Call it a sign of the times. Or maybe a lack thereof.

Recently, Gil Fraser of New Gloucester was headed home from his job as a pharmacist at Maine Medical Center when he came upon that white-knuckle stretch where traffic leaving Veterans Memorial Bridge merges with the southbound flow on Interstate 295 in South Portland.

Like he always does, Fraser hit the blinker on his Volvo S40 a good 10 seconds before he started merging left. And like he always does, he looked in his side mirror and confirmed the coast was clear.

Or so he thought.

"It took about five seconds for me to put together this whining noise as a motorcycle horn," Fraser said. "I thought it was just something in the ambient environment – truly. It was surreal is what it was."

Try telling that to the motorcyclist and his passenger who suddenly appeared in the rear-view mirror – fingers upraised in angry salute to Fraser's faux pas.

"I don't blame him for being angry," Fraser said. "Heck, I could have taken him and his passenger out. I could have killed them both so easily."

Which brings us to Fraser's dilemma: In a world where it's ever-so-easy to non-verbally communicate our outrage, why is there no simple, universally accepted gesture for "I'm sorry?"

Think about it.

Someone cuts you off and you have all kinds of choices: the bird flip, the clenched fist, the fingertips fanning out from the bottom of the chin and that's all before you start hitting the horn and playing bumper cars.

But you cut someone else off, feel terrible about it and you do what?

"Smile and wave," said Bob Mullen, whose Mullen's Driving School has been training young motorists all over central and southern Maine for almost 40 years. "Courtesy is contagious."

Mullen, it should be noted, starts off his road trips by telling his young charges, "If you can figure out a new way to kill me, I'll buy you a soda." He also hits the road in a car that has "Student Driver" plastered all over it.

In other words, when his students mess up, other drivers are likely to cut them some slack. Still, Mullen insists that the friendly wave will work for most anyone.

"If every driver every day did one courteous thing out on the road, it would have a domino effect all over the state," said Mullen.

Maybe. Or maybe, at least in some cases, an innocent smile and wave seconds after you nearly killed someone only adds fuel to their road rage.

Lauren Stewart, director of the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety, said there can be a downside to executing a non-verbal apology at 65 mph.

"What we ask people to do is not have that confrontation," Stewart said. "Don't make hand gestures back or do anything that might be misinterpreted. Don't engage in whatever action the angry person is trying to get you to engage in."

Not even a friendly, apologetic wave?

"If somebody is really mad at you because you just almost killed them and you smile and wave, are they going to think you didn't realize what you just did?" Stewart said. "Again, they can interpret that any way."

She has a point.

You could do the American Sign Language sign for "I'm sorry" – a clenched fist moving in a circular motion over the heart – but the other guy might think you're complaining about heartburn.

You could tap your forehead with the open palm of your hand – "What was I thinking!" – only to look like you're suddenly craving a V8.

You could flash the "peace" sign (too political), hold your hands as if in prayer and bow your head (too religious – not to mention dangerous), look over and slowly mouth the words "I'M ... SORRY" (and rear-end the car ahead of you) ...

So what's a penitent driver like Fraser to do?

"Get away from the angry person," Stewart said. "Don't engage in their activity....