Who's the worst traffic wise in your opinion?

I'm not sure how this correlates, but when I was running over the road nobody that I knew of lived in, nor had any desire to live in their truck. You wanted to be comfortable while away from home, but my goal was always to go out and back, and get out of the ###### truck (despite how I loved it) as soon as possible. We would run hard when we had the miles, but very rarely did I go without a shower and one sit-down meal each day. I think the longest I was ever out without seeing home was around three weeks, and that was too long for me.

Now you hear of guys #####in about how terrible truck stops are, and that they try to only go to them for fuel. I get it, but somewhere along the way people stopped going in and having a meal and supporting the sit down restaurants. This probably has a lot to do with why there is paid parking now I suppose. It may be a chiken/egg sort of deal, but it is sad to look at now from my perspective. I went to a funeral this morning a few hours away, and on the way back I stopped at the Travelers Oasis at the 182 on 84 in Southern Idaho. They have completed a major remodel and I hadn't been in there since it was done. It is a nice facility inside now, but the restaurant is gone and has been replaced by three or four fast food booths - almost like a shopping mall. Also, my time was before cell phones, so I tried to tie in my sit down meal with the daily phone call to Mama from the phone on the table in the restaurant. Beyond that daily call the only other "social media" we had was the CB. When I first started the wait to get loaded/unloaded would drive me nuts - especially when loading out of the meat plants. I had no TV in the truck, so reading is what I fell back on to make time pass when I couldn't sleep anymore.

I remember when the first 12V coolers came out and I thought it was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread! I quit packing one for fear that I would end up weighing 300 pounds or more, because I learned that no matter where I put it in the truck I could still manage to get it drug close enough to the drivers seat to be able to just sit there and graze all day.

Yes times have changed, and probably for the better in most areas, but it sure doesn't seem like it would be much fun now.

 

I ain’t seen much change for the good. It’s sad the way most of these guys live out here. It really does look like a mix between a homeless shelter and an ice detention center. Zero pride

 

My least favorite is the guy going slow, nobody in front of him, and keeps hitting his brakes! Dude, hitting your brakes in low traction conditions is about the worst thing you can do!

 

Say, for example, you’re on a 3 lane highway in foul weather and people are running flashers. What I can’t comprehend is why they’re running flashers SIDE BY SIDE? Mind blowing how stupid that is to do. Mile after mile, side by side. Absolutely NPC Braindead.

Every time you see someone out on a field trip in a car in the rain, bet on him riding side by side with another Braindead.

 

Like these two dildos?

 

See how that road is 3 lanes wide? In bad weather, the two dildos would be running beside each other, and in the left lane there would be dingleberry drivencars stacked nose to tail running beside them. All with flashers on. Hit standing water or a slick spot and suddenly they’re piling into each other. If a person is worried about traction, why are they riding beside each other?
Hazard lights=stay to the right.

 

And 10 miles before that pic, his wingman system "told" him to pass because he got within a half mile.
That's the other problem....these simulator school rejects think that wingman = autonomous driving and they're just monitoring the situation.

 

That’s an interesting point.

 

I preached to my trainees that if the weather was making them drive more than 5-10 mph below the speed limit then it was time to find a safe place to shut down. At that point the risk increases exponentially while the reward tends to decrease because you're burning more time off the 70. If you're driving 5-10 mph below the rest of traffic, you should have shut it down an hour ago. At that point you become a road hazard. If you're doing it outside the right hand lane you are an active threat to everyone.

Monday night I mentally composed a righteous diatribe to post on this topic, but by the time I got home I was too tired. What should have been an easy 12 hour day was made into a 15 hour slog due to other truck drivers reacting inappropriately to the weather. I was running from Green Bay to Rock Island, then back. I-41 wasn't bad, but on WI-26 (55 mph speed limit, two lane road) I came upon a grain hauler doing 35-40 mph. Even at the passing lanes I couldn't get around him because I'm driving an under powered single screw day cab pulling a set loaded to maximize cube with ZERO thought about weight distribution, which meant I had the acceleration of a sloth on qualudes. Coupled with all the four wheelers stacking up behind me, the safer option was to just relax and wait until US 151. Once on 151, I got around the grain hauler and then hammered down. Just before Madison I see a bevy of brake lights a mile ahead, so I back it down. Turns out it was a big truck doing 40 mph in a 70 mph zone. I step out into the left lane and accelerate as best I can, but I still had a four wheeler try and pass on the right. Thankfully he didn't try and shoot the gap, but if he had tried it would have been a high pucker moment.

I get on I-39 south and it's Idiots All the Way Down. Big trucks running 50-55 in the right hand lane, until I pass them. Then they speed up, which meant that when I came upon the moron doing 45 in the middle lane I had no choice but to step out into Lane 3 - someplace my governed derriere has no place being, which makes the 4 wheelers start trying to weave through the 'slow trucks', which results in brake lights, which slows down traffic behind, which . . .

On the way home, it was the same thing. The weather was fine, I wouldn't have run the cruise control but there was no reason not to be running at least near the speed limit. Y

Friday night I went down to Chicago. There were 3 or 4 idiots running ridiculously slow in the right hand lane between Oshkosh and Fond du Lac, causing traffic to stack up. Once you got around slow poke, traffic density appeared to drop. It didn't, it just felt that way because the rolling road block wasn't creating artificial congestion.

As in all things, context is king. Change a couple variables and my opinion on the best/safest choice is going to change. I have a reputation for "acting with an excess of undue caution" and being a 'smarmy safe driver who is gonna flood this thread scolding us as unsafe'. I have no problem pissing off other drivers to keep myself safe. That said, when I'm running the two lane roads and running slow due to weather, at every small town I find a spot to pull off to let traffic move around me. If I'm running a multi-lane road and someone steps out to pass but is struggling for whatever reason, I will back off and help him get around me. There have even been times where I've stepped out into the unplowed left lane and let the traffic building behind me through on the clear pavement.

If a driver has traffic building behind him, he should make an adjustment. Maybe it's finding a ramp to pull off and get right back on, allowing traffic to clear. Maybe it's speeding up. Or maybe it's finding a place to shut down. "Running Slow" isn't the same thing as "Running Safe". "Running Safe" means making choices to keep you and everyone around you safe. If you're functioning as a rolling road block then you are the problem.