Seasonal traffic questions

There is also a lesson in there about what one can generally expect in truck stop vacancy rates, and how weekends and regional and local traffic affects vacancy rates differently between populous regions and along less populous cross-country lanes.

Example. The Petro in Glade Spring, VA can expect to be lighter on Friday and Saturday nights because so much of it’s traffic is due to regional and local drivers being home weekends.

However, the Flying J in North Platte, NE that lies on a major east/west lane will be as full on a Saturday night as any other weekday night because it is driven by OTR cross country drivers where there is no difference between a Tuesday night or a Saturday night.

 

Kids will be back in school soon and things will ease up a bit. As winter approaches a lot of the construction will be done for the season.

The best time is the fall (in the north anyway) when construction is mostly done, the rv's are gone and the snow plows aren't yet needed.

The worst time is in the spring IMO. As soon as all the snow is gone people start to drive insane. It's like they've been unleashed and are out of control. That's when 'stupid' seems most prevalent.

 

Also have to be aware of college football rivalry games locations. These can cause unreal traffic problems at times, even the Friday before.

 

Traffic is always bad here. ALWAYS.

I use google maps for everything because you never know when the interstate will be shut down etc.

I’m in Minneapolis.

 

NOPE.

I-40 is the Nation's winter road excellence. EVERYONE goes on that one.

Ive run Wyoming so much... Sheridan was practically a home base. (Sorry Mr Truckstop owner, mooched your french vanillas so much when it's ice and -10)

Look up my pictures. Wyoming to me was ice school other than the east coast one acre parking lot training.

What does happen is the holidays kill the freight. Excepting that is vital to the Country and to the war effort.

On my end, I did a experiment in the mid 90's In October, mid month. I told my dispatcher, Ive got a pile of money, winter is coming on (Indiana, Rockport Office; eck miller trucking or more exactly mid western transport I think; one of a number of fleets on paper useful for shuffling orientation people.)

Put me on I-10 for 6 months minimum or until I call and want home or if truck accumulates too many fixit list.

Jacksonville Florida. Chain, cable and special types of spun metal I suppose on reel. That went to Houston. Alot of steel mill crane chain. Fat links... Get to Houston. Pipe. Oil field kind. Back toJacsonville.

To be honest either NASA bought it all or There ARE oil or gas wells out there. Maybe beyond sight at sea, you can only see two or three miles off the beach anyway... unless you found a hotel decking 6 floors up maybe 6 miles then.

Payroll?.36 a mile. 700 dollar second half bonus pending following Feb.

NO winter. Just a whole bunch of rain. Sick of rain actually. Hydroplaning kind of rain in a foot of water in the I-10 lane 9 miles west of Jacksonville where your whole tractor skates towards the trees as you gently come off power at 50, spin the wheel ever so gently and slow this way, waiting for all of your drives to settle while the radio heaps abuse on you for ruining everyone's vision, screwing up everyone's cruise speed control, creating a necessary situation where they now each have to physically take action, something not expected until Pensacola...

I learned all about hydroplaning, limitations of such behavior with a loaded 18 wheeler. You can set the RPM with your right foot on throttle, keep the drives spinning slower and slower as your actual ground speed decreases until you "Land" back onto hard pavement. You do not want to settle the truck down with the drive wheels not rotating. She will try to do a tractor jackknife on you.

If the trees get too extreme in your windshield and scary, just add 4 pounds of air application via trolley two heartbeats. It should impose a load on the trailer long enough to straighten you out.

 

I was driving the road from Las Vegas to Reno, NV up US 95 when I drove through Beatty, NV some ####### jump out right in front of me.

It appears that the miners back in the day just let the donkeys run lose and now they just roam the streets.

 

School is starting. Yippie! Roads will be much better.

 

NFL games also come into "play". I ran through Houston a few years ago when a game just finished and traffic was nightmare stop and go. Always trip plan based on football games, college or pro. The numbers of vehicles exiting a football game can be overwhelming.

 

welcome to the results of mass consumption and overpopulation, but dont worry it can only get worse lol

 

Black cows are threatening to be my nemesis. Last night I delivered to an oil rig in Oklahoma. On the way to the rig there were three black cows, outside the cattle guards in the road. On the way back out from the rig I was taking it easy, mindful of those cows, when I saw a mother cow in the ditch suddenly get up. I put on the brakes immediately. Her yearling was just getting up from enjoying the heat on the road right in front of me. Had I tried driving like a self centered mindless ####, I would have my truck in the shop right now.

Always pay attention to possible hazards. Beyond basic traffic hazards there are potholes from Hades and suicidal animals. Always be prepared to take evasive action.