Is your turn signal
still on?
By Jeffrey Fazio
DriveTime Columnist
Once
upon a time, a few months ago, I was driving home from work via Route
183. Just north of Bernville, I took the slight veer to the right that
is required to stay on 183. About a mile or so later my cell phone
rings.
"Hello,"
I said.
The
cheery voice on the other end responds, "Hey Mister, are you ever
going to make that right?"
At
that point I finally turned off my turn signal as we both started
laughing.
The
caller was my girlfriend and she happened to be behind me as I
signaled to veer off Route 183. Since that is not a "real"
right-hand turn, the thinga-ma-jiggie that turns your signals
off automatically did not hear its call to duty. Consequently, it
failed to show up for work, leaving me high and dry with my turn
signal blaring its two-step dance to the world around me.
How
often have you been traveling behind someone with their turn signals
on for miles and miles, wishing you could just call them and tell them
to turn the darn thing off? Well, my girlfriend had that chance and
she took great pleasure in making that call.
There
are so many times that I wish I could do the same — especially on
183 right after Bernville. What can sometimes feel like a long
commute, feels even longer when you get stuck behind someone with
their blinker endlessly blinking like a visual broken record.
Over
the recent holidays, the memory of that phone call came to the
forefront of our conversation as we were traveling from my parents to
hers. Our Christmas trek took us over the river, and through the woods
and into Oley on Route 73.
As
we navigated the "Oley Bypass" we took the "exit"
for Route 662 which happens to be a similar veer-to-the-right that is
not quite an actual turn, just like the Route 183 turnoff near
Bernville. There is one really big difference between these two
turnoffs.
That
difference comes in the form of a fairly large yellow and black
PennDOT road sign that reads "ARE YOUR TURN SIGNALS ON?"
This sign is posted on Route 662 a couple of hundred feet beyond the
turn-off from Route 73. The sign is ideally placed for delivering its
appreciated reminder.
Not
only did it make me smile when I saw it, but it also made me
double-check my signals. It’s really such a simple and effective
sign that is truly well placed.
So
where else do we need these signs around the county? I suspect that
there are plenty more "veeroffs" that aren’t quite
"turnoffs" that could use one of these gentle reminders to
check our blinkers.
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