Observations from roadside inspections

I have a clean driving record.

 

My only speeding ticket was when I was 16.

Does not mean I have not been lucky.

 

Yes. Sorry if I seem a little harsh.

 

No problem.

I understand the frustration. I drive through Chicago crap every week. You just have to deal with it.

Over the entire trip, it really does not add that many minutes to the trip. It is just the fact they are there. From a safety point, I can understand them.

When I run up on the back of one, I run there for a while and then check to see how many in line. If there is a big line, sit back and ride.

 

Well there it is now it's because were stupid yankees ! We are all a "bunch of inconsiderate lazy slobs", Roadmedic, myself and alot of members on here have most likely pizzed on more asphalt than you've driven on so you might want to travel a little more before you go running your chops! I guess you have never driven through Atlanta in your own state or anywhere for that matter because this is an issue EVERYWHERE! Nice try though, but it does show your intellegience or lack thereof.

 

I have to blame someone. Yankees are just one of my favorite scapegoats. But yes, most of the bad drivers in the south are transplanted yankees. You know the ones that go on saying how much better it is up north. Then why the hell did you move down here?

I was raised in the south, with good manners. I was taught to watch my mirrors, and when I saw someone overtaking me from the rear, move to the right.

HERE is EXACTLY what I do, and everyone should do as a common courtesy:
I like to use my cruise control.
I watch in my mirrors as I am closing in to pass someone.
Then I determine if the person behind me will pass me before I pass the vehicle I am about to pass.
If the answer is yes, I tap my brakes to cancel the cruise control, and then I signal, then I get to the right.
It will only be a matter of a couple of seconds before they pass.
Then I will get back over and complete my pass.

I am sure most of you folks on here drive 500+HP CATS, but the last truck I drove was severely underpowered. I was passing a slower truck in the right lane, and some impatient jackss just had to pass before I did. Mind you I was going 10 mph faster than him when he jumped out in front of me. I lost all of my speed. Cry you say, yes I am! This underpowered truck took over 9 miles to finally get my speed back up and pass thiss little sob. Yes I was pissed!

 

Considering your lack of experience, I'm not suprised by your attitude. If you are in such a hurry, maybe you should have left earlier! If you let these little things bother you...what is going to happen when you run into a real problem??? Choose your battles wisely. This one aint worth fighting

 

Mike it sure seems like you have it out for truck drivers... look I live near Chicago and yes there are some bad truck drivers out there. Especially container haulers... they seem to have some of the worst maintained equipment and they drive almost suicidal. But Mike please stop labeling every driver out there. The majority of us are safe, hard working drivers who have a job to do just like you.

This reminds me too much of our last Governor Rod Blagojevich, who always went on a tirade whenever they wanted to raise the truck speed limit to 65 in the rural areas. He basically told everyone we would KILL more people. I wrote to him demanding an apology for insulting my driving skills and the majortity of truckers. I got back a letter basically saying "The Governor will not retract a statement that is true."

 

I agree with most of your post and have nothing to say about it...you said more than i have to say about it! I take issue with this part of your post, however. Defensive driving...on MY part... has saved the lives of several 4 wheeler drivers who honestly don't deserve to be allowed to drive a car. Maybe they should be allowed to LIVE, but certainly not to drive!

For example...

One time I had a crazy route to SoCal where I had to drive for about 500 miles on two lane roads through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Anyway, I was driving through Kansas in the middle of the night. No vehicles anywhere really. There was a 4 way intersection with a 2 way stop....I was on the main highway with no stop sign, the other road had stop signs. A car was approaching the intersection at a high speed....he certainly did not seem to plan to stop. Well, I started slowing down and downshifting, figuring I was going to have to stop to avoid killing this guy. At the last moment, he SLAMS his brakes, stops (quite aways past where he should have, but still not quite into my lane). Now I'm doing 35 MPH, going up a hill, heavily loaded, he rips out behind me and starts flashing his lights at me because I'm going too slow. I had the truck floored and was grabbing gears to get back up to speed, but eventually he passes me before I get up to speed. Now, come ON.


Another time, I-90 in Montana somewhere west of the 90/94 junction. I'm westbound, and as you'd expect me to be, I am on the westbound side of I-90. It is around 3am, have not seen any headlights in hours. I am in the left lane, the right lane is closed due to road construction. No construction crews are out, and there is evidence that one side of the road had previously been crossed over to the other for construction. However, the cross overs are not in use. Well, I see headlights and they looked like they were in my lane, but as you know, sometimes in the mountains there are optical illusions that make it look like there are headlights in your lane, when they are really on the other side of the road. Well, they still seem to be in my lane. Well, they really are in my lane. There is a 4 wheeler heading STRAIGHT TOWARDS ME. I was a little bit freaked out, having never planned for something like this to happen. I dim my lights, I double down a couple of times. I'm doing about 20 MPH. I'm not going to wreck to save this guy, obviously. Im preparing to stop. Too freaked out to take my hand off the wheel and grab the horn and not let go like I usually would in a situation like that. Well, I'm just kind of coasting along and he just rips around me and passes me on the median, quite a lot faster than anyone with a brain would have. He must have been doing atleast 50 MPH, and he came within 10 feet of hitting me head-on. I keep coasting until I see his tail lights in my mirror. Well, I saw them, so I just sped up and kept on trucking. I alerted channel 19 but there was no one to hear me. What would have happened if this would have been two big trucks, both going 70 mph, and both too tired to react? Nobody would have seen the mess for hours.

About 30 minutes later I got pulled into the Butte weigh station. I thought the scale master knew about the incident and was going to ##### at me for it! No, turns out he just didnt have access to any other victims to inspect. He was the coolest DOT officer I ever met, so that wasnt bad.