Driving 101

Why the aversion to using a blinker? Were you absent the day proper blinker usage was taught in drivers ed? Did the car salesman fail to point out the location of the blinker? Do you lack the strength to push the blinker up or down? (If so, bicep curls may be in order.) Have you forgotten how to use the blinker? (That’s a scary topic for another rant blog!)

Where I live, people either do not use their blinker at all, or use it at the exact moment they merge in front of another vehicle (and then slam on the brakes). Evidently using a blinker is not a high priority in Colorado. I am not a perfect driver by any means, but I cannot understand why using a blinker is so dang difficult.

And while we’re on the subject, let’s review stop light rules. Didn’t everyone learn the ditty:

Red means stop; Green means go; Yellow means go slow!

Nowhere in the song does it say, Red means continue through the intersection. 

Again, where I live, you can absolutely, positively count on one car going through the intersection after the light turns red. It is not unusual for another car to join in just for the fun of it. And, on an especially perilous day, three cars may parade through the intersection. I don’t get that either. Is their time more important? Don’t they mind endangering the lives of others? Do they own multiple vehicles so that when their car is in the body shop after causing an accident, it’s not a giant pain in the rear end?

Full disclosure, the other day, I rolled through a stop sign. I looked both ways and proceeded slowly through the intersection. A cyclist, who was nowhere near the intersection but observed the violation, yelled, “You rolled right through that stop sign. You’re supposed to STOP.” At first, I was offended; how dare he yell at me! Would he have yelled at a male driver? In the current era of road rage, such an outburst seemed pretty risky. However, as the day wore on and his tirade stayed with me, I had to admit, I did roll through the stop sign and I need to be more diligent about coming to a complete stop. And so, thank you, Mr. Bikeridingyeller, for the not-so-subtle but effective reminder to drive safely.