Mr. Chicken goes out of his way to be a safe driver on the road. Though he grew up driving a combine on the farm, he took Driver’s Ed and learned how to operate a car safely.

The instructor taught Mr. Chicken a lot of things, and one thing the instructor drilled into his feathery head was “always use your turn signals.”

“Communication is very important,” Instructor said. “You always want those around you on the road to be aware of what you are about to do.”

This led to Mr. Chicken always using his turn signal on the road, no matter if he is switching lanes or making a right turn at a stop light. Mr. Chicken knows that communication is key. Making sure that drivers are aware of your intentions, as well as being aware of other people’s intentions is one of the hallmarks of a good driver in Mr. Chicken’s eyes.

However, he sees that not everyone follows his view of the road. There are some things that peck him in the wrong spot, such as not signaling when making a turn off of the road, especially when Mr. Chicken wants to pull out onto the main road. Though there were no other cars coming, Mr. Chicken saw this driver coming and the driver just turned off the road without warning. Mr. Chicken grit his beak in frustration. He could have pulled out a lot sooner, and because of this, he was a minute late to work. His boss warned him not to be late again or he would be in the doghouse (his boss is a pit bull with a short temper).

This incident was an inconvenience, but there are other incidents that could have been a lot worse.

The other day, his car was almost scraped by a driver who switched lanes into Mr. Chicken’s lane without signaling. Mr. Chicken was in this driver’s blind spot, as traffic was heavy, and the driver decided to switch lanes without looking or even signaling. But because Mr. Chicken had his coffee for the day, he was able to react quickly and avoid the signal-less driver. However, Mr. Chicken was angry that this driver almost did this.

“Why don’t more drivers use their turn signals?” Mr. Chicken thought to himself. He was puzzled that drivers could be so careless about communication on the road. He thought back to his Driver’s Ed days, and what his instructor had said.

“Using signals ensures that everyone is safe on the road, and it makes sure that people stay aware of what a driver’s intent is,” Instructor said.

Because of these experiences, Mr. Chicken has now invested in a bumper sticker that says, “Keep us safe: Use your clucking turn signal.” Perhaps the message will remind drivers to use their turn signal. He takes pride in knowing that his sticker reminds people to use what their car comes built-in with: a signal that can deter annoyance on the road and can even keep you alive.