Opinion 31
What Is a Turn Signal? Part Deux. By William Urbanski
WHAT IS AN INTERSECTION? In a perfect world, people would be able to drive in relatively straight lines all the time, but such a paradise on earth does not exist. Almost all roads (especially in a city) connect to other roads, and a common place where they cross or “intersect” is known as an intersection. Intersections represent a tremendous cognitive leap in city planning but also pose a wee bit of a safety hazard because, it turns out, they are a great place to smash into other cars at high speeds. In an effort to minimalize the number of high-velocity collisions at these “intersections”
Gwangju News, June 2022
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The amount of effort required to operate a turn signal is exactly equal to the amount of strength and muscular dexterity required to lift a finger. Therefore, anyone with the physical capacity to open a car door and sit down in the driver’s seat can, by default, operate a turn signal lever (also called just a “turn signal” for short).
gwangjunewsgic.com
RECAP Cars are basically large, fast-moving metal boxes that people of all shapes and sizes like to whiz around in because it makes them feel important. Furthermore, driving one the way a five-year-old would operate an overpowered go-kart is, admittedly, quite a bit of fun. The problem with cars (well, besides the environmental, social, and financial problems they cause) is that two-ton steel boxes whipping around densely populated urban areas, often mere centimeters from pedestrians, is just a little, teensy bit dangerous. As anyone who has been in a car accident can attest to, it turns out that automobile collisions at any speed are not a whole lot of fun, especially if you happen to be on foot when a car runs into you.
About a hundred years ago, someone figured out that if a car can somehow “signal” where it is going, this dramatically reduces the incidence of collisions because other drivers and pedestrians will actually be able to determine its approximate trajectory. This was the reason turn signals were invented and today, unbeknownst to many, all cars are equipped with them. For those of you unsure of what a turn signal is, take a quick look at the front of your car. There is one located about 60 centimeters to either side of the Mercedes-Benz logo on the hood. It looks like a lightbulb, but unlike the lightbulbs in your house, these ones go “blinky, blinky, blinky” when turned on. Turn signals can greatly increase road safety if (and this is a big “if ”) the driver has the resolve and mental fortitude required to turn them on when required.
COMMUNITY
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After my previous article about turn signals, I was ready to drop the whole issue and move on with my life. I said my piece and did not really think there was much more to add to the discourse about the tremendous lack of savoir faire surrounding these devices that, when used as intended, “signal” where a car is going. But lo and behold, the tremendous response to “What Is a Turn Signal” by the general public and, in particular, the extremely well-balanced and learned comments about it by the Gwangju Social Justice Facebook Keyboard Warrior Brigade, showed me without a shadow of a doubt, that there are many people who are just as passionate about this issue as I am. The people of Gwangju have spoken and this past month I felt a renewed sense of purpose in my quest to continue and expand my research into the blatant and egregious misuse of turn signals in our fair city. So, here we go again.
2022-05-26 �� 3:06:09
