My turn signal system has been on the fritz for a couple of weeks (an appointment to fix it is upcoming), and it's by now subsided from erratic to completely nonfunctioning. It's affected my driving style, which I confess tends towards the bob-and-weave -- but since I now have no warning yellow lights to flash when I'm about to dive into the next lane, I have to wait for a real, unambiguous gap first. It's made me a little more aware of whether another driver is likely to be surprised by my moves or not. And I think even when my turn signals are fixed, I may still back off the lane-changing a bit. Not entirely -- sitting behind a notable slowpoke is still something I cannot do -- but I've noticed that driving a wee bit more cautiously still seems to get me where I'm going in about the same amount of time it's always taken. Funny, that.

copyright 2003 carrie lynn king.