This year, 2014, is the year that I have officially been driving for half of my life. Throughout these past 16 years, I have been incredibly fortunate that I have not had a serious accident. After a short stint as a speed demon when I first got my license, I also haven't had any speeding tickets in close to a decade.
I would, in fact, consider myself to be a careful driver 98 per cent of the time and only occasionally do I scrape along the curb and scratching my hubcaps from taking a turn too closely. It is for all of these reasons that I was shocked when a man in a large truck drove up extremely close to my bumper, honked at me loudly, pulled alongside me in a hurry, flipped me the bird and swore at me through his window.
What had I been doing that so infuriated this man? I was driving a safe speed and turning left into the Hart Mall. Possibly, I may not have signaled my turn. You see, I don't actually remember if I signaled or not because I was almost at my destination (Hello, Nechako library and Baby Time) and I had two excited children in the van making sure I knew they were ready to go to the library.
Signaling your turn is one of the most basic acts of driving and helps prevent accidents and misunderstandings. Usually when I am driving I tend to be an over-signaler and always give other drivers and pedestrians plenty of time to know that I will indeed be turning in the next little while. On library day, I forgot to signal in a turning lane and was subjected to the most extreme form of stranger vitriol that it hurt my feelings and was totally unwarranted for the situation. Plus, it wasn't really nice.
A driving instructor that I had when I was sixteen told me that on the road, we are all a family. She then told me that most people have forgotten that we should all be working together to keep each other safe. So, to the dude with the seventies mustache in the green truck that honked, swore, and flipped the bird at the blond mom with two kids in the back, I am sorry that I didn't signal in the turning lane at the Hart Mall. And relax, we're family.
If it were your mom on the road that day, would you have swore at her?
