Automobile Thread

[iamshack]

Maybe everyone passing him on the right made it impossible to merge back? I don't know, I wasn't there. All I have is testimony from a 4 wheeler.

 

And that's the problem.

 

You barely know the meaning of "slowed down". Its just more of the same "I know better than these ignorant f***ing truckers do on these roads! They barely know how to drive!". I'm sorry you didn't shave a minute or two off your commute that day, really breaks my heart that you, your BIG TIME Class D license and little s***box didn't feel as entitled to full ownership of those roads as you should. Us truckers, yea I mean we might drive more hours in a day than you will all week, we might be carrying 45,000 lbs of crap for you to buy and sure, the difference 10 MPH makes to your commute 1 MPH makes to our entitre day but we need to understand that 4 wheelers just know better. I'll keep it in mind next time I have to overtake another truck: "Now think, not passing him will cost me $1.50/hr. But if I do pass him some of these 4 wheelers might be 4 minutes, as opposed to 6 minutes, early for the job they hate".

Oh spare us the dramatics. You've been driving a truck for like a month there, Mr Convoy.

[bigruss]

Seriously.

 

s***, I passed at least 5 trucks on the right coming up from Champaign earlier this week, and it's I-57 so you know the whole goddamn highway was empty.

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2013 by bigruss22

[farmteam]

I love the derogatory use of "4 wheeler."

[southsider2k5]

Maybe everyone passing him on the right made it impossible to merge back? I don't know, I wasn't there. All I have is testimony from a 4 wheeler.

 

And that's the problem.

 

You barely know the meaning of "slowed down". Its just more of the same "I know better than these ignorant f***ing truckers do on these roads! They barely know how to drive!". I'm sorry you didn't shave a minute or two off your commute that day, really breaks my heart that you, your BIG TIME Class D license and little s***box didn't feel as entitled to full ownership of those roads as you should. Us truckers, yea I mean we might drive more hours in a day than you will all week, we might be carrying 45,000 lbs of crap for you to buy and sure, the difference 10 MPH makes to your commute 1 MPH makes to our entitre day but we need to understand that 4 wheelers just know better. I'll keep it in mind next time I have to overtake another truck: "Now think, not passing him will cost me $1.50/hr. But if I do pass him some of these 4 wheelers might be 4 minutes, as opposed to 6 minutes, early for the job they hate".

 

So basically you just proved my whole point for me. Truckers drive dangerously because they can, and don't really give a s*** about anyone but themselves.

[DukeNukeEm]

Oh spare us the dramatics. You've been driving a truck for like a month there, Mr Convoy.

It doesn't take long to figure it out. I've cleared 26k miles and gone coast to coast 4 times. I'm by no means all there, but I'm qualified to make these statements.

 

And to S2K, there's nothing in there that says any driver should be dangerous. I didn't say to merge on top of the motherf***ers and put the hammer down, I just said our capacity for consideration of your "need" to get past us is non-existant. We don't care about how fast you get to go, I've got plenty more things to worry about.

 

That said I don't want to kill you or endanger you. If you've got the lane you've got it, if you ignore my turn signal I'm not going to crush you to take that lane (under any circumstances, even if it means I slam into a school bus at 60 MPH because you didn't get over I'm not going to spill my load and wipe out everyone on the road). Just don't put yourself in a position where I cannot see you, because if I think that lane is clear and Ineed to take it I will, and at that point the mistake of you passing me on the right just cost you your life and me my license/job/career/possibly freedom. All that because youre being held up for an extra 30 seconds on your morning commute.

[southsider2k5]

It doesn't take long to figure it out. I've cleared 26k miles and gone coast to coast 4 times. I'm by no means all there, but I'm qualified to make these statements.

 

And to S2K, there's nothing in there that says any driver should be dangerous. I didn't say to merge on top of the motherf***ers and put the hammer down, I just said our capacity for consideration of your "need" to get past us is non-existant. We don't care about how fast you get to go, I've got plenty more things to worry about.

 

That said I don't want to kill you or endanger you. If you've got the lane you've got it, if you ignore my turn signal I'm not going to crush you to take that lane (under any circumstances, even if it means I slam into a school bus at 60 MPH because you didn't get over I'm not going to spill my load and wipe out everyone on the road). Just don't put yourself in a position where I cannot see you, because if I think that lane is clear and Ineed to take it I will, and at that point the mistake of you passing me on the right just cost you your life and me my license/job/career/possibly freedom. All that because youre being held up for an extra 30 seconds on your morning commute.

 

Driving where you intentionally have a massive blind area, according to what you, yourself, are saying, isn't dangerous? How about if you are driving a dangerous vehicle where you have blind regions, you don't put yourself into situations where you can't see people? That would be the most intelligent thing for you 18 wheelers to do. But of course it is all about your needs.

