Crowded City Turns

can we all have a group hug (not to be confused with a "grope hug"...........and if anybody "gropes me"......THANKS....it'll be the most action i got in months......!!!!

 

You will do just fine driving the truck again.
I hate city driving. Got used to long hauls, open road...
Last Friday load planner gave me one trip with 10 dlvrs ALL in WalMart stores at malls in Long Island, NY
Never been in Long Island, always avoid going to any mall with tractor-trailer, all those cars and people walking around and not paying attention scare me ... tight spaces, lack of signalization.... I am not good visualizing and understanding how much space I have and how I can use it.... Always afraid of getting stuck in a parking lot...
So, I spent hrs studying my route, did a google map search of every mall I had to go, called them, some couldn't give me correct directions... and finally, did all my dlvrs quickly and safely.
But I am ready to go back to the open road and far away from this chaos...

 

Hmmm, I just took an online CDL quiz for a company and they claim, "fish-hooking" does nothing as far as helping you make right turns and also made it sound like you should always hug the shoulder instead of going into the other lanes. Given that, I still see semi's everyday making the fish hook turns, so i'm guessing it does help, but is frowned upon for safety reason?

I also live in a northwest suburbs of Chicago not too far from you, and just driving a coupe through the streets of Chicago can be challenging enough. With that said i'm still up for the Challenge of taking 18 wheels through the grid-lock. My problem isn't so much the bike messengers but more so the tourist that for some reason act as if they don't understand the pedestrian signals, and instead opt to just follow the actions of others who proceed eventhough most of those ppl are J-Walking. I also used to work for Coca-Cola back in 2005 down in St.Charles, they offered for me to go to Alsip to get my CDL for free too, but at 20 I was too busy getting my pilots license (really wish I would've made time for the CDL also now, but that's life).

 

"fish hook" turns...?? they are called "button hook turns" and if you DO NOT DO THEM and ENTER ONCOMING LANES, you WILL CRASH HEAD ON into the oncoming cars/traffic AND WILL BE 1000% LIABLE for the accident as YOU CROSSED INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC....!!! the Safety Dept of ANY trucking company will NAIL YOUR BUTT if you did the turn into ON COMING TRAFFIC....!!! so it IS NOT FROWNED UPON...they might be speaking of the "jug handle" turn...this turn YOU WILL BE GOING INTO ON COMING TRAFFIC..

there is a proper way to "set up" for a button hook turn. the way I DO IT, is as i approach the intersection, i basically hug the curbing on the right with my tandems, then angle myself IN MY LANE, near the left of MY LANE, NOT crossing any lines.....then as i pull forward, i do so somewhat at this angle, STILL NOT crossing any lines and make my right turn. my tandems are close to the curbing still cutting off any chance of any idiot creeping up my right side. to explain how i do it, you would actually have to see it as i might lose you in my explanation of the button hook right hand turn....

yeah, that's life

 

i have heard of companys not wanting button hooks--but for the life of me i cant figure out why
to me that is the safest manuver there is for a right turn----if done properly you block out 2 lanes and no cars can get in the danger spots

 

EGG-ZACTLY.......!!

i will contimue doing button hooks, and of course at the school we teach that as well. from that point, if a "newbie" is told from his employer NOT TO DO a button hook, at least he/she has the knowledge to do it, maybe sometime in the future like when they get nailed by the cops or the company for squashing that car or bicyclist or pedestrian......!!!

betcha then the company "might say", "why couldn't you have done a button hook and avoid that accident"...????

 

usually you can tell which corners you are going to have to hook on to block the 4 wheelers
the school i went to they made us do button hooks till we were blue in face--hardly did any backing but sure could hook a corner