Holding up 4wheelers at traffic jams..

So when you maintain your lane position, but the idiot in the Prius who was trying to pass you on the shoulder suddenly runs out of shoulder and drives under your trailer, who's at fault there? At least if he plows into the back of the trailer he's pretty much at fault. You drive over the idiot and I'm pretty sure they'll find a way to pin it on you.

 

I do this... if you get butt hurt about it then you are probably one of the idiots trying to drive around everyone to the front or just aren't smart enough to get that this speeds up the flow of traffic limiting the morons in one certain spot in the merge.... this was a common practice years ago but now with all the sheeple drivers they just don't get it and look at you like your stupid and won't just sit next to you so it will clean out.

 

It takes two to get tangled.

Traffic jam. A lane is blocked. Drivers turn on their backup radios (only comes on during backups...by that time, it's too late, go ahead and turn it back off). Right lane is blocked. All trucks cram not the left lane(s). All cars cram into the right lane and race towards the front of the backup. A truck jumps out and does a rolling roadblock. No one is moving. Traffic is backed up for miles.

What is the root of the problem, the trucks cramming into the left lane or the cars cramming into the right lane?

Is there a better way? Absolutely.

Traffic jam. Right lane is blocked. Instead of all trucks cramming into the left lane, all trucks remain in the lane they are in, but increase your following distance to 100 ft. Keep 100 feet behind the vehicle in front of you.

"But Six, the 4wheelrs won't cooperate."

Yes they will, but that's irrelevant, because you don't need the 4 wheelers to cooperate. You need the trucks to. Keep your 100ft following distance and no one will need to stop to merge or stop to allow other to merge. 100 ft is enough to allow a truck and a car room to merge in front of you. Both lanes should mesh together like the teeth on a zipper, and spread back apart on the other side of the obstruction.

Story time:

Was running westbound on 10 between Nawlins and RedStick. Almost at Red Stick, a pickup went on a field trip and the bears and dragging wagons were trying to get it out of the woods. Left lane was blocked. I'm in the right lane. Truck behind me was homo driving, trying to block out another truck and the cars that came down the left lane. Truck is trying to merge right pulls beside me. I hit the right shoulder and that truck used the right lane and the zipper. Suddenly, all the cars and trucks behind us realized that they didn't need to merge into one lane, they just had to shift both lanes right and run the shoulder. Instant flow. Everyone behind us, cars included rode the shoulder to allow space for the other lane of traffic. Problem solved.

 

I regularly block the 100 idiots trying to fly into the RIGHT/LEFTLANE closed lane.

It costs me virtually zero time, let's traffic flow behind me and makes the jackwads trying to pass really pee'd off. I win. No one got hurt.

 

Last summer I was driving northbound on I-35 in OK, approaching a construction zone where two lanes merge into the right lane. Traffic was backed up for miles. I noticed two highway patrol cars working up on the left lane, when the lead LEO came even with me he hand signalled for me to roll down my window. He asked me to create a rolling roadblock by getting into the hammer lane next to the truck in front of me.

The officer behind blocked traffic to let me in, then turned on his lights and passed me in the right lane to continue the mission up ahead. I pulled even with the truck ahead and let him know what we were supposed to do. I noticed that there were trucks set up in rolling road blocks behind me, from the work the LEO's had already done and more were being set up ahead.

I hung back halfway up the truck in the right lane, with a half dozen impatient 4 wheelers behind me. As traffic started to flow again as we approached the merge I stayed halfway up the trailer to the right until the last moment, then hammered down to merge in front in the space he had created. No four wheelers came with me.

Moral of this story is that if more truckers would communicate and cooperate to create rolling roadblocks in these situations it would be safer and faster for everyone.

Another situation comes to mind, following a WIDE load in a three lane construction zone with concrete barriers on both sides. The wide load took the two right lanes. Cars AND truckers were fighting to jockey around the pilot car to pass. It was a cluster. I was in the right lane, biding my time and sped up to be side by side with another truck and hand signalled him to create a rolling roadblock behind the pilot car in the right two lanes. Now anyone wanting to pass the wide load had to bide their time in the hammer lane, a far safer situation than the complete chaos before.

 

Patience....it's the biggest equalizer around......loose it , and often you'll be the one's that's sorry..Let those in a hurry go......they'll meet the driver not exercising patience soon enough....

 

But golly, you miss the point. If you are really impatient and focused all about yourself AND post YouTube videos about it while you rant, you could become infamous.

 

When theres cars merging at once and the 2 lanes are gettting thinner and thinner you bet Iim going to take up both lanes. if a car crashes that proves he was going entirely too fast and should have started slowing down once he seen the construction signs.Although I've been in many traffic jams like that and never seen any idiot motorist. pull stunts like that.

 

Zipper merge....can find it on YouTube....works well when everybody plays along.