Well...the trucker(s) know me.

[Fat Charlie]

Look at yellow lines the other way around: Consider a pass sometime, and if you decide it would be safe ask yourself why it isn't a passing zone. Nobody uses engineers to set speed limits, so why on Earth would you assume that they're involved in selecting passing zones?

The problem with drivers is that lots of idiots think that yellow paint has magical properties and would never dream of crossing it- even though passing in double yellows won't get you any more points than doing 35 over will.

[Ford Man]

The truckers must know me too when I'm in the right lane of the interstate with the c/c set at 55 mph many of them honk as they pass, I just honk back!! They get mad because I'm driving 55 in a 65, yet often they have plenty of time to switch lanes and get around without being held up if they were just paying attention to upcoming traffic. I don't feel sorry for them if they can't tell from 1/4 mile away that they are gaining on me and I'm driving slower than most people. I drove a loaded 24 ft. moving van from NC-KY when we moved in 2010 and had no trouble telling if I was gaining on someone far before I caught up with them. These guys drive daily for a living, not all of them, but many of them can't see beyond the hood of their own truck.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by Ford Man

The truckers must know me too when I'm in the right lane of the interstate with the c/c set at 55 mph many of them honk as they pass, I just honk back!! They get mad because I'm driving 55 in a 65, yet often they have plenty of time to switch lanes and get around without being held up if they were just paying attention to upcoming traffic. I don't feel sorry for them if they can't tell from 1/4 mile away that they are gaining on me and I'm driving slower than most people. I drove a loaded 24 ft. moving van from NC-KY when we moved in 2010 and had no trouble telling if I was gaining on someone far before I caught up with them. These guys drive daily for a living, not all of them, but many of them can't see beyond the hood of their own truck.

I give'em an earful on the radio when they pull that stunt with me: I.D. their truck by company name and direction of travel, asking who gave them driving instruction . . they should sue to get their money back. You're right that there is no excuse for stupidity.

On the other hand, with a lot of traffic to "manage" there are times this is not so simple as it appears. Especially in an underpowered or heavily loaded big truck. But those guys (of whom I've been one) just gut it out in the main.

I try (in my pickup) to help all of them flow around me by slowing at an opportune moment for them to go around me that they may easily get back into the right lane. A similar approach on a two-laner, but that maneuver set is co-ordinated by radio. A dive to the shoulder and some brakes can get them around quickly. Always better to have the big truck around one and gone.

.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by slowmover

Always better to have the big truck around one and gone.

+1

Sometimes simply failing to obstruct traffic just doesn't cut it and you've got to help things out a bit for everyone's good, including your own.

On a completely unrelated note, I'll happily take the draft.

[redneck]

Originally Posted by slowmover

Always better to have the big truck around one and gone.

Words of wisdom...

>

[Marc F.]

Some facts--

1) I am a professional driver, its what I do for a living.

a) I try to leave 7 seconds following time ahead of me
--look up the Smith System for driving
b) I try to be considerate of others
c) few people are considerate of me in my work enviroment
when they are I make sure to wave to them if I can
d) Ive had more safety training than you can believe
including 3 one day courses for motorcycles, etc, etc.

2) Trucks require ~665 ft to stop when fully loaded

a) cars can stop in ~150 to 200ft from the same speed
b) if you let them (trucks) be stupid at your expense
you can be dead (this is my worse fear)
c) I average 78,000 lbs, your car is 2000 to 4000 lbs
I will get injured or dead in a wreck with a car, maybe,
the PERSON in the car will most certainly be injured
or dead. Oh and a PERSON drives the truck too.
d) Figure the energy contained in a truck at 78k doing 60 mph
e) at 78k I cannot accelerate to pass like a car can

3) More and more trucks cant cheat the logs, they are going
electronic (a good thing for those indivduals and corps that
push the limits and make the rest of us look bad)

a) I switched to a company that had this, because I was tired
of being pushed to run illegal. I like my clean record, its
what keeps me in a job.
b) being behind a guy doing half the speed limit and unable to
pass for 30 minutes cuts my pay in half. period. how
would you feel if I came to your work place and cut your pay?
And yes this has happened to me several times. I didnt feel
that he needed to be "run over" but I though it would have
been nice for him to help me pass safely.

I am not saying that I am perfect, I have made bonehead moves in
traffic, I screwed up this week. Sorry, I'm human. But if you can
take a different route and let the trucks do their thing you might
consider it. A truck can only take certain routes.

[eco_generator]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Look at yellow lines the other way around: Consider a pass sometime, and if you decide it would be safe ask yourself why it isn't a passing zone. Nobody uses engineers to set speed limits, so why on Earth would you assume that they're involved in selecting passing zones?

The problem with drivers is that lots of idiots think that yellow paint has magical properties and would never dream of crossing it- even though passing in double yellows won't get you any more points than doing 35 over will.

Flawed reasoning. I will admit there are cases where previously dotted lines were painted over for no apparent reason and some city surface streets have one that really only separates traffic.

But an engineer DOES help set passing zones. All the little dips and crests and bends in the road are calculated and modified when a road is being built. There is a very important thing called sight-distance that is calculated for every crest. This helps determine where intersections and driveways are allowed to be placed and sometimes the crest or the speed limit needs to be adjusted for this to be a reasonable number.

It would be a great folly to ignore double yellow lines on a road you do not know. Normally the sight-distance would not be great enough for you to correct an error in passing someone if there was someone coming the other way. Ex: Road has an unseen 5% down grade ahead of you, but you think it's clear. 100 ft away from that crest is 5ft lower, completely concealing an average car. With that car going 55 mph... in less than a second you are staring at the bumper of the oncoming car that was completely out of view before. The same thing can happen around a seemingly shallow bend.

Yeah, don't pass on double-yellow. Regardless of what the ticket may net you.

[robert91471]

wow

[slowmover]

b) being behind a guy doing half the speed limit and unable to
pass for 30 minutes cuts my pay in half. period. how
would you feel if I came to your work place and cut your pay?
And yes this has happened to me several times. I didnt feel
that he needed to be "run over" but I though it would have
been nice for him to help me pass safely.

That's a much better explanation of what I meant by gut it out in the main: there's just no help on some days. As one of my instructors noted, "Bad enough they're slow, but mix in the type driver who has to use her hands to talk to her passenger and the speed is all over the place. They stop yakkin', she speeds up . . they start to talkin' again, expect a slow down". It can be a long, long afternoon on the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, from Montgomery to Albany, ha! I bet them old biddies wouldn't much appreciate it if I took 20-minutes with the cashier at the store ahead of them. And was in line ahead of them again at the grocery. And then the gas station. And the drugstore.

And those aren't PERSONs driving those big trucks, those are unseen servants below one's notice.

.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

The problem with drivers is that lots of idiots think that yellow paint has magical properties and would never dream of crossing it [...]

This is a lesson I learned a long time ago, as a bicyclist. The yellow paint on the road has magic properties for a whole lot of people. They'd sooner sideswipe a cyclist than mess with that magic.

Back on topic; it would be nice if slow moving vehicles would move over as far as practicable when traffic piles up behind them. It would be nicer still if that became so commonplace that people came to expect it, knew how and when to do it, and knew how and when to respond to it (by passing ahead of the slower vehicle).

Hey, a guy can dream.