Universal Signal

I have written some about this in the past, but I am fascinated by the various families we form outside of our birth family over the course of our lives. Late this afternoon, as I drove up the Merritt Parkway, I noticed a car on the other side of the divider flashing its headlights over and over again. It was still daylight, there was no traffic, and there was nothing amiss on either side of the road.

This, of course, is the universal signal for: Speed trap ahead. Slow down immediately. I slowed. No ticket.

I can't remember when I learned this signal, which I use often myself, both as the driver doing and receiving (benefiting from) the signal, but I suspect it was as I was learning to drive, if not before. Actually, as I was writing just now I had a vague recollection of asking my father why he was flashing his lights one day well before driver's ed kicked in; regardless, once I was licensed to be behind the wheel, I knew what it meant.

The signal is not intended to prevent accidents or to keep the signaller safe from speeders who might prove otherwise negligent on the road. Rather, it is a means of protection: from a speeding ticket. The signaller herself receives no benefit whatsoever from the act but for the hope that the next time the signallee sees a cop lurking around a corner waiting to pounce, he will also sound the alarm--flash those headlights--in one of the few genuine selfless acts of human camaraderie I can think of off the top of my head.

Am I the first person who has ever wondered how this signalling system began? Who started it and how did he convey his intent to his fellow drivers? Is it as old as automobiles, highway traffic? How on earth did it spread? Why, when human beings are so selfish in so many ways, do they so often take the trouble to say, in this way, "Hey. Speeding tickets are unpleasant, expensive, and annoying to deal with. Let's align ourselves against the highway patrol and help each other avoid them."

We have many ways we signal to each other; the baseball cap my father gave me with the words "Bush's Last Day" emblazoned on it signals unequivocally that I am not a fan of the current administration. I also think it says that I am likely a Democrat, that I am a woman who wears baseball caps, that I am not particularly vain about my appearance, that I have more than a passing interest in politics. Those who respond to the cap, its message, will either agree or disagree with my take on Bush et al, but an alignment on that matter means nothing in terms of the other attributes I mentioned. In other words, a fellow Bush administration hater could also be a Republican, a man who loathes baseball caps, an egomaniac, an apolitical person who simply hates GWB.

However, a person who uses the flashing lights signal, this universal means of saving each other from the expense and hassle of a speeding ticket, is a member of a much larger, much more universal and diverse and all-encompassing group than the anti-Bush crowd (although that one hovers around 70% from what I understand). If you signal--or react to a signal--about a speed trap, you are A Driver. Period. You may be female, male, black, white, Catholic, Jewish, old, young, American, foreign, rich, poor--all we know about you is that you drive a car, and that you understand what flashing lights mean when there is no other reason for headlights to be flashing.

I find this fascinating.

Anybody else?