I drive a car. What can I do, and avoid doing, to better share the road with trucks.

Not directed at OP, but ain't you heard about the short supply of that material. Been back ordered a long time.

 

Yeah, Common Sense ain't so common

 

1: Passing: if you are passing me hurry up and do it, do not linger beside me. When you complete the pass wait till there is proper distance between the rear of your car and the front of my truck before coming back over. At highway speeds this is 100 feet minimum. And for the love of of god don't show down once you've moved bak into my lane.

1a: passing an oversize load. Before you pass make sure you can do it before I need to move over into the left lane due to a vehicle on the breakdown lane or the break down lane disappearing away the next over pass or bridge.

2. Merging on to the highway. Learn to judge speed not only of your own vehicle but also of the vehicles on the highway. And apply that knowledge to know when to speed up to merge in front of me, and when to slow to to merge behind me.

3:intersections: When approaching a stop sign or red light look to see if a truck is going to be turning left onto the street you are on and if so stop a bit farther back. Trucks require a lot of room to turn and I really don't want to drag my trailer over your car. The same applies to trucks making a right turn. In order to avoid tearing down the pole on the inside corner I need your left lane.

 

Few things is don’t change lanes in front of a truck when you are only 5 feet in front of the truck, don’t merge into a highway doing street speeds speed up ASAP, that truck in the lane that’s approaching you most likely can’t merge into the left lane because of someone is on their left, and don’t hang around a truck either behind either, on either of the sides or in front of it.

stay away as far as possible.


Also a safety thing is while on interchanges left or right bank turns don’t be one of those that decides to hang around as weight changes some drivers take these turns to fast and could possibly tip over.

 

Some of my worst situation with cars is those who should have been killed doing it under, into or against my rig. I should have been in prison for killing them with vehicular manslaugher if I didnt managed to find a rabbit in a very large hat in time to save them stupid car drivers.

Its been 20 to 30 plus years since those incidents and god knows I retain anger against them. They have grown into adulthood and raised children long before now. Thanks to what I was able to do in the few moments left before the smash that will certainly have chopped their bodies up. They get a future.

For being so stupid.

And people wonder why cars lose so badly when they go into conflict with a 40 ton 18 wheeler.

Even people walking across the freeway in rush hour in front of me two years ago in Jacksonville. Two teens did try. One got across in front of our 70-80 mph rush hour herd. The other stepped into front of my lane. He fell down onto his butt and yanked his leg out from under my left front fender as I executed a proper emergency stop from 70 to around 20 in about 90 feet.

I hear many brakes behind me. So it's time to floor it and get out before we got smashed and consumed in the fire. Stupid teenagers.

There was a giant bridge lined with wide sidewalks 5 minutes from where they tried to rush across.

 

My biggest irritation, cars blow up on me going 10+ mph faster than me then they hang out beside me for 2 miles right in my hip pocket where I cant move. Got here like you had business to do pass me the same way and get on down the road.
Hanging out beside a truck really is not a good idea, ever seen a wheel come off or a recap come off? Or a tire blow. I have and it can get real ugly real fast. (The recap I was driving the truck and very thankful it parked nice in the median and no one in its path)

 

We’re big and heavy so we like keeping our momentum. Don’t impede us and please don’t hang out on our left please pass safely should only take you a couple seconds to pass us. Honestly we’re all not like minded people just like you got some stupid zig zaggers we also have some stupid truckers. If you’re going to hit the brakes hard because of stopped traffic it helps if you also do what we do which is put the hazards helps if we’re in a blind curve and you see it before we can.

 

Don’t yield the right of way. Drivers of vehicles aren’t able to talk to each other. But we can communicate, in a way, by knowing what each one will do. We all follow the same rules to determine who has the right of way.

 

Please keep in mind that we do not have to merge for ramp traffic, ramp traffic has to yield. A perfect example is I80 through Stroudsburg PA. Cars fly out in front of me all the time and even drive on the shoulder to cut in front of me. Just wait 10 seconds and get behind me

 

Biggest for me are a couple that happened at least 3 times today. First, merge from the get-on ramp like your arse is on fire. We're trying to keep up our momentum. Don't make us slow down for you. It's our lane already anyway. You getting in to it is technically your problem.

Second, mostly for phone talkers. Drive a steady speed. Don't go right at the speed limit on hills and certainly don't slow down if there's not a good reason! Once again, we're trying to keep up our momentum.

I still think the biggest thing cars need to think about is simple physics.
Loaded truck = 80,000 lbs.
Typical car = 4,000 lbs.
It's not a competition but if it becomes one we will win it.