The Scoop: Finding the strength to use turn signals
This just in. Over 90 percent of drivers admit they either speed, talk on cell phones, eat, read, or do a combination of the above-mentioned activities while behind the wheel.
No wonder I don’t feel so safe on the road. It’s apparently for good reason.
A recent poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research questioned 1,100 drivers earlier this month and revealed not-so-favorable results.
Of the drivers surveyed, 73 percent say they regularly speed; 59 percent eat while driving; 37 percent talk on their cell phone; 26 percent never use a turn signal; and 14 percent admitted to reading while driving.
After absorbing that information, the number that sticks out in my mind the most is the 26 percent who never use a turn signal. I don’t see how the percentage could be so low. I’ve driven for days at a time without seeing the use of a turn signal.
It’s even led to a joke: What can you say about a car in Tennessee with its turn signal on? The car was probably bought that way.
Not using a turn signal is one of my pet peeves. And that’s not to say I’m an angel behind the wheel.
Normally I’m making folks mad because I only like to drive about 5 mph over the speed limit. I’ve noticed most people prefer this to be around 15 to 20 mph over the limit, and their method of displaying their anger is to follow me so closely I can tell if they have cheese on their burger.
What aggravates me most about failing to use a turn signal is it’s the ultimate exercise in laziness. The turn signal lever is conveniently positioned on the steering column. If you drive with your arm on top of the wheel, all you have to do is move it about 10 inches – and presto! — there’s a turn signal.
I say the folks who can’t take the minimal effort required to use their turn signal, should be taken off the road. They should be pulled over, given a ticket, and given a verbal whipping by the judge in court.
If that arm has the strength to reach inside a fast food bag and shove fries into an open mouth, it can also activate a turn signal. It’s that simple.
Between my “slow” driving and other people’s inability to use a turn signal, there is a fair amount of anger on American roadways. Hence, the term “road rage” has been added to our vocabulary.
Believe it or not, there are actually people who do little more than study the phenomena we call road rage and counsel people who suffer from it. Virginia Tech psychologist Scott Geller is one of those people and he has devoted 20 years of his life to studying the habits of overly aggressive drivers.
After all that time, Geller has come up with this idea: He wants to equip every vehicle with a green light on the back and teach drivers how to communicate with a series of quick blinks.
“If someone cuts in front of you, you think he did it on purpose,” said Geller. “What if the person who cuts in front of you could quickly tell you I’m sorry?”
Geller believes it would be simple to teach drivers three basic commands: please, thank you and I’m sorry. This idea is firmly backed by Radford University professor Jerry Beasley, another one of those college types who has devoted time to examining road rage.
I believe the flashing light would be a great idea, but I have already spotted two fundamental problems. First, if people are too lazy to use their turn signal, they would surely be too lazy to activate the flashing light. And second, if you can teach people to say “thank you” with blinking lights, it wouldn’t take much more training before they also learned ways to say “buzz off” and “up yours pal.”
(James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)