Signals
A friend, new to Dallas, was telling me about driving around here. “I’m really surprised,” he said, “how many cars have broken signal lights.” Hello? “They must not work; they’re never used.”
That was a few months ago. I should show him the latest D Magazine with its list of 52 things you have to do in Dallas. No. 51: “Refuse to use turn signals. . . . Nothing is a bigger giveaway that you’re not from around here than a blinking taillight.”
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I’m against cultural relativism: some cultures can be worse than others in some respects. There are many things I like about Dallas, but they don’t include the way people drive. I am impressed, however, that this particular bad driving practice has made a top list in a glossy magazine. Drivers here are famous for not signaling their intentions.
This is not a good cultural practice. Other driving cultures are better than ours. We should be famous for something else.
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Have I told you this one before? There was a study about how a single driver can make an important difference in heavy traffic. It’s easy: just keep a safe distance between you and the car in front of you. A safe distance is the distance you cover in two seconds; it is obviously longer when you are driving faster. Keep that space in front of you and other drivers will dart into it. Don’t lose your cool, just pull back a bit and recreate the space.
What happens is a study in fluid motion. One driver doing this and the whole system actually starts working better. A few drivers and pretty soon it’s much better.
It’s interesting how humans work together, and how we can learn to work together.
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Good driving requires cooperation, and cooperation requires communication, and that’s what signal lights do: they communicate from one driver to another.
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Is this column about driving? Yes and no. It’s about being human. It’s about not being wrongly angry, about helping others with whom we share a common space and, for a while, a common journey. Intelligently flowing traffic is not a bad picture in an everyday mode of holy communion.
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Out & About. Sunday, April 22, at 6 p.m. I am giving the spring theology lecture as Theologian-in-residence of the diocese of Dallas. It is called “Friendship: The Final Frontier.” It’s at Church of the Incarnation, 3966 McKinney Ave. A reception follows, and (it is hoped) a book is also to follow. The reception, however, will come before the book.
The following weekend I am preaching at All Souls’ Church in Oklahoma City: Saturday, April 28, at 5:30 p.m., and Sunday following at 8, 9:15, and 11 a.m.