[DukeNukeEm]

Driving where you intentionally have a massive blind area, according to what you, yourself, are saying, isn't dangerous? How about if you are driving a dangerous vehicle where you have blind regions, you don't put yourself into situations where you can't see people? That would be the most intelligent thing for you 18 wheelers to do. But of course it is all about your needs.

In going to assume you at least somewhat enjoy modern.society, so you don't want to ban trucks from the highways. The passengers side blind spot is a reality of our vehicles, trust me nobody likes having it.

 

I do what I can to compensate for it. If I check the passengers side mirror and some little Toyota is flying to my right I can kinda predict where he'll be in 3-5 seconds. If he hasn't passed me yet, and I can't see him in the mirrors anymore I can critically deduce that he's in my blind spot.

 

There are things that make that harder to do. For one, I cannot just stare down my passengers side mirror. I have other things to look at. The other is 4 wheelers are erratic, they'll whip around or start riding my ass so the lane I think ia taken could very well be open, or vice-versa. Nobody perfect, I've lost track of cars before in cities just to have them reappear in a new place I'd never expect.

 

Also, the idea of me just hanging out in the right lane where traffic merges directly into my blind spot before the acceleration lane gets cut off by the shoulder or guardrail makes the problem worse. Do 4 wheelers still merge into the far right lane and into my blind spot? Yes, but its a lot less frequent. That plus the constant slow-down/speed up of the right lane will cook my brakes. Not might, not could... eventually I'll smoke my brakes and that will be very bad. I've noticed that I'm not allowed to Jake in most cities, so that option is out.

[southsider2k5]

In going to assume you at least somewhat enjoy modern.society, so you don't want to ban trucks from the highways. The passengers side blind spot is a reality of our vehicles, trust me nobody likes having it.

 

I do what I can to compensate for it. If I check the passengers side mirror and some little Toyota is flying to my right I can kinda predict where he'll be in 3-5 seconds. If he hasn't passed me yet, and I can't see him in the mirrors anymore I can critically deduce that he's in my blind spot.

 

There are things that make that harder to do. For one, I cannot just stare down my passengers side mirror. I have other things to look at. The other is 4 wheelers are erratic, they'll whip around or start riding my ass so the lane I think ia taken could very well be open, or vice-versa. Nobody perfect, I've lost track of cars before in cities just to have them reappear in a new place I'd never expect.

 

Also, the idea of me just hanging out in the right lane where traffic merges directly into my blind spot before the acceleration lane gets cut off by the shoulder or guardrail makes the problem worse. Do 4 wheelers still merge into the far right lane and into my blind spot? Yes, but its a lot less frequent. That plus the constant slow-down/speed up of the right lane will cook my brakes. Not might, not could... eventually I'll smoke my brakes and that will be very bad. I've noticed that I'm not allowed to Jake in most cities, so that option is out.

 

So 18 wheelers will do what they can, except the obvious thing of not driving where there is a blind spot. Makes perfect sense.

[GoodAsGould]

Yeah, it is funny how after a month he speaks for all truck drivers and is all knowing. Show my friend who works at jb hunt all these posts and said half the things you say are ridiculous.

[StrangeSox]

kill all truckers

 

edit: if you're seriously so concerned about blindspots, mount some cameras. They're dirt-cheap these days.

Edited September 29, 2013 by StrangeSox

[Balta1701]

Maybe everyone passing him on the right made it impossible to merge back? I don't know, I wasn't there. All I have is testimony from a 4 wheeler.

 

And that's the problem.

 

You barely know the meaning of "slowed down". Its just more of the same "I know better than these ignorant f***ing truckers do on these roads! They barely know how to drive!". I'm sorry you didn't shave a minute or two off your commute that day, really breaks my heart that you, your BIG TIME Class D license and little s***box didn't feel as entitled to full ownership of those roads as you should. Us truckers, yea I mean we might drive more hours in a day than you will all week, we might be carrying 45,000 lbs of crap for you to buy and sure, the difference 10 MPH makes to your commute 1 MPH makes to our entitre day but we need to understand that 4 wheelers just know better. I'll keep it in mind next time I have to overtake another truck: "Now think, not passing him will cost me $1.50/hr. But if I do pass him some of these 4 wheelers might be 4 minutes, as opposed to 6 minutes, early for the job they hate".

There was absolutely no reason he should have ever been in that lane. He had to defy the warning signs to be there. I don't know if that counts as illegal or not but it's at least close. At some point he chose to do so and it created an unsafe condition for the entire highway.

 

But one thing I do learn from this is that there are truckers out there who will defend the right of other truckers to make conditions unsafe for everyone. That's a real good thing to know, basically assume that no matter how much experience they have, they're either as irresponsible as that guy or they will step up to defend him.

[iamshack]

There was absolutely no reason he should have ever been in that lane. He had to defy the warning signs to be there. I don't know if that counts as illegal or not but it's at least close. At some point he chose to do so and it created an unsafe condition for the entire highway.

