{"id":1750,"date":"2025-04-10T18:56:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T22:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2025-04-10T18:56:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T22:56:16","slug":"use-your-turn-signals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/use-your-turn-signals\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Your Turn Signals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt costs money to add those!\u201d I can hear my mother\u2019s voice muttering at a driver turning without signaling.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"turn\u201cWhy should I use them? There\u2019s no one around,\u201d retorted the voices of random friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a metaphor for all that is going on!\u201d said the Spirit Moxie Advisory Board members as they suggested new Conversation (what we call these posts) topics.<\/span><\/p>\n

As someone who is more pedestrian than passenger or driver these days, and who therefore needs to predict the actions of vehicles that happen to be nearby and heck, who tries to predict the actions of people as well, turn signals are golden. Yes, they can save lives, although thinking someone is turning when they\u2019re just changing lanes can be unsettling or dangerous, too. Remember that when you think there are no other vehicles, or no pedestrians around, you could be wrong.<\/a> Yes, even in rural areas or on a seemingly deserted residential street. Just yesterday, a car making a familiar turn clearly hadn\u2019t seen me at all. I know it was a familiar turn because it then whipped into a driveway.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question here is, what turn signals do you<\/i> use? Let\u2019s begin with that car or truck you drive, assuming you drive. When I learned to drive, the rule was to use turn signals every time, whether someone was around or not. Doing this gives you the advantage of habit and a bit of insulation in case there really is a pedestrian on that dark corner or a traffic cop behind that pole. I\u2019m curious if you have any stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"FingerAs a frequent pedestrian, I often signal to cars as to whether I really will cross the street or if I am letting the car go first. Sometimes the car won\u2019t go first because they\u2019ve learned to not trust walkers or other drivers. (Is that car really letting me in?)\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the larger scheme of things, similar signals are needed in simple day to day life. Little things like keeping your word<\/a> (OK, so that isn\u2019t so little). Bring home the milk you promised to get or show up at least close to 5 p.m. as scheduled. Sometimes little things backfire and are misinterpreted as signals. The person listening decides your voice tone is off, and you are really criticizing and not just commenting. They were expecting a turn signal although the driver hadn\u2019t engaged one since they were actually driving straight ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes a major change in direction is anticipated by the driver, but the simple turn signal isn\u2019t enough of a clue. So the divorce or job change surprises other participants and leads to accidents, or at least stalls (if we keep the car metaphor going). How do you interpret turn signals from colleagues, family, and friends?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you ignore them? Experience might lead us to not pay attention to family or friends, colleagues or politicians. They didn\u2019t mean what they said. They never do whatever. It couldn\u2019t possibly affect me. While there are no words of wisdom on this, I suggest taking people immediately around you at their word, however mistrustful part of you remains. Listen*. If nothing else, it confuses things for them. You can call them out if they lie and are prepared if they do act on whatever they said. Also, by being clear yourself, you encourage trust and confuse people who aren\u2019t trustworthy. The bottom line here is what you<\/i> do.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So use your turn signals. Be honest. Listen. Be grateful when you\u2019re heard.<\/a> Yes, it\u2019s part of changing the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n

Credits and notes from the top:<\/p>\n

Turn signal controls on an Arcimoto FUV<\/a> – Spirit Moxie
\nHandspiel – marfis75 on flickr<\/a>
\n*Listen is move #6 in Moxie Moves: 10 ways to make a powerful difference<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt costs money to add those!\u201d I can hear my mother\u2019s voice muttering at a driver turning without signaling. \u201cWhy should I use them? There\u2019s no one around,\u201d retorted the voices of random friends. \u201cWhat a metaphor for all that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[32,85,84],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-conversation","tag-making-a-difference","tag-signaling","tag-turn-signals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DJHl-se","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1755,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}