Is it too much to ask of a simple wrist movement?
I can see it now, as I portal back into time to 1939, when auto manufacturers first sat around their giant hardwood table, wracking their brains about how they could let travelers know that the automobiles in front of them and behind them were about to turn. I imagine the group of men finally decided the best idea would be to invent a blinking light on the front and rear of the automobile, which would pulsate a glowing orange color to signify to oncoming traffic and those following behind that the driver was about to make a turn.Thrilled with themselves, the men gleefully patented the idea, had it mass manufactured and installed in every automobile, jumped for joy when it hit the assembly line, and were among the first to drive home to show off this incredible invention to their wives. I also have no doubt that 10 of the 12 men didn't signal when they turned off Main St. into their driveways.
Thus it began, America's infatuation with abusing the turn signal.
No matter where I travel today, whether out on a country road, through a busy intersection or through a thriving metropolis, people have perfected the fine art of ignoring their turn signal.
Why is this?
It's not like the turn signal is some gigantic, extremely dense lever that takes every ounce of a person's being to make it work. Nor is it some strikingly, white-hot piece of metal that will sere the skin off your forefinger when you make an advance toward flicking it up or down. Neither is it going to suck the soul right out of your body. It won't even offer Don Rickles-like verbal disparities at you. It may well be one of the easiest aspects of driving a car.
Yet so many people choose not to do it, and no, "I just always forget" is not a quality excuse.
All I can figure is that the ramifications of making such a monumental decision as using ones turn signal are far outweighed by the mental and physical exertion that takes place in making the darn thing work.
I can see some guy sitting in his driver's seat, cruising down the road at 65 mph, when suddenly the need to turn off the highway on to a county road should rear its ugly head. "Should I use my blinker," he thinks to himself. "Should I do the right thing, the safe thing, and take into consideration the safety of others? Should I do what's right in the eyes of the law, and use this simple device that is almost as easy as breathing, which was created so that mankind might have fewer altercations on the road? Nahhhh! The heck with that. I'm zipping in that lane and making my move without notifying a single soul. After all, I have been crowned Emperor of the Expressway; Ruler of the Road; Potentate of the Parkway; Lord of the Lane. These avenues of travel have, after all, been created just for me. These other people are doggone lucky I even let them on here. They'll figure it out on their own that I'm about to dart off to the left in front of them. People can't be expecting me to be reaching up and pushing that turn signal lever... who knows how many times a day! "
OK Mr. Oblivious of Others, we know that there are those of us who are blessed to share the roadway with you, and that we are but insignificant peons in the overall scheme of things, but maybe, just maybe, at least just once, you could proffer the hand of courtesy and, extending your hand ever-so-slightly from its comfortable resting perch at the 10 o'clock hour on the steering wheel, let it make just the minutest of twitches so as to send your turn signal aglow in all of its pulsating glory so that I, a humble driver trying to make his way through life without being scraped off the pavement, might have an inkling that you're making your move.
Of course, on the extreme opposite of Mr. No-Signal is that guy driving the 18-wheeler down the freeway who opportunistically forgets to turn his turn signal off after changing lanes. I do respect him greatly for at least using the signal, but for the next 28 miles I have to drive under the grave suspicion that should I choose to pass, it will be at that exact moment in time that he decides to follow his blinking signal and change lanes, thus cutting me off and sending me careening through the median strip. That guy, I can live with. For the other 96.735 percent of the nation who choose to ignore their turn signals, well, it's just a wee tad aggravating.
Am I asking so much for people to have the common courtesy to use their turn signal? Yeah, I know, you're sitting there thinking that I'm being mighty petty. Well, maybe you're right. After all it is only the law we're talking about here, and it's only the safety of drivers everywhere that's at stake. You keep right on not using your turn signal. I'm sure the rest of us will catch on.
Next week... drivers who dart out in front of you, only to turn into the very next driveway 15 feet later.