Blinker use down, driver frustration way up

Blinkers: Every vehicle has them, but a lot of drivers don’t seem to use them.
That’s a new catchphrase I’d like to copyright because it’s one I’m sure some people – the ones who do use their blinkers being the some – find to be completely true.
While driving the 20 or so miles I put on a day, from home to work twice a day, I usually encounter about six drivers who do not use their blinkers. Most of the time, these non-blinker-using, too-good-to-tell-others-where-they-are-going drivers, as well as a few other adjectives I’m thinking but can’t put in a family-friendly newspaper, are simply in front of me, at a stop sign, turning either left or right. And most of the time it’s obvious which way he or she is turning, because the vehicle is practically turned enough to make it clear the direction he or she is heading.
It irks me, though, the driver can’t take the millisecond it takes to actually signal the blinker in the correct direction he or she is going, even if it is obvious. It’s called courtesy, and I’m one that gets offended by people who aren’t courteous.
Courtesy applies in many situations – holding the door open for someone who might be using the same door at the same time as you, not talking on a cell phone during a public event or movie, chewing with your mouth closed – and most of the time people are courteous.
But once in awhile you might come across a person who hasn’t learned the most basic rules of our society, and when you meet that person, he or she is memorable for a reason he or she shouldn’t want to be remembered for: being rude.
And the number of rude drivers who don’t know how to use their blinkers seems to be on the increase, according to my completely unscientific method of measuring this phenomenon through just my observations.
Left turn onto Okray Avenue. Who needs a blinker because who cares if the person behind me needs to know which way I am going? Turning right onto Water Street. What good will a blinker be when it’s clear by the way I have brilliantly angled my car that I’m going right? Stopped at the intersection of Maple Drive and Forest Avenue? Why bother letting this sap behind me know if I’m going left or right because those are the only two options?
That’s how I interpret the thoughts of those who do not use blinkers. Here’s what I’m thinking: it’s the easiest move a person does while driving, moving your left hand in either an up or down motion to make sure others know the direction you are heading, helping to prevent any possible accidents that could occur if you don’t know the direction someone is going.
Maybe my thinking is too complicated for those who don’t use blinkers. Here’s a simpler version: using blinkers is easy and it can save lives.
That’s another catchphrase I could copyright. I’m full of them when it comes to this topic.
My catchphrases could be used in a government-sponsored campaign to re-educate people on the use of blinkers. They’ve had plenty of campaigns for seat belt use, drinking and driving, and texting while driving, so why not one for a crime – I say crime because it is against the law not to use blinkers – that far more people are committing than any of those other offenses.
I doubt the government would sponsor such a campaign, so it’ll probably be confined to my imagination, or the words I sometimes shout when someone chooses not to use their blinkers in my presence. The words I use when I’m alone in my car are unprintable, too. When my 4-year-old son is present, I keep them G-rated. “Blinkers! Blinkers! Blinkers! You got them, use them.” My son laughs when I say them, thinking it’s some sort of game.
I wish it were. Then driving may be a lot more fun since everyone seems to be playing it.