
Trucker Explains What You're Doing Wrong on the Highway - prostoalex
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/trucks/a17482/how-to-drive-highway-advice-from-professional-trucker/
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SeanDav
Where I drive (UK), truck drivers are by far the worst drivers on the road.
Many of them are from Europe and used to driving on the right side of the
road, not the left side in the UK. If this was the only issue it would be bad
enough, but truck drivers in general have some very dangerous and nasty habits
I see every day, without fail, while driving.

The biggest issue is overtaking of slow trucks by other trucks. Trucks will
indicate and then change lane simultaneously, into gaps that only barely have
room for their truck. Bad luck if you are approaching at normal highway speed
and now have to brake heavily to avoid rear ending a truck that has just
appeared in your lane, travelling 20 mph more slowly. Bad luck if you are the
driver that just had a huge truck appear 2 inches behind you and now you have
to do an emergency stop. Also bad luck if you happen to be next to the truck
and in their blind spot. They just don't care, after all they would not even
notice if you rear ended them, or they squashed your car against a side
barrier.

Many accidents are caused by this, to the extent that there is talk about
banning overtaking by trucks on some highways. Truck drivers are also guilty
of travelling way too fast for the conditions, tailgating and other cardinal
sins of the road.

This seems to be particularly bad in the UK, as I have lived/worked in other
countries and usually truck drives in other countries realize they are driving
huge, slow to stop killing machines and are far more aware and respectful of
that.

~~~
Piskvorrr
Not much better on the continent, either - except for the right-side driving,
of course. (There actually _is_ a law around these parts that says "no trucks
in the fast lane" \- guess how effective it is)

~~~
georgerobinson
I don't think it's just an issue of no trucks on the fast lane.

If you drive on 3 or 4 lane roads, such as the M25, there is a visible
disturbance to traffic flow even when a truck enters lane 2 on a 4 lane road.
This has the effect of pushing all people that drive between 60 and 70mph out
of lane 2 and into lane 3, where the average speed is between 70 and 80mph.
This, in turn, pushes slower moving traffic into Lane 4 (inside lane) where
its not uncommon to see people driving between 80 and 90mph. The overall net
result is an awful amount of breaking, lane changing and short spacing between
cars.

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eagsalazar2
If a trucker is tailgating you: immediately let them pass, read the phone
number off the back, report them.

~~~
cooking_liquid
Former truck driver from germany here. Sure, you shouldn't tailgate as a truck
driver. His point is still valid. There are very few good reasons (read
exceptionally bad conditions) for going slower than a truck's max speed. 90%
of the time, people are just not paying attention. From the truck drivers
perspective, this is nearly coercion, especially where overtaking is
forbidden. I once tried to overtake a car on a highway in southern Germany
which went like 80 km/h. I drove a 60t mobile crane, limited to 89 km/h (like
most of the trucks in Europe are). When she realised that, she accelerated and
I had to stop the maneuver. Then she fell back to 80 km/h again. Rinse and
repeat for two times. Guess what I did then. Hint: There was some serious
honking involved, too.

Also please keep in mind there is a grey area between tailgating and starting
a passing maneuver and at least in my country it is tolerated to reduce the
safety distance in order to start overtaking.

~~~
dhoe
Comments like this are why I'll cheer for that profession being automated
away.

~~~
cooking_liquid
There are a lot of reasons for automated driving and most of them have
something to do with human behaviour. Sorry for trying to put the statement
about tailgating into perspective.

~~~
tombrossman
I think many truckers would welcome more automation. I know I would have when
I was driving. The scenario you describe happens very regularly - A truck with
speed limiter going down the road with cruise control for many hundreds of
miles consistently - A car driver who makes a conscious decision to become a
nuisance. The choice for the trucker is to either allow the other driver to
choose a new lower speed for the truck, or attempt to intimidate the car in
front which is actively preventing the pass and choosing to antagonize you.
Neither choice is a good one, and that's where the automation comes in, to
remove human emotions from the equation.

One thing that you should remember if you are the type of car driver that does
this is that truckers are communicating with each other and not all of them
are safety minded, or driving a company truck with a phone number on the back.
What this means for you is that you may succeed in your little power trip
against the truck behind and then have an unpleasant experience with one of
the trucks up ahead. It's not right but it does happen. Some of these drivers
are sociopaths who would be delighted to run you off the road.

For clarity, I'm not talking about quick little misunderstandings or short
periods of distraction while a car driver makes a mobile phone call or sends a
text. I'm talking about the parent comment with a truck attempting to pass a
slow car and that car speeding up to prevent the pass, and then repeating that
process several times. This happens often and it's maddening. You have to just
let it go but you do wonder about the car driver, and why they choose to have
a pissed off trucker following them. Automation can help with this for sure,
and the car driver can go find another person to annoy.

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iaw
Having known someone who was crushed to death by a trucker rear-ending their
car in stop and go traffic: truckers should _never_ tail-gate.

~~~
mytochar
He said tail-gating as in 3-4 car lengths. Admittedly, that is tailgating for
a vehicle that takes forever to stop; but, this isn't the big scary monster
right behind you situation. They're further back, but just as unable to stop

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im2w1l
It's 2016. Cameras are a thing. Why are blindspots still legal?

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AdamJacobMuller
> I almost ran this guy off the road because I couldn't see him. [...] He was
> right along my right-hand side. What can I do?

Stopped reading and started screaming at the computer after that comment. What
can you do? Pay attention to what you're doing before you change lanes. You
almost killed someone and you're blaming them? My vehicle has blind spots too,
when I'm changing lanes I look to make sure that there isn't someone there
prior to changing lanes.

This whole article just screams stereotypical "I own the road" egomaniac
trucker to me.

> If you see a truck in your rearview, the first thing you need to do is put
> down your phone.

Seriously, just assuming that someone is on their phone?

> when you see it's a soccer mom with a van full of kids.

 _sigh_

I know this is in popular mechanics so they're just playing to their audience,
but, this is low even for them.

~~~
snatoeusntaoeu
_This whole article just screams stereotypical "I own the road" egomaniac
trucker to me._

Your comment just screams stereotypical "I have never driven anything larger
than a station wagon" to me.

Seriously, consider the length of a tractor-trailer. Then consider the size of
the mirrors and their location. Add in bad weather, where the crap coming off
the wheels creates a veritable fog bank alongside and behind every vehicle.

Don't drive in _anyone 's_ blind spot. And especially don't drive in a large
truck's blind spot. Being legally in the right doesn't matter if you're dead
or stuck on the side of the road with weeks of chatting with your insurance
agent ahead of you.

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dschiptsov
It could be worse - riding a heavy loaded bike in Uttar Pratesh and Bihar. You
have no idea.)

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mirimir
> People think we are the safety hazards. But we're not. We know how to drive
> defensively.

E=mv^2

Semi: 36000kg

SUV: 3600kg

Compact: 1800kg

Cycle: 360kg

For a semi moving at 100kph, these are the speeds where smaller vehicles would
have the same kinetic energy:

SUV: 316kph

Compact: 447kph

Cycle: 1000kph

Just sayin' ;)

~~~
im2w1l
It doesn't make a difference for your results, but it's

    
    
        E = 0.5 mv^2

~~~
mirimir
How embarrassing ;)