 

But one thing I do learn from this is that there are truckers out there who will defend the right of other truckers to make conditions unsafe for everyone. That's a real good thing to know, basically assume that no matter how much experience they have, they're either as irresponsible as that guy or they will step up to defend him.

I think Duke has made some reasonable points but his tone doesn't usually lend itself to sympathy. Our country is entirely dependent on the trucking industry and regular drivers certainly do disregard how difficult it is to operate a truck in many conditions and how dangerous trucks are.

[DukeNukeEm]

Denver today, what a blast! Steep acceleration lanes than end 500 ft after they reach highway grade. Seriously, a case in point as to why I don't hang out there.

 

Not to mention: if you want to blast around at 70 in a 55, which is breaking a law centered around safety, what exactly makes it so wrong for a truck actually doing the speed limit to be in the middle lane? What the f*** world do I live in where if I don't coddle someones lawlessness I'm being reckless?

 

Just turn your licenses in, guys. Save a life, do something good. Over 70% of fatal collisions between truck and car are the car driver's fault and now we get to see why. They expectation you have of an 80k lb monster to be as agile and quick is idiotic. You need off the roads.

[StrangeSox]

Lol

 

True facts: truckers never,ever engage in "lawlessness" and it is good and safe for them to act as traffic enforcement. Speed differential and forcing faster traffic around you is actually safer.

Edited September 30, 2013 by StrangeSox

[southsider2k5]

Denver today, what a blast! Steep acceleration lanes than end 500 ft after they reach highway grade. Seriously, a case in point as to why I don't hang out there.

 

Not to mention: if you want to blast around at 70 in a 55, which is breaking a law centered around safety, what exactly makes it so wrong for a truck actually doing the speed limit to be in the middle lane? What the f*** world do I live in where if I don't coddle someones lawlessness I'm being reckless?

 

Just turn your licenses in, guys. Save a life, do something good. Over 70% of fatal collisions between truck and car are the car driver's fault and now we get to see why. They expectation you have of an 80k lb monster to be as agile and quick is idiotic. You need off the roads.

 

My expectations is for them not to engage in dangerous activity. You are telling me that 18 wheelers are too arrogant to allow that to happen.

[RockRaines]

I think Duke has made some reasonable points but his tone doesn't usually lend itself to sympathy. Our country is entirely dependent on the trucking industry and regular drivers certainly do disregard how difficult it is to operate a truck in many conditions and how dangerous trucks are.

Our large cities are very dependent on taxis as well, doesnt mean I respect their operators.

[DukeNukeEm]

I haven't read a single legitimate response. Its all been some weird attempt to say that I'm trying to play cop, claiming that your friend works for JB Hunt (OK...) and that means you know better or so just a flat out attack on me personally. The most compelling argument I've heard is that the truck is where you want to be and thus it should move, but I've seen how most of you all drive and that applies to everyone on the road. Don't expect everyone else, especially the guy who will almost assuredly kill someone if he screws up, to try moving mountains at the expense of safety to keep you satiafied.

 

Were talking about vehicles that almost universally weigh in the tons traveling at very high speeds carrying fragile little humans. Think about that for a minute, how precarious those physics are. The goal here is not to whip around like you're pretending to be Sebastian Vettel, its not to shave 5 minutes off your commute, its to try and make this controlled form of chaos known as urban highways actually work to where people don't start dying.

 

I'm not trying to enforce anything, I'm just doing my part the best I can. I'm not pretending to be super-trucker, I'm holding the same lane going a very consistent speed. I'm not trying to make you do anything. I just had one piece of advice that could save your life and the lives of those around you. That was it, as dumb as you all are and as much as you're better off taking the train, you don't deserve to die for being bad at driving. Its not a reasonable consequence considering how the slightest mistake can kill you on the highways

But that's the reality of the situation, and instead of denying it because they don't want to go "slow" (speed limit, whatever) motorists just keep lining up to die like lambs to the slaughter because they refuse to respect that fact.

[DukeNukeEm]

Our large cities are very dependent on taxis as well, doesnt mean I respect their operators.

Look, I'm not totally into the whole "trucks run the economy" crap, this happens to be the one job available which I have zero threat of being laid off where I can still make a middle class income as a 24 year old.

 

But to compare the importance of trucks to taxi cabs is just stupid. The reason you don't have to slaughter chickens in the morning is because some truck is enabling a farm far away to do it for you. Everything you own, including your house, was put where it is on your behalf by a truck. This isn't me being confrontational or demeaning, its just a goddamn fact. The taxi that gets you home drunk might seem equally important to you, but if you spent one day seeing all that goes into logistics you'd instantly change your tune.

