems to allow and what §22108 actually requires never becomes a problem.
CVC §22107 · §22108
