Who's the worst?

ElmerFudpucker · Dec 8, 2025 at 6:21 AM

gentleroger said: ↑

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.
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Schneider is always driving 5-10 mph below everyone else. But I agree they should park and get off the road

Brandonpdx · Dec 8, 2025 at 10:53 AM

Speed is the careful balance between what the road/weather conditions will allow, what the traffic will allow, and what the truck is capable of maintaining comfortably with its power and weight.

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Who's the worst?

Who is the worst?

The idiot driving entirely too slow for conditions who won't hit the wide spot.

The jabronis who space out behind that idiot and make impossible to pass

The i'M bElOw ThE sPeEd LiMiT fool in the middle of the line with the flashers going

The smarmy safe drivers who are gonna flood this thread scolding us as unsafe

All of the above

ElmerFudpucker Road Train Member

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Who's the worst?

Who is the worst?

The idiot driving entirely too slow for conditions who won't hit the wide spot.

The jabronis who space out behind that idiot and make impossible to pass

The i'M bElOw ThE sPeEd LiMiT fool in the middle of the line with the flashers going

The smarmy safe drivers who are gonna flood this thread scolding us as unsafe

All of the above

ElmerFudpucker Road Train Member

Wait, employers can't reach you!

Brandonpdx Road Train Member

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