truck safety, what about car safety ??

A video like Danny suggested would be good to start with in the school driver ed class (if driver ed was not chopped due to budget cuts). Maybe have the instructor do a "ride along" in a truck to get the feel of what the video is trying to get across.

 

A lot of four wheelers do not use those shinny things on the side of their vehicles.

A week ago I had some lady drive down a one way alley the wrong way and tell us she could not back up, in reality she did not know how, backing up she almost hit an unmarked police car, two buildings and a van. This whole time she could not get off of her cell phone, she was using earphones as a hands free device. I wonder how she ever got a license!

 

I think that many of the issues caused by 4-wheelers (not all) are mostly through ignorance about semi trucks, without trying to sound too simplistic about it. I would guess that most of the general public doesn't fully understand the acceleration capability differences between a semi truck and a standard 6-cylinder 4-wheeler and this probably leads some 4-wheel drivers to assume that the semi driver is deliberately taking his time going up the road after each traffic light turns green instead of realizing that it's simply a mechanical limitation. Weight is another concept that is probably misunderstood as well, particularly when there is the situation of a 4-wheeler following a semi truck and then tail-gating the same truck as it encounters a hill. For someone who has never driven a semi or does not know someone who has driven a semi, there is a lot that the average 4-wheel driver doesn't know--how to merge with semis, about the larger blind spots, etc.

I got extremely lucky because my driver's ed teacher in high school also taught CDL-A classes during the summer at the community college and had been a semi-driver for 15 some years prior to teaching. He told us that if we wanted to learn how to be courteous drivers we should watch the trucks, and if we ever ran into a situation where there was a detour off a highway and we had to find our way back on, follow the semi trucks. I had been driving prior to his class, of course, but had known nothing about semi trucks until he taught us about peaceful coexistence with them as he called it.

I'm not in any way excusing 4-wheelers for bad driving. I'm not a perfect driver myself, but try my best to be courteous of others and avoid being an azzhat behind the wheel. It's very rare that I have seen a lousy driver in a semi truck...99% of the rude or just dangerous driving I see is other 4-wheelers. I drive a 4-wheeler and have seen some drivers who scare the living crap out of me and I wonder how they walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone drive. It would be great for more awareness on the part of 4-wheel drivers about semi trucks and motorcycles.

 

It seems like these days people aren't being taught to drive well at all. 6 hours of behind the wheel is all that is required in WI, and then they send the kids off to learn the rest from mom & dad. Everyone is just too busy and too self-centered these days to show courtesy on the road.