If you’re driving west along Niverville’s Main Street, approaching the railway tracks, and you question whether to use your signal light in order to maintain a forward trajectory, you’re in good company. This intersection has been confounding drivers and driver education instructors for decades.
It took the determination of one Niverville resident, Kylie Matechuk, to finally solve the mystery. In the end, the official province-endorsed answer is this: only signal if you’re making an actual full turn onto an adjoining street. Otherwise, no signal should be applied.
“It’s probably one of the most dangerous intersections in Niverville because of the train tracks,” says Matechuk. “Every town seems to have that one spot.”
Without question, this is an odd intersection.
At the west end of Main Street, just before the railway tracks, the median narrows to make way for a left turning lane onto First Avenue South.
For those continuing westward, though, their lane appears to suddenly end, forcing drivers to switch a full lane to the left in order to continue on their way.
So the age-old question has been: should you signal because you’re changing lanes or do you avoid signalling because your intended direction hasn’t changed?
The question never plagued Matechuk until her daughter signed up for driver education with an eventual road test to take place in Niverville. Today’s driver education course through Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) is called Driver Z.
Realizing this odd intersection had the potential to result in deducted points, Matechuk set out to find the answer.
She began with a query on a local social media page. The nearly 60 responses were as varied as the people themselves.
One indicated that they used to signal here until there came a day when a motorist in the oncoming lane assumed they were planning a left turn onto First Avenue South. The eastbound driver, thinking the way was clear, proceeded to make their own left turn onto First Avenue North, essentially cutting this driver off.
Another response came from someone identifying as a qualified driving instructor. The proper procedure here, they said with confidence, is to signal and shoulder-check since you’re moving your vehicle three feet or more to the left.
A third party chimed in, indicating that they’d been deducted points on their driver test for failing to signal.
Posing the question to her daughter’s driving instructor, Matechuk was told that the student is required to shoulder-check and signal. Other driving instructors seemed to agree.
That is, until the final moments before her daughter’s actual driving test took place.
“We had hired another instructor for her readiness assessment,” Matechuk says. “She said, ‘Do not signal. It is not required. If you do, it’ll be a mark against you for signalling in an intersection.’”
Inside the CRRC, where Matechuk’s daughter was connecting with her road test examiner, the examiner gave her the opposing answer: always signal and shoulder-check at this location.
While waiting for her daughter to return from the driving test, Matechuk asked a different examiner the same question. He disagreed with the first.
“He says, ‘Why would you ever signal? You’re staying in the [forward] lane,’” Matechuk says.
Matechuk’s daughter didn’t lose marks during her road test because she signalled, just as her examiner told her to. Still, Matechuk wanted to settle this argument once and for all to get everyone on the same page.
She began by making a phone call to Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI). They told her it was not their jurisdiction and she could call the RCMP.
“The [St. Pierre RCMP] constable whipped out the Highway Traffic Act and he was looking at the intersection,” Matechuk says. “He said, ‘I don’t want to give you the wrong information but, just looking at it, we would never stop you for not signalling.”
Making some phone calls on Matechuk’s behalf, he called her back, admitting that there is no firm consensus regarding signalling at this intersection. He suggested that she call MTI, taking her full circle to where she’d begun.
Her next call was to the Driver Fitness branch of MPI. These are the instructors who provide driver testing for adults who have lost their license. But they passed the buck back to Driver Z.
“It really took some digging to find out who to talk to,” says Matechuk. “I had multiple people in the MPI department that became so invested in this.”
The official answer finally came when Matechuk received an email from someone at MPI’s Driver Testing Operations.
“If a driver is traveling straight through that intersection in the right lane (westbound), no signal would be required going through the intersection as the vehicle’s position does not change,” they said.
Recognizing the necessity for a ubiquitous understanding of this fact, he assured Matechuk that everyone working in MPI’s Driver Z program would be informed.
Making Turns on Solid or Dotted Lines
One doesn’t have to drive around Niverville long to realize that other rules of the road are often misunderstood or ignored.
Such is the case when making a right turn onto a street that has more than one lane heading in the same direction. Unlike the Main Street conundrum mentioned earlier, this is one rule that’s clearly laid out in MPI’s Driver’s Handbook.
“Right turns must be made from the right lane nearest the curb into the right lane nearest the curb of the other road, unless it’s blocked within 30 metres of the intersection,” the handbook states. “In that case, you can turn into the next lane nearest the right if no other traffic is approaching in that lane, such as a vehicle coming from the opposite direction also turning onto that street.”
For example, when making a right turn off Main Street onto Fifth Avenue South, the driver is required to enter what everyone recognizes as the parking lane, the lane nearest the curb. According to the handbook, the driver must then shoulder-check and signal to enter the straightaway heading south.
Another traffic rule that is often disregarded is the one referencing what makes for a legal turning lane. According to Manitoba law, a legal turning lane is identified by a dotted line separating it from the main lane. So if there’s a solid line separating the main lane from the one on the right, the right lane cannot be used to make a turn.
Take, for instance, the lanes heading east and west at Niverville’s most easterly traffic light. If you’re heading east and you want to make a right turn onto Fifth Avenue South, a clear turning lane is created with the use of a dotted line to indicate such.
If you’re heading west, though, and you want to make a right turn onto 5th Avenue North, there is no designated turning lane here, even though the shoulder is paved. To use the far right lane as a turning lane is an infraction because you have to cross a solid line in order to do so.