That Drives Me Nuts: The Four-Wheel Perspective

well first of all "i think" it was a stagged picture....

i also "think" and know that this sort of thing DOES HAPPEN and its because some truckers like the intimidation factor. there isn't any reason i can come up with that discredits the "safe following distance formula" we all learned (and i teach in school).

following distance "should be" 1 second for every 10 feet of truck length, and add 1 second if going OVER 40 mph.....

so a 60 foot vehicle at (say) 55 mph, SHOULD BE at least 7 seconds behind the vehicle in front. its an easy formula to remember, and one can ALWAYS ADD MORE SPACE.....!! but given far too many 4 (or 2) wheelers jump into this gap, the truck driver very often does not continue the safe following distance procedure.

we have to leave ourselves an "out" in case of an emergency. we should NEVER mousetrap ourselves......but so many do.

there is a "proposal" i think its called, that by the year 2014, ALL cars, light trucks, SUV's, WILL HAVE rear ward camera's from the factory...

i "think" that when this comes to be, there WILL BE NO MISTAKING the big rig driver WAS tailgating.........and i'm "thinking" an INSTANT firing and ensuing lawsuit WILL take place........and quite possibly, NO future employment....of said tailgating trucker.......

 

I see far too many trucks tear-##*ing up on a car and waiting until they are within a truck length to slack off it. When they are finally going the same speed as the car, I've seen them as close as 6 feet at 65mph or faster. Yes, cars do it, too...but when a truck does it, it's way more noticeable. No wonder, with behavior like that, people are afraid of us and even go so far as "hate" us.

Regarding the passing thing...apparently the guy who wrote that doesn't understand what happens when a heavily loaded truck backs out of it going up a hill. His little bio on the bottom said he tests everything from motorcycles to RVs. But no mention of tractor-trailers. He is obviously not a CDL holder and is, therefore, forgivably ignorant.

 

Lol, I was going to post this. You beat me to it.

Click on "best" of comments. I'm YakYak24. Getting rave reviews.

 

Article on MSN.com:

What things do trucks do that annoy car drivers the most?

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1167554&icid=autos_1604&GT1=22013

 

There's already a thread started.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...news/128144-what-do-you-think-about-this.html

 

oops. Well the system didnt detect a duplicate. Figures.....

 

Lol, I did it before too and it didn't catch it. Good controversial bs article though.

 

I read the article earlier this morning and started to respond, from my own four-wheeler perspective, point-to-point. But in doing so, I realized that outside of the opening paragraph detailing his one run-in with a driver, the writer wasn't so much attacking truckers as he was giving advice to four-wheelers on how to deal with some inherent unpleasant situations when sharing the road with the big trucks.

 

My 2003 pickup has 250,000 miles on it.
99% of these miles are freeway commute.

I share the road with tons of cars trucks.
99% of these truckers conduct themselves in a professional manner.
You get the rare 1% trucker that just doesnt give a #### about anyone and drives like crap.
I just give way the best I can, knowing full well somewhere along the line his or her actions will correct this bad behavior and hope no one gets hurt in the process.

Now about my fellow 4 wheelers.
At least 50% fall into the

25% are just dumb as dirt and a menace to society.
I have no idea how these people ever obtained a license to drive.

The other 25% are safe operators.
The problem with this is it is very difficult to differentiate between the dumb as dirt and safe operator.
I am wary every second.

If I drove a vehicle that grossed at 80k lbs with its special set of operational limitations I can only imagine what my perspective would be.