Back off Jack...

LMAO it's only going to get worse. More people and more trucks and lots of them come here and drive for the first time.

 

Robots.......robots will fix it!

 

The post was not a contract, and I went through enough of it to get the gist.
But it just went on and on... and I was getting tired.

And after 6 years I am still a company driver - no lease in my future.

I know Swift is a prime target, it always has been and probably always will be.
But if you get behind me and try to pass me at +1 mph I will drop down a few to let you get by more quickly.
And you won't, I hope, see me in any accident because I simply work for a certain company.

If you watch only Swift drivers you will see more Swift drivers make mistakes.
But if you watch all of them, you will see many more by others.
I know I have.

 

i heard this story on NPR and immediately made the connection to my semi-truck training that instructed me to "constantly make space and time between your rig and those around you" regardless of traffic speed

i found the story's premise a little contradictory: it preaches abstaining from the competitive nature that inevitably emerges in congested driving, yet suggests as an alternative using a "point system" to overcome the urge to "compete" and race others in traffic to fight for that open roadway real estate, IMHO this score-keeping approach feeds back into the competitive mindset

i use the "stone in the stream" imagery where i don't have to keep score and struggling for the space in front never comes up, and i also use professional trip planning

 

At first when I tried the scoring system my best run through mid day I-5 traffic through Seattle was +20. Never touched the brakes with a stick shift in my car.

After awhile I forgot all about scoring. Instead just paying attention to spacing and creating outs for myself and others.

 

very impressive, many practical techniques here for various driving mentalities, it's always helpful to have more than one tool

i did try the scoring method but was getting too worked up about my points, LOL, nothing wrong with the scoring method--problem was totally in my character flaw of becoming too competitive so i needed to use another way to process the dangerous traffic

 

YES! First I've read this in all the posts about defensive driving. That out we think is ours might already be reserved by someone else. One example is the selfish Ahole that pulls in front of you after he passes. Seriously if I wanted to tailgate, I would tailgate the guy ahead of you.

 

Well put.
Now take me a little less serious in the future.
Serial absurdist.

 

Another way of getting in the correct mindset I taught my trainees began with the question, "Which is the most difficult gear to shift?"

If we were in a ten speed they usually picked something like from 5th to 6th. I always replied, "Nope. It's the 11th gear."

"???"

"The gear between your ears".

""

Typical example of making the shift is cruising along at the speed limit on the freeway. As you begin to approach a city traffic starts to get thicker. If you don't recognize it, pretty soon you get impatient because folks are going slower than the speed limit. You might start tailgating to push them to go faster, or make an ill advised attempt to pass a long chain of tailgaters. That's the time to shift the 11th gear, back off, and get into the Zen of helping other folks get to their destination safely.