Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for November 21, 2023

Driving with Boomers.

And remember, never go over the speed limit when driving in the passing lane.

Worse are the ones who never use their turn signal and then come to a stop right in front of you, waiting to make a turn.

By that logic, the rear turn signal should always be left. It’s the tail.

I’m just glad to see ANY turn signal use, these days. If they left it on, at least that means they thought to signal in the first place. It’s a start …

Ford F-150s used to be famous for being left lane bandits, with their left turn signal blinking away for miles upon miles.

For a change of pace, why not both signals? We could use the emergency flashers.

I have a ‘92 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon. It starts chiming when the turn signal has been left on for more than a mile. It’s almost 32 years old. Shouldn’t all cars today have that feature?

I love those that ride the brakes

I think most drivers spend a good deal of time with their brains turned off (at least, not focused on driving). Tailgaters are my personal choice for worst of the kind: Slow down, they slow down. Speed up, they speed up. Signal right and pull off and at least half of them actually start to follow you onto the verge before they wake up. Signal-forever folk are in the same category, but imo, not as bad.

PS: The other ones who inevitably annoy me signal once they’ve begun to turn, but they begin to slow down a mile in advance. Spouse and I both grouse “Go ahead and get it around the corner already!”

The lights are on, but nobody is home.

Is that a car?

Mr. and Mrs. “45” are so-called because no matter what the Speed Limit, they drive only 45 MPH — especially on hilly two-lane roads.

I have an idea for a new safety feature. If at any time the car’s turn signal is left on for five minutes straight, the car will automatically make the turn being signalled.

Even if it’s going over a bridge at the time.

At which point the entire road becomes just a little bit safer.

Go around them

…trying to start a trend of a universal signal to let the person either in front or behind you…

…know that their turn signal is on…

…I would work 1st my right & and then my left turn signals…

…alternatively…

…but it never caught on…

…I just got the people either in front or behind me doing the same thing…

Signal right to turn left.

Its not my fault. With the top down in my old Mustang, and the Beach Boys in the casette player, nobody could hear that faint clicking whisper.

Nice road etiquette: Flashing your high beams to let a trucker know you are aware of his desired lane change in front of you. Once completed, the trucker invariably shows appreciation with alternating taillight flicks.

Hey, I resent the implication I’m doing it on purpose.

Just last evening, my mother in law commented how her late husband couldn’t hear the clicking of the turn signal, so he didn’t know if it was left on. Made me wonder how many cars with non-stop blinkers are driven by someone with hearing loss…

Why not both? Put on the emergency flashers and drive real slow in the fast lane.

Careful. You might find yourself running low on blinker fluid.

Where I am, most drivers don’t seem to know what turn signals are, because they never use them, and that includes police cars. Or if they do use a turn signal, they’ll only turn it on when they’re halfway into the turn. But my personal peeve is the drivers who drive 30 in a 35 zone, and when the limit drops to 25, they’ll speed up to nearly 40.

In the left lane, 10 mph under the speed limit with the right turn signal on. Always

Hilarious.

Reminds me of the short story “The Widget, The Wadget, and Boff”. . .I think. . .

He’s the guy who was in the right turn lane, then did a sudden dive across 3 thru lanes to the left turn lane. Gotta wonder if he was trying to read gmaps and messed up or gmaps did an ‘oopsy.’

In Boston they use hand grenades as turn signals.

“If I had a Million” 1932 was a movie about a dying millionaire who decides to leave his money to strangers and what each recipient did with it. I’m not sure if it was a “silent film,” but it was one that was done with very, very few words. One of the episodes starred W C Fields and Alison Skipworth a vaudeville couple whose dream was to have their own car. It is delivered but when they take it out for a drive, it is wrecked when another driver ignores a stop signal. Then they get the million-dollar check. They purchase eight used cars and hire drivers. They all take to the road in a long procession. When they encounter an inconsiderate road hog, they crash into the offender’s automobile and then switch to one of their spare cars, repeating the process until they run out of automobiles.

It doesn’t happen that often, but sometimes I wonder if that darn signal is stuck, and the driver can’t change it.

