My bold new driving plan
I propose we outlaw the blinker. Its day has come and gone. Do you see anyone using them anymore? Do people signal before they change lanes? Sure, they occasionally flip them on as they change lanes, but you’d have to be pretty dumb at that point not to notice them switching over.
Blinkers are old-fashioned. It’s how our grandparents drove. We’re better than them. We, as a generation of drivers, are obviously better prepared for mind-reading. I see it everyday. Even better are the people who do use blinkers and then drive straight for a mile or two before realizing that they’re blinkers are still on, thus making them meaningless.
I don’t trust them. I wait for the car to start turning before I take advantage of any time those blinkers might have given me to make my turn. And I never assume the cars around me aren’t about to turn just because their blinkers aren’t on.
So what good do the blinkers do us today, anyway?
Here endeth the rant.
August 6th, 2003 at 12:26 pm
One off the best use of blinkers I saw recently was a guy with the right blinker on turning left. Genius.
I agree w/ you though. I do not trust anybody with their blinker on or off.
August 6th, 2003 at 12:57 pm
This is satire right? Tryout for the Onion? Because I know you can’t be serious…
August 6th, 2003 at 4:12 pm
Hey Broc,
I don’t actually read The Onion.
But, yeah, it’s mostly satire. Mostly. I am annoyed by the number of people who don’t remember that their cars come with blinkers, though.
Hey Peter,
I can top that. Try someone getting into the left turn only lane, deciding they want to go STRAIGHT, and putting on the right blinker to indicate so.
I think it’s just part of defensive driving to not trust the blinker. Either that, or my father is a very cautious man who’s never had an accident in 45 years of driving and so deserves to be listened to. He’s the one who taught me to drive.
-Augie
August 6th, 2003 at 4:49 pm
Augie,
I have seen that before.
My worst probably would be the guy who was in the left turn lane, realized he needed to turn right instead, and then proceed to cross 3 lanes to do just that (5 lane road w/ an extra right turn lane).
Of course no blinker.
Peter
August 6th, 2003 at 7:23 pm
They signal turns. Don’t blame the blinker for stupid people.
August 6th, 2003 at 9:56 pm
Funny this, because I saw an interesting use of the blinker today.
When approaching the University of Florida, a two lane road passes a shopping plaza, then immediatly merges to one lane. A gentlemen in the merge lane put his blinker on as if to turn into the shopping plaza, then a few moments later quickly merged into traffic in the one remaining lane. I think it was his intention all along to merge, and he put on his blinker as a deception so that the drivers in the soon-to-be-only-lane wouldn’t take him as an aggresive driver and box him out, as is so common in this area.
August 7th, 2003 at 7:44 am
As a driving instructor, I’m actually in favour of blinkers…:P
August 7th, 2003 at 11:31 am
You know. I’ve been chalking up the lack of signals by people to indifference and self-importance. going back to an earlier rant, I think it’s one more step of disrespect by people. When these folks are driving down the street, they don’t give a rat’s patootie about us. Don’t you know that they’re much more important than you or I?
Much like the feelings people get of anonimity enough to flip off someone or curse them out in a car–something they wouldn’t do in, say, a mall–now we’re not even worthy of a direction signal.
But all in all, it’s just the lack of respect that most people have these days. You hold a door open for someone and they don’t even deeem to look in your direction, much less thank you. Yet, when I go for a door that someone’s walking through, they let it go. Ugh.
It’s my new saying and I’ll share it with you now: I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand.
Chris
August 7th, 2003 at 6:23 pm
I hear ya all talking and I gotta say I don’t agree with you. I don’t think its disrespect or dumb people.
You don’t have to burn people to much before they quit doing something. Timid drivers put on their signals and everyone boxes them out, sooner or later they decide to quit telling people their intentions and start jumping right in front of you when you aren’t looking.
August 7th, 2003 at 8:25 pm
I’ve felt for some time now that blinkers have become optional on new vehicles.
August 7th, 2003 at 8:48 pm
The best non-use of blinkers is when the person in the next lane is following someone slow and you have barely any space in front of you. The person in the next lane magically thinks you can read his mind and switches lanes into the space in front of you thereby causing you to brake and yell because they didn’t feel like signaling before cramming themselves into your lane. Happened to me yesterday and man. I wanted to chase the guy down and swerve right into his lane in front of him.
August 12th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
[…] I wrote here before of my bold new plan to outlaw the blinker from cars. The theory is that, after all, nobody uses them. Why bother? […]