Driving in America

Most of us have noticed that driving today is marked with far more discourtesy than it ever was before.  A few weeks ago, I thought I’d try to quantify this by counting those who do and do not use turning signals where required by law.

Findings: Overall, about 70% of drivers here in rural Central California use turn signals.  This breaks down into about 75% of passenger cars, and about 45% of pickup trucks.

What accounts for this discrepancy?  The best I can do here is to offer a guess, and that goes like this:

a) Turn signals help other people far more than they help the driver. The driver knows where he’s going, while the other drivers and pedestrians do not, and need help understanding how to act safely.

b) Pickup trucks are driven by working class Americans, who tend, for reasons I don’t understand, to be Trump supporters.

c) Trump supporters are almost all “anti-woke,” meaning that they have little if any concern for the welfare of others.

d) Disobeying a law that is put in place to help an entire society run better is characteristic of people who couldn’t give a s*** about other people in the first place.