Now they just leave their brights on all of the time.

And don’t forget to drive 5mph below the speed limit!

A relative calls slow in the fast lane drivers rocks in the stream.

Move to Texas, they have no clue what that lever on the left side of the steering wheel is for.

If they owned a BMW, they would not have to worry about the turn signals…

At least they know where to find them.

“Everyone who drives slower than me is an idiot, and everyone who drives faster than me is a MANIAC”. George Carlin.

Take a rubber band and a paper clip. Attach the paper clip to the rubber band and twist the clip to form a hook. Now put the rubber band on the turn signal stalk, catch the paper clip hook onto the dash, so it holds the signal on, full time.

And that people, is the AARP hint of the day. Share it with your friends.

Remember, AARP drivers stop for no particular reason.

Gotta love’em…..

The blinker left on on the car in front of you on a really long bridge is the most hilarious.

I don’t understand about leaving the turn signal on, left or right.

Rather follow that than the one sightseeing in the passing lane.

If it’s left, they’re from Ballard. If it’s right, they’re from Kent.

So the plan is to drive me crazy,.

looks like a Pedomobile, no engine…

That guy usually wears a stupid hat, too.

Back in the day when cars in the US came with optional turn signals, one was supposed to roll down the window and stick your arm out to indicate your turning direction (straight out for left, or pointing up with a bent elbow for right.) No one left their signal on; it was too tiresome.

It was also annoying to crank down your window (especially if the hand-crank fell off in your hand as the one in my car often did.)You had two options— both illegal— don’t signal, or swing open your door as you were slowing down.

There were a lot of European cars in our area in the 1960s. Some (VW if I remember correctly) had little arms that extended out next to the left and right windows when a switch was operated. The German manufacturers were years ahead of their time with technology.Fast-forward to luxury German cars that have so many options offered, turn signals seem to be something their drivers don’t opt for.

Our county doesn’t have police. It has a sheriff’s department. As we live close to the department’s eastern-most substation, there are always deputies driving on the 4 lane highway that divides our neighborhood. They tend to drive too fast, weave in and out of traffic and don’t signal. I followed one down the boulevard one morning as he did exactly that. All his recklessness got him nowhere. I still pulled up next to him at each traffic light.

By the third light, I’d had enough. I rolled down my window and waved at him. He opened his passenger window. Exercising my white-old-lady privilege, I shouted as sweetly as I could— “Sir, your rear turn light bulb must be burned out. It’s not lighting up when you change lanes.”

He rolled up his window; the light turned green and I watched him go— still speeding and weaving in and out of traffic— but with each lane change his signal came on.

Some years ago I went to check an old couple were OK as they were sitting in their car in a car park with the hazard warning lights on – it turned out they’d somehow switched on them on without realising. They thought there was an issue with car since they didn’t how to switch them off or even know they could – despite the switch blinking away in centre of dashboard.

They had driven a fair distance and were thinking going home and calling recovery.

Street crossing a main thoroughfare: The opposing driver does not signal. I don’t know if she’s crossing the road, turning left, or turning right.

And a tip of the Hatlo Hat to Wiley.

This looks like something that late genius would have written

HA!!!!!

Looks like my Mini Cooper.

My pet peeve doesn’t involve drivers, it involves whoever paints the info on the road that says what lane you’re supposed to be in when you’re approaching an intersection. Right up close to the intersection is the arrow (left, straight, or right). There’s usually a car or two stopped on top of it waiting for the light to change, so the next cars in line can’t see which lanes they’re supposed to use. What they CAN see is the word “ONLY”, meaning that they’re supposed to activate their psychic powers to figure out which lane to get into but may well be doing something illegal if the ether isn’t clear today. (Of course, this usually doesn’t matter when there are THREE lanes to choose from, but if there are only two it’s coin-flipping time.)

The maddening thing about this is that there’s absolutely NO REASON for the word “ONLY” at all. They could make it a lot clearer (and save paint to boot) if they just duplicated the appropriate arrows.

So THAT’S how they do it.

that is too close to the truth !