Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Blinkers and Road Rage – A Direct Connection

This week, I’ve had an epiphany…new cars don’t come with blinkers. They must be an option now, and cars falling under the luxury category clearly charge exorbitant fees for them. How else can you explain all the BMWs, Jaguars, Lexus’, even Porsches that don’t use signals when turning? And honestly, their SUVs are the worst. I’m thinking it could even be a malfunction. The driver is probably trying to signal, it just won’t work or the feature is not there….

This new phenomenon has led to raging cases of ADS (Angry Driver Syndrome for those of you not ‘in the know.’) Just yesterday, I followed a Lexus SUV for nearly two miles, and we turned six times…I did the signaling for both of us. I found myself, between expletives and banging my head on my dashboard, wondering if the rich moron in the Lexus thought it unnecessary, too much physical exertion, just entirely too exhausting to flip the damn little arm to let me and everyone else on the road know he was turning? (Note, I said “he”…) I have a message out there to every person who doesn’t use a signal: when I was in college, a classmate of mine was killed by an 18-wheeler because the guy driving the car with my fiend in it didn’t signal when he merged onto the highway. The lane was also an exit lane, so the trucker said he assumed the car was exiting. Apparently, when the Blazer, the car my friend was in, merged, the trucker didn’t have time to get out of the way… Both in the Blazer were killed, and a blinker could’ve saved their lives.

Not every turn requires a blinker, but it’s the habit that lets other drivers know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. New car manufacturers should be ashamed, getting rid of such features. I just can’t imagine that so many people in such nice cars could be that lazy, that stupid, that irresponsible that they’re just choosing not to use their blinkers.

I’m thinking of rear ending the next one who cuts me off without a blinker…I wonder if they wear their seatbelts?

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