Wide Right Turn – Derivative Works

Over the last few years I’ve been taking pictures of the backs of trucks so that I can capture the myriad ways that humans convey a simple concept: trucks go wide when they make make right turns. I have the #1 search result in Google for “wide right turn“. You can imagine my pride.

Here’s the introduction to the archive that’s been up there for a while:

Wide Right Turn:
An incomplete look at the role of variation in a capitalist society

If you’ve ever been in a store in the United States of America,
or some similarly situated society structured around free market capitalism, you are viscerally aware of variation and the critical role it plays in keeping things up & running.

There is Scott tissue and Charmin. Cottonelle Ripples, Cottonelle Aloe & E, and Cottonelle Ultra.

But it’s all toilet paper.

And we need it all. Because each gives us something else. Something other. Something worth paying for. This love affair with differentiation extends to everything we choose– cars (big, small, real big, super big), houses (great room in front, great room in back, vinyl windows, center staircase), toothbrushes, credit cards, everything.

This is a tiny little site focused on the variation in the signs placed on the right rear of most trucks we see on the roads.

You see, when large trucks make a right turn, they swing a little bit wide to the left first.

Simple idea. Many ways to express it. God bless us all.

Here are some new images on my flickr account. Are there any you haven’t seen before?