Indicators are indicators

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” So said the comedian Groucho Marx many years ago but the same admission may well be even more necessary today.

After all, as Margaret Fuller has commented, “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” We need readers for us to have good leaders, though the choice of books is equally important; as Mark Twain captured the mood of many when he defined a classic as “a book which people praise and don't read”. What, and how, we read is important.

Others have echoed these thoughts. Roald Dahl wrote that “If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books” while we find a similar thought with Dr Seuss who said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Indeed, former US President Barack Obama declared that “Reading is important. If you know how to read, then the whole world opens up to you.” We go places when we read. Watch out, world!

We also go places on the road but it seems that many who drive on our roads do not read books or the road.

We have traffic lights, or robots, but people do not read them correctly (even when they are working or can be seen).

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These lights are indicators of what is expected (not suggested). But so too are the indicators on our cars yet the sad reality is that in our current society it is very difficult to read them.

This is because firstly, many people do not actually use them. They turn left and right, overtake and move off from the side of the road, but never indicate their intention, thus putting other drivers under greater danger.

Secondly, many people only use them at the very last minute, rendering the service utterly ineffective and pointless.

Thirdly, many people use them but do not mean them; their indicator is saying they are turning right but they carry straight on or even turn left.

Fourthly, many people use their indicator not as an indicator of their intention to turn but as an indicator that their lights are not working; other drivers, however, see the indicators on and presume, not unreasonably, that a turn is about to occur but it never happens.

All of these factors make driving dangerous.

Of course, there may be many reasons as to why these things happen.

Firstly, the indicators may not be working at all; that is probably a major factor in this country.

 Secondly, it may be that the driver is ignorant, either of the law or how the indicators work (or both).

Thirdly, it may be that they are just incompetent and cannot apply this basic task.

Fourthly, perhaps they have just forgotten to put the indicators on, perhaps because they are busy listening to music, talking to friends or on their cell phones.

Maybe they think it is an optional extra that is not really important, as some look at sport in school, without realising that they are just as dangerous, if not used correctly, as the brakes, gears and accelerator. Or maybe they are arrogant and think that everyone must just get out of their way.

A consequence is that even when someone does use their indicator, we do not believe that they are actually going to turn, so we wait when we could have gone.

At other times we go because the indicator is on only to find that they are going straight and so we nearly collide.

Yet a further ridiculous consequence is that we end up thanking the person for indicating when it should be as natural as reading a book.

Such people are not much better than the man who was asked to go to the back of the car and say if the indicators were working and replied, “Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No”

The author Ray Bradbury claimed that “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

Well might we, therefore, echo Obama’s words in applying them to reading the road.

“If you know how to read [the road], then the whole world opens up to you.” The bottom line therefore perhaps is this: our use (or lack thereof) of indicators is an indicator of the people in our society.

We read them like an open book. In addition, it is a further indicator that our education is failing our people.

Many people have books but do not read them; others have them but do not heed them.

The same truth applies when we read the road.

We read our society by the way people drive; they do not think nor do they think of others. Is not their use (or lack of) of indicators an indicator of our society? Or will we be left answering, “Yes. No. Yes. No”?

• Tim Middleton is the executive director of the Association of Trust Schools [ATS]. The views expressed in this article, however, are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of the ATS. 
• email: ceo@atschisz.co.zw
• website: www.atschisz