Signaling One's Intent

Yesterday afternoon my wife dispatched me to the store to purchase a few things before the Hurricane struck.  Enroute I came south on Fairmount Street and turned right around the Oakland Fire Station, with the intent of turning left onto Rogers Street.  The light at Rogers Street turned green and the opposing traffic began to move, with cars with blinking right turn signals turning right in front of me.  Then, as the traffic cleared a larger suburban assault vehicle entered the box, faking left,♠ but then putting on its right turn signal and going right.

I, seeing the fake left, began to execute my left hand turn, but quickly checked myself upon the appearance of the now flashing turn signal.  I was left to wonder what that driver was thinking.  After considering some alternatives I settled on the driver being someone who understands the Declaration of Independence as naming "certain unalienable rights, that among these are the right to drive like one owns the road."

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  This reminds me of one of the "Tiparillo Girls", the Librarian, who used to rant about folks who would drift left to begin a right turn into a driveway.  It was her stated opinion that a driver should execute the maneuver without having to cut out extra maneuver room for himself or herself.  For those of you too young to remember, the Tiparillo Cigar company, in the late 1960s, ran a series of advertisements with the line "Should a gentleman offer a Tiparillo to a ...?, in this case, a "librarian".  It was pretty risqué for the day.