[southsider2k5]

I haven't read a single legitimate response. Its all been some weird attempt to say that I'm trying to play cop, claiming that your friend works for JB Hunt (OK...) and that means you know better or so just a flat out attack on me personally. The most compelling argument I've heard is that the truck is where you want to be and thus it should move, but I've seen how most of you all drive and that applies to everyone on the road. Don't expect everyone else, especially the guy who will almost assuredly kill someone if he screws up, to try moving mountains at the expense of safety to keep you satiafied.

 

Were talking about vehicles that almost universally weigh in the tons traveling at very high speeds carrying fragile little humans. Think about that for a minute, how precarious those physics are. The goal here is not to whip around like you're pretending to be Sebastian Vettel, its not to shave 5 minutes off your commute, its to try and make this controlled form of chaos known as urban highways actually work to where people don't start dying.

 

I'm not trying to enforce anything, I'm just doing my part the best I can. I'm not pretending to be super-trucker, I'm holding the same lane going a very consistent speed. I'm not trying to make you do anything. I just had one piece of advice that could save your life and the lives of those around you. That was it, as dumb as you all are and as much as you're better off taking the train, you don't deserve to die for being bad at driving. Its not a reasonable consequence considering how the slightest mistake can kill you on the highways

But that's the reality of the situation, and instead of denying it because they don't want to go "slow" (speed limit, whatever) motorists just keep lining up to die like lambs to the slaughter because they refuse to respect that fact.

 

This of course would be reading your own material then.

 

[Texsox]

So basically you just proved my whole point for me. Truckers drive dangerously because they can, and don't really give a s*** about anyone but themselves.

 

Not even close to true.

[StrangeSox]

I haven't read a single legitimate response. Its all been some weird attempt to say that I'm trying to play cop, claiming that your friend works for JB Hunt (OK...) and that means you know better or so just a flat out attack on me personally. The most compelling argument I've heard is that the truck is where you want to be and thus it should move, but I've seen how most of you all drive and that applies to everyone on the road. Don't expect everyone else, especially the guy who will almost assuredly kill someone if he screws up, to try moving mountains at the expense of safety to keep you satiafied.

 

Were talking about vehicles that almost universally weigh in the tons traveling at very high speeds carrying fragile little humans. Think about that for a minute, how precarious those physics are. The goal here is not to whip around like you're pretending to be Sebastian Vettel, its not to shave 5 minutes off your commute, its to try and make this controlled form of chaos known as urban highways actually work to where people don't start dying.

 

I'm not trying to enforce anything, I'm just doing my part the best I can. I'm not pretending to be super-trucker, I'm holding the same lane going a very consistent speed. I'm not trying to make you do anything. I just had one piece of advice that could save your life and the lives of those around you. That was it, as dumb as you all are and as much as you're better off taking the train, you don't deserve to die for being bad at driving. Its not a reasonable consequence considering how the slightest mistake can kill you on the highways

But that's the reality of the situation, and instead of denying it because they don't want to go "slow" (speed limit, whatever) motorists just keep lining up to die like lambs to the slaughter because they refuse to respect that fact.

Truckers are the Ubermensch of the roadways.

[RockRaines]

Look, I'm not totally into the whole "trucks run the economy" crap, this happens to be the one job available which I have zero threat of being laid off where I can still make a middle class income as a 24 year old.

 

But to compare the importance of trucks to taxi cabs is just stupid. The reason you don't have to slaughter chickens in the morning is because some truck is enabling a farm far away to do it for you. Everything you own, including your house, was put where it is on your behalf by a truck. This isn't me being confrontational or demeaning, its just a goddamn fact. The taxi that gets you home drunk might seem equally important to you, but if you spent one day seeing all that goes into logistics you'd instantly change your tune.

Eh, not sure my house built in 1890 was enabled by trucks. Pretty sure the materials were on the rail.

[NorthSideSox72]

This could be a very interesting topic.

 

But Duke, man, your posts on this are condescending to the point of narcissism. From a guy who has been trucking for a month. You won't get useful responses doing that.

 

[DukeNukeEm]

I'm getting a little annoyed hearing that. I've been living in the back of this truck for a month, I haven't been home in a month, I haven't spent more than one consecutive night in the same place in a month. I've spent a combined 5 hours with people I've known from before this job in a month. Its actually been more than that but whatever, on a bad day this s*** is not easy for anyone. Guy who's been driving his whole life died in his cab 4 weeks ago and they just found him.

 

So cut the bulls***, I see the job hunt thread and all the b****ing that goes on in Buster about "WHERE ARE THE JOBS???!??!?", well here's one. I'd be demeaned less if I were some welfare baby working part tine at McDonalds.

Edited September 30, 2013 by DukeNukeEm

[Iwritecode]

He didn't say the job isn't difficult. He said your tone is condescending. There's no reason to act like truckers are infallible and us "four-wheelers" are the ones screwing it up.

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by Iwritecode