Smoked Signals

What is it about men and signals?  Oh sure, they accuse women of “mixed signals,” but at least you have an indication (or two) of what’s going on inside our heads.

For instance, I was exiting a parking lot with a very wide driveway the other day where a car waited in the middle.  Being in the middle of the drive way, I naturally (nat·u·ral·ly, adverb 1. in a natural or normal manner, 2. by nature; innately or inherently, 3. of course; as would be expected; needless to say) assumed he was turning left. Of course whenever you use the word “assume” you’re admitting to some degree of uncertainty.  Why the uncertainty?  He didn’t have his signal on.

Now, given my natural assumption, I pulled alongside to the right giving the clear impression that I intended to turn right.  Why clear you ask?   Because I did everything the law told me I’m supposed to do before making a right hand turn.  I began at the edge closest to my right and used my right turn signal.

After doing this it became clear that the man to my left wanted to turn right and needed to do so immediately.  I came to realized this when he eked out into heavy traffic, squeezing between the row of cars waiting to turn right and my front bumper.  Obviously he had a thing or two to teach me.  I’m not even going to touch on the fact that he made the next available right turn back into the parking lot he just exited. (BTW, no cars ever came up behind either of us while in the parking lot driveway.)  I’m just saying.

But it’s not just this incident.  There are thousands of people rushing in and out of traffic without ever signaling.  I’ve asked a couple of people I know (men) why they don’t signal.  The common response goes something like this, “If I signal the other person will know I want over.”

Oh, I get…..huh???

Evidently once you reveal your intentions, the rest of the people on the road conspire against you to keep you from getting to where you want to be.  But if that were true, why do signal using people, get to where they’re going?

Ok, ok… CALM DOWN!  I know there really are people out there who intentionally speed up as soon as they realize you want over or are about to pass them.  What the non-signalers don’t seem to realize is that signaling is a courtesy to the other courteous drivers, not a request for permission.  You signal, you move over or turn.   It’s like shouting, “Here I come, good luck everybody else!”

The fact is that cars are thousand pound deathtraps on wheels.  Let’s stop the conspiracy games and using our cars to teach others lessons.  Why not try the angrily shaken fist (mind your fingers please) or the sorrowful face on the shaking head?   Why there must be dozens of ways of displaying your dissatisfaction with the rest of the world that do not involve endangering other people’s lives.

Well... my life was never in danger but, I was in danger of having to deal with my insurance company and auto repair people.  A fate not to be wished on others. 

Now I know I took a jab at men; but women can be idiots too.  (Did I just call men idiots? Oh well.)  As a matter of fact I recently read a comment from a female friend on Facebook who admitted to regularly multitasking while driving.  If she’s reading this, love ya but you’ve got to stop.  Thank God responses to her post were less than enthusiastic. 

Well I’m glad I got that off of my chest.  Remember; look out for each other and thank you for reading MY RANT.