New Year. New You.
Was it a call to wholesale personal change? An ad for a hair salon? A weight-loss program?
No. Here’s the whole thing, as seen on one of those programmable signs over the interstate’s driving lanes.
New Year. New You.
Use your blinker.
All right then. Shoot for the stars, eh?
And yet. As Jordan Peterson urges young people: If you want to change the world, start by cleaning your room. Or, in more academic terms, act and work within your domain of competence. Do the things you can see that you should do. And repeat.
In those terms, this message to drivers is exactly on point. When I’m driving, I shouldn’t fuss about the rules that allow all this truck traffic on my road. Or the drivers who go like bats out of hell, swerving in and out. Or the speed-limit signs still up on currently unworked work zones. Or the design of the off- and on-ramps.
Use your blinker.
If I do that, on the interstate and elsewhere, I will be a new me. If enough of us do that, it might even be a new year.
Sorry, I got hung up on blinkers (aka Blinders) for horses. The keep the horse from getting distracted but the other horses in the race. Although I realized my error, they may well be valuable on the AZ Freeways.
Eric – Given the way people already bob and weave through freeway traffic, I’m thinking they might be wearing blinders. They give no indication that they’re aware of other cars around them.
I was driving up to Vernon the other day when a car roared past me and pulled in in front of me. He had his four-way flashers going, but showed no signs of pulling over and getting out of the traffic flow. I was starting to think I should pull up beside him to tell him about his four-way flasher, but when I went to flick on my own blinkers to pull out into the next lane, I realized I had been driving along with my blinker going steadily. I had forgotten to turn it back off when I changed lanes several kilometres back.
Physician, heal thyself!
Jim T
Jim – 🙂 There is no advice/metaphor that works for everyone. “New Year. New You. Stop Using Your Blinker.” I don’t see why cars don’t come with warning alarms when a turn signal has been on for a few minutes. Well, except for the cost. As for the “flasher”, had he forgotten, do you think, or was he trying to get your attention?
The latter, I’m sure. As soon as I turned off my blinker, he turned off his.
Jim T
Jim – 🙂 I’ve often thought cars should be equipped with message boards. OK, maybe not . . .