Quote:
Originally Posted by MeteorGray
Traffic lights on roads with highway speeds should be outlawed. I pull a travel trailer with an F250 pickup, and the most terrifying part of the trip is on such highways. I'm a nervous wreck when doing highway speeds knowing a red light can pop up anytime at close range, and me not having the ability to stop as quickly as might be needed.
|
Now, to traffic lights on highways. That state, along with rural land use, is the predictor.
1). Proximity to metro areas along a designated truck route (wide, strong shoulders, lighting and signage) is one type.
2). The other is a narrow highway (usually raised) with minimal modernization, if any. Where that road carries a disproportionate amount of traffic due to job commuters and shoppers.
In modern America, our dispossession results in low-paying jobs with very few giant companies, THUS working class welfare is the subsidy of WalMart as panacea.
Welfare Wilma doesn’t pay much attention. Thousands of trips down that road over a decade. And intersections produce fatalities. Familiarity breeds contempt. Make her yet another borderline-retarded immigrant, and the road design problems multiply by a factor or more. THEN add in cell phone use.
Your map or GPS can help you figure metro proximity. Feeder roads. Just assume that if hill-y or high water table terrain is featured that your average travel speed will take a significant hit. THEN assume traffic lights.
My son is off to Colorado next week. I was explaining what my Dad (a native) told me about mountain driving. That speed limits are for locals. That tire traction is never to be taken for granted. That there are no real straightaways on which to gather speed. Etc. What’s ruined the pleasure of those trips aren’t the tourists, but the yahoos who just have to live in the mountains, but must drive everywhere for everything. A post-1970 phenomenon. And a very highly subsidized population. With terrible road manners.
Don't let them crowd you. Any accident in the mountains is bad. Then, there’s going over the side.
The same applies to highways with traffic lights. Controlling mass is a job. Divorce broke the chain of experience from father’s to sons, and mass importation of stupid persons complicated the rest. No appreciation of the other drivers difficulty with his combination or extra-heavy single vehicle.
The answer IS NOT get around the slow truck. As that screws up the road for everyone else (reduction of separation space). But it’s what they’ll do.
You’ll have to figure HOW to hit them that you remain upright and in the lane afterwards to come to a controlled stop. As that’s all that matters.
A traffic light (and other rural intersections ) can mean a space ahead and across that you can pull off to let others around. With no accel/decel penalty. It’s the law almost everywhere that you pull off when it’s safe to do so.
Some roads, you can’t. Don’t sweat it.
A traffic light is just part of managing overtaking traffic. Expect nothing intelligent from those following as it’s become universal they can’t, won’t or don’t care about co-operation with others.
Do what you can to keep separate, and the rest falls into place. Even if the travel speed feels unnaturally low. In time, it won’t.
The upper speed limit isn’t really useful.
It’s the distance to the next blind curve that is your alert.
.