Rules of the road give less powered vehicles the right of way. trucks should yield to bicycles and pedestrians. Trucks flout these rules regularly.
--EDIT-- it seems my comments are being misunderstood. I am simply stating the law as it exists, and the orthogonality between land and sea in regards to these laws. I know that Newtonian physics conflicts with the land aspect of these laws.
The default rules of the are basically "big class of vehicle takes precedence" and "speed takes precedence within a class of vehicles".
People yield to golf carts yield to fork trucks yield for semis which yield for trains which yield to container ships.
Traffic on slow roads crossing fast roads waits until it's clear. Stop signs codify this pretty directly. Even if you removed them it's pretty obvious who has the right of way in many cases.
The rules of the road are specifically for reducing ambiguity and managing traffic flow within a class of traffic and managing interactions between those classes. For example, the procedure for a (rule following) pedestrian crossing a busy road will be very different where there's a cross walk than where there isn't. The cross walk provides a specific exception where the right of way defaults to the lighter traffic.
However, people don't crashing stuff and there's many levels of redundancy built into "the rules" so it all gets a bit fuzzy and situation dependent. (e.g. the pittsburg left or an agricultural vehicle crossing a not too busy road)
Accordingly, if you as a pedestrian or cyclist (or golf cart driver) just cross into a busy street not at a cross walk people will stop for you giving the appearance of you having the right of way.
Maybe states including California and Maryland have the idea of an "implied" crosswalk. So the idea is if there's an intersection or a large amount of space between crosswalks, that pedestrians can cross with the same rights a zebra-stripe crosswalk would provide.
Yes, because they have the right of weight... and strict timelines they often couldn’t meet if they did follow the rules to a tee.
If a truck driver can complete a run in an hour and only infrequently have an accident by bending the rules, why would a “maximize profit” company give them two hours so they could follow the rules properly?
It doesn't take twice as long to follow the rules. It also is in the companies best interest when it comes to costly collisions, insurance, disability payments, etc.
For semis with a route in-town, it can. They accelerate slowly, need a lot of room to make turns or merges, and are competing against much more nimble cars, bikes and pedestrians for that space.
One example I saw the other morning: a trucker pulls halfway onto the road to make a left turn, where there is no traffic control other than stop sign against them. This is against the rules; they should wait for a full opening to take that turn. However, if they attempt to wait for a full opening, it could take several tens minutes for that opening to appear. For one turn.
> It also is in the companies best interest when it comes to costly collisions, insurance, disability payments, etc.
As with everything, there's a cost/benefit ratio. One minor fender-bender every year to deliver even 110% the cargo in that year? Totally worth it. Not to mention, it's usually the driver who absorbs the bigger relative share of the cost, in terms of points on their licenses or being fired for their inevitable slip-ups while under pressure.
Something I read on Reddit a few years ago that tore away the blinders of risk management forced upon truck drivers: If a driver had the opportunity to avoid a head-on by swerving into the ditch, they won't take it. By intentionally swerving into the ditch, the blame of the wreck falls on their shoulders, and if the cargo is damaged, they've likely lost their jobs. I've since confirmed it with a few questions to truck drivers I know.
