Failure to Indicate Intent to Turn

You're driving along happily, following the flow of traffic, and then all of a sudden some jerk in front of you slows down to turn left. Without warning you have to slam on the brakes and wait for the jerk to turn. Sometimes, the jerk can't turn because of oncoming traffic, and you have to sit there and wait for the jerk to turn so you can go on your way. The big question is: why didn't the jerk just put his damn blinker on???

If the jerk HAD put his blinker on, then I would have slowed down gradually so I didn't have to stop short, and I most definitely would have had time to get into the other lane and pass the jerk. But the jerk took away my opportunity to do so. Because he is a jerk. (And you know who else are jerks? ALL the people behind you who move to the other lane to get around the first jerk, but NO ONE slows down to let you get over. They're like: ha ha, sucker! I'm free! You can sit there and rot!!!" Such poor form.)

There are amazing reasons that cars have blinkers. For one, we as a human race have not yet figured out how to read each other's minds. We can't always guess what our fellow drivers are thinking or anticipate what moves they are going to make. For safety and courtesy, the blinker tells me, "that large, heavy piece of metal going 60 mph is about to get right in front of me," or "this guy is going to take a left on a busy road, and thus if I am behind him, I will be stuck there for a long time." These are clearly important pieces of information to have. And it's not like putting on your blinker is difficult...you push the damn thing up or down! That's it! It's SO easy! And yet MILLIONS of people just decide they can't be bothered. They are apparently too cool for blinkers.

Particularly egregious are people who very suddenly cut you off with no blinker. If you MUST cut someone off, the LEAST you can do is give them SOME indication of your intent to do so. Unless you're actually looking to get rear-ended. I mean, maybe some drivers are out there hoping to get hit? And if you're one of those people who cuts people off, fails to use the blinker, and then goes SLOWER than the car you cut off...well, don't expect any sympathy when you're the victim of road-rage-induced violence.

So I beg you, USE the blinker. Your hands are already on the wheel (presumably), so it's RIGHT there! It takes about one second of your time and such minimal energy. And it saves everyone else on the road from almost rear-ending you and/or plotting your painful demise.

And one last thing while I'm at it...what's up with people crossing multiple lanes seconds before their exit? Plan ahead, people! Cars are not toys, driving is not a game. How a majority of people passed their driving tests is beyond me...