How much does it cost to use your car's indicators in the UAE?

Worried that using your turning signals is bad for your wallet? Panic no more, because we have the figures

A still from Chapter S's YouTube video. Courtesy Chapter S

Indicator use on the UAE’s roads can be so inconsistent that it has almost become a running joke that turn signals, as our friends from North America call them, are an optional extra not installed on some cars.

But for anybody worried that engaging those useful little blinking lights could be costing them untold dirhams in extra fuel, then help is at hand. Spoiler alert: it isn’t.

This handy YouTube video from Chapter S has calculated the annual monetary value of using your indicators, based on the basic scientific building blocks that your car has six turning lights that use a combined 140 watts.

It uses some fairly complex mathematics, explained in detail in the video, using measurements including the efficiency of an engine’s internal combustion and the average time of manoeuvres.

The basic equation is the price of one litre of petrol multiplied by the fuel needed to operate the indicators once (0.00005L), which gives you a price per indication. For the annual price, multiply that figure by 20 (the average estimated times a day a driver uses their indicators), then multiply by 365 (the days in a year).

For the UAE, using August’s Special 95 prices of Dh1.78 per litre, that means that it costs Dh0.000089 each time you use your indicators, which scales up to a whopping Dh0.65 per year.

The moral of the story is pretty clear: there’s absolutely no excuse for not using your indicators.

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