3/28/2012 10:17

Rules of the Road

The rules of the road are intended to regularize the traffic patterns used by the majority of drivers and these rules are frequently changed as the habits of actual drivers vary over the generations. Here I offer a suggested revision to the rules governing right of way at an ordinary intersection:

When 2 or more vehicles are approaching an intersection, each driver shall wave his or her hands in front of his or her face. The hands shall be above the level of the dashboard for at least 30% and not more than 100% of the time used in gesturing. Alternatively, a driver may wave a single hand, but in this case the hand used must be rasied high enough to obscure the gesturing driver's forward vision for at least 15% of the time used for the gesture.

No particular semantic signification shall be attributed retrospectively to any particular hand motion by any particular driver.

During or immediately following the above mentioned gesturing, each driver shall either stop or move forward in accordance with his or her personal interpretation of those hand motions of the other drivers which he or she observed.

In case the drivers' gestures are obscured by darkness, reflections, tinted windows, or inattentiveness, the most aggressive driver shall move into the intersection first.

If more than a single driver enters the intersection on intersecting paths, the process of hand waving shall be resumed as previously described. When at least one vehicle is already in the intersection, the use of horns will be permitted as an adjunct to the gesturing and this will be permitted without regard to other laws or ordinances pertaining to the the same.

This provision can be implemented in actual reality (and often is) even without being discussed by the legislature or signed by the governor.


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