Defensive Driving

Yeah ya ol buzzard ya do....lol.... Hey you haul over here towards summerlin.....

 

Used to before I retired. We covered the whole Valley,Boulder City,Jean,Mesquite,Laughlin,Bullhead City, and Kingman. The AZ runs you'd get 1 load to AZ then 2 loads in town for 10 hours. Best job I ever had.

 

what you retired like im doing.....lol...Hey enjoy it while we can....That was a gravy job brother....

 

Agreed.

Closing the gap to keep the 4-wheelers out, or moving faster to keep someone in a stopped lane from cutting in front of you is a game of Russian Roulette. Eventually your luck will run out. You just have to come to the conclusion that if you leave adequate defensive space in front of you eventually someone will take advantage of it - the same way YOU do when you're trying to merge into a different lane.

Accept it. Its going to happen. Then do what is necessary - back off and get your defensive space back. Letting frustration get the better of you at an inopportune moment can end your driving career.

 

I'm talking about the clones during rush hour when we're rolling 60-75 mph. A high speed traffic jam. You know how it is... sometimes as soon as you even THINK about backing out of it a little, the clone behind you bolts into the money lane to pass you come back over just in time to cut all the way over and take the exit they almost missed- or just fills in your buffer of space, brake checks you and then begins trying to eat his MacDonalds breakfast patty... so you slow down again, and guess what?? The next 10 menaces begin fighting to get around you. Meanwhile the process repeats, god forbid you actually do have to brake, in which case the red blink of your taillights causes the clones to turn into Mario Andretti with roid rage.

I respect slowing down a little and always giving yourself room if possible. It's just not always possible, but I'd never intentionally tailgate, too much at risk. There comes a time to go with the flow of traffic, and if it means me running 75-80 and eat the fuel economy, I'll mash the pedal and hold my own so the 4 wheelers don't have a reason to pass me, versus the governed trucks that are running 59 in a 75. I'd be happy to branch this into a debate about how much safer governed trucks are, or aren't.

All good points on maintaining self control amidst the zombies. That was a hard & long lesson for me in the beginning. Now it's all small stuff. I wear a smile and keep on truckin.

/soapbox

 

Beware The 4 Wheeler they are unpredictable.

 

At least they're consistently unpredictable. Wait... what?

 

Very nice theory wargames. Ive never thought of it as 5 minutes but as, the place on long island or ct will be there when i get over the gw and i will probally be behind a few other trucks in the unload line. Also scanning the traffic around me and saying, this guy is probally gonna cut infront of me. Half the time i cant even think of the full sentence before they squeeze their little car in. But i was actually waiting for him to do so. Running thru/in the cities (nyc, chitown, la, atl) alot you get so used to it you expect it. I notice the drivers who dont deal with it on a daily basis usually end the day with higher blood pressure than the ones that do it all the time. Relax, people, your shipper/reciever isnt going anywhere and five-ten minutes in traffic is better than a hour or two filing out accident forms.

 

Like my golf game, consistently inconsistent