A TALE
Three cars arrived simultaneously at the roundabout. Three roads led into the circular roundabout. Three yield signs punctuated each street’s run into the roundabout.
Each car pulled to a halt. Each driver obeyed the sign, yielding to the other drivers. Each waited, believing the others would go.
No one moved.
Had each driver arrived at stop signs, at a traditional intersection, they may have better understood the decorum of who should go first, next, and so on.
But this was a roundabout and none of the drivers were familiar enough with a roundabout to know the proper etiquette for such a situation.
These were also the hazy commands of a yield sign. A stop sign’s orders are unmistakable: Stop. A yield sign not so much. With a yield sign, you can go if nothing is coming, but you should stop if something is coming. With each driver arriving at the roundabout at the same time, each driver chose to follow the yield sign’s suggestion and stop for the other cars.
Of course, if all three cars stop simultaneously, then really there is no reason to yield. If the other cars are stopped, then someone is free to go. But with all three cars yielding, who was free to go? And who should remain yielding?
Apparently, each of the three drivers believed one of the other two drivers was the one with the right of way. Each driver sat waving another driver forward. Each driver waved that sideway wave that drivers use to direct other drivers.
A driver’s sideway wave is not a greeting but a somewhat less vague order than a yield sign for another driver to go before the waving driver goes. In driver sign language, the sideway wave means: “Please, after you, I insist.”
If all drivers are performing the sideway wave, the sideway wave usually escalates in intensity, increasing from the flourish of one hand’s fingers to the horizontal urgings of the entire hand and forearm. The more intense sideway wave often means: “Would you go already, you idiot.”
Often, the increase in one driver’s sideway wave intensifies the stubbornness of the other driver, who then refuses to move because he no longer feels that the sideway wave is an invitation to go, but an order to move. A driver may have to obey the hazy command of a yield sign and the other more definite rules of the road, but a driver does not have to obey the urgent flappings of another motorist’s arm. Backseat drivers are bad enough, but to be bossed around by someone in another car, for many drivers is intolerable.
So each car sat unmoving at the roundabout. Each driver madly flapped one arm at the other drivers. Each sideway wave becoming more frantic. Each driver refused to yield by no longer yielding.
Until each one became exasperated, and each one decided it was time to move forward. Each one decided this simultaneously so that each car rolled forward and skidded to a rocking halt at the same time. This inspired another session of one-armed sideway waving from each driver, but no one moved.
They eyed one another like three desperadoes preparing for a shootout in an old Clint Eastwood Western. Their hands gripped the steering wheels. Their feet hovered above the accelerators. Each one’s eyes moved to the driver to the right then the driver to the left. Eyeing each other so closely, one driver raised one finger. And not the finger you may think. He raised his index finger which the other two drivers recognized as the universal count of the number one. The driver to his left raised two fingers. The third driver raised three fingers.
Together, all three cars moved simultaneously. All three successfully entered the roundabout and were on their way.
Five minutes later, three other cars arrived simultaneously at the roundabout. Each car sped up at the same rate of speed. Each driver expected the other two drivers to obey the hazy command of the yield sign. The unyielding drivers plowed into one another in a roundabout way.
Dean Poling is The Valdosta Daily Times assistant managing editor.
Dean Poling
The roundabout politeness of yielding
- Dean Poling
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Roosevelt Marshall
Roosevelt Marshall of Valdosta passed this life Dec. 14, 2010. Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. at Union Cathedral with Bishop Wade S. McCrae, Pastor officiating. Burial will follow in Sunset Hill Cemetery. Final rites are entrusted to Harrington Funeral Home.
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Alice W. Johnson
Alice W. Johnson, 55, of Valdosta died on Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 at the Langdale Hospice House following a lengthy illness. Services for Alice W. Johnson will be held at 4 p.m. today, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010 in the chapel of the Carson McLane Funeral Home with the Rev. Jay Watkins officiating. The burial will follow in the Riverview Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Langdale Hospice 2263 Pineview Drive, Valdosta Ga. 31602 or to the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge, 2121 SW 16th Street Gainesville, Florida 32608. Condolences to the family may be conveyed online at www.mclanefuneralservices.com. — Carson McLane Funeral Home
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Roosevelt Marshall
