I’m driving more now that my two books are out. About every other day I’m signing somewhere. Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis,Baltimore, New York and all points south to Miami next month. It’s given me more of an appreciation of the way American’s drive and a better understanding of the way our vehicles have evolved.

There’s fodder here for hundreds of stories but I want to stick to the subtle and not so subtle changes in our cars, trucks, suvs and vans. As cupholders, CD players and GPS units have started to become standard on many vehicles, other accessories have become useless. You no longer see white wall tires, or massive amounts of chrome on bumpers. If you want a cigarette lighter, it’s extra because not many people smoke in autos any more, and you won’t find many CB antennaes because cellphones have taken over. Cassette players? A thing of the past and of course you’d be hard pressed to find a manual transmission on any vehicle on the road.

However, there is still one item on every car, truck, van and suv that has outlived it’s usefullness. Almost no one uses it anymore, but it takes up room and electricity on almost all roadworthy transportation. I’m speaking of course about the turn signal lever and the front and rear blinking lights that alert another driver that you are, in fact, planning to make a right or left turn.

My suggestion is that car companies do away with the turn signal. While its use at one time may have helped avoid fender benders, squeeling tires and swerving cars, there are now other subtle signals that have taken the turn signal’s place.

If a driver is talking on their cell phone, prepare for just about anything. Erratic turning, stopping, slowing down or speeding up should be expected and it’s up to the person following, or coming the other way to be aware.
If a driver is sipping coffee, or putting on makeup, that is a signal. Once you see that signal, prepare for a change in their driving pattern. When you see another driver with one hand on the wheel, turning around to talk to a passanger, adjust a child’s carseat, tend to a pet, or pull something off the backseat, for heaven’s sake take that as a signal. If you see someone with a book, newspaper or an open file folder spread across the steering wheel, don’t expect that person to have to use a turn signal as well. The fact that they are reading while driving is all the signal you should need. The same goes if you see them writing, or even using a laptop computer in the vacant passanger seat.

If we could all adjust to these new signals, car companies could do away ( and should do away) with turn signals.
It’s up to us to understand these new signals and by doing so, we can help bring down the cost of each vehicle.
When no one uses a particular device, its usefullness is done. And be honest, when is the last time you saw someone actually use a turn signal? Except of course, you.