I have come to the conclusion that the average driver turns off their brain when they get behind the wheel. That's the only reasoning I can figure for the stupid stuff I see everyday.

Why do people freak out when they get around a tractor trailer? I have seen people driving down the road just fine until I get near them in my tractor trailer and all the sudden they panic or something and just freak out. They speed up to get away or they make irrational lane changes. I just don't get it.

Why do people think that it's safer to be in front of a tractor trailer or truck than behind it? I guarantee that 99.9% of the time if a truck misses a gear or looses its brakes, it's going to be the vehicle in front that gets hits, not the one behind the truck. I get so tired of trying to leave a gap between my truck and the vehicle in front of me so I don't have to slam on the brakes only to have some idiot think they need to be there. Actually I think the other drivers figure that if there is a gap in a lane that particular lane must be moving faster.

And is it really necessary to pass a truck that is going 80 mph in a 75 zone? I had a lady in an LR3 staying in the left lane right at the rear corner of my truck today which is about my biggest pet peeve. I would rather have a car driving in my blind spot than right at the corner of my trailer. Anyway, I'm doing 80 in the right lane and rapidly approaching cars in my lane so I need to either change lanes or slow down. Slowing down didn't actually enter my mind as an option. So I put my turn signal on well before I ever intended to change lane to give the lady in the LR3 time to process her options. She could either get out of the way, slow down, speed up I didn't care or she was going to get run over. Needless to say to chose to speed up and get ahead of me. Then she committed the second biggest sin, IMO, she slowed down once she's in front of me. Empty my tuck is 29,000 and is now doing 80 mph down the highway. You slow down in front of me you're asking to get run over. And I guarantee I will win. It's the law of gross tonnage.

I'm done ranting now. If anyone can explain any of this to me from a non-truck driver point of view please share. I've been driving a truck long enough now that even out of a truck I still look at everything like a truck driver.

 

I totally agree with you. Some people really just aren't fit to be behind the wheel. Where I go to school in northern Jersey I'd say they're probably top 5 worst drivers in the world. People will, on major highways mind you, do 35 in the left lane, 15 in the right lane and 75 in the shoulder, some how all at the same time. No one knows what a turn signal is and no one gives a flying **** how close they are to some one else in any direction. It's insane, and another reason I'm glad I drive a truck that weighs well over 3 tons, because I know for a fact some little car is not gonna get much leverage over my truck.

 

Four wheelers suck eggs.
My biggest grip is sitting in a traffic jamb on I-90 going through Chicago and if you leave half a car legnth between you are the guy in front of you they will cut right in.
I had a guy on a motorcycle do this, in IN there is no helmet law, he was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers, he would have been a stain on the road.

 

Speaking of idiot drivers, last weekend I witnessed a two car crash between a brand new Ford Escape hybrid and a old dodge town and country. The Escape got the arrow to turn left and the town and country was waiting to turn right across the street. The escape clearly had the green, but the van tried to pull out in front of him for some reason, the escape had no time to stop and nailed the van. Im sitting 4 cars back and cant believe how stupid the van driver was, no one in front of me stopped, so I did, since I saw the whole thing. I go up to the escape because I realize its an older man and a few minutes later realized he goes to my church. The police get there and start talking to the van driver and a "witness" that was standing with him... here's where i get pissed.

The van driver told the police that the old man ran a red light and rear ended him when he turned right on red. Here's the catch, the red light he supossedly ran was at the intersection he wasn't even in! The so called witness standing with the van driver "backed the story up". I wanted to strangle the guy who was a 23 year old punk just smoking away. How could you lie about getting in a wreck with an old man?? Anways, me and mr. Fouts (the escape driver) told the police what really happened, he didn't really have a hard time believing us over the other guy and "witness" (who by the way, HAD to be friends, no one randomly helps tell a lie like that). The van driver gets a ticket and the police tell him he should arrest both of them for lying. It just blows my mind how stupid some people are, first making a dumb right on red, second LYING to a cop about a wreck, third the 3 people in front of me who should have stopped too (what if no one would have stopped, would the older man have gotten the blame?).

and Dont even get me started on tailgaters... or people who stop on railroad tracks.

 

Speaking of people who stop on rail road tracks...there is a intersection here in Grandville that has a RR crossing running through it, they had to put up another stop light because people were stopping on the tracks even though the train comes through there every hour.
If you are stupid enough to stop on the tracks then you cant complain when you get nailed by a Amtrak at 50 mph.

 

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Me and a buddy of mine were driving on the parkway in his '07 Dodge Charger a few months ago. Traffic was a little heavy but moving at about 65, we were at like 70. We were in the left lane and center and right lanes were packed full, no where to go. This dumbass in a BMW comes flying up from behind us doing at least 90 and realizes he can't go anywhere so he decides to tailgate us for a good 5 miles or so. Well sooner or later the car in front of us blew a tire. He handled it well, maintained control over the car and came to a stop. We slowed to about 35 and then moved to the next lane and went around him. Well sure enough that jerk in the beamer was not looking or something and had to rip his e brake on the parkway doing at least 60. He came to a stop within a foot of the car with the blown tire, except he had spun around in the lane and was now perpendicular to the flow of traffic, his nose maybe two inches from the concrete divider. Told you NJ has crappy drivers...

 

I do not stay behind 18 wheelers as its asking for rock chips chipped paint and its hard to see whats coming up.

That said I also pass trucks and stay away from them, the drivers have a hard time with other drivers and i don't want to get squashed.

 

Speaking of truck drivers, one night my friends and I were driving back late from Carowinds, it was about 2:00am we had a 2 hour drive. I was driving our suburban, and unfortunatly got a little of track, I stopped and asked how to be back in the right direction and a trucker over heard and told me to follow him out because he was going right past Asheville. He told me if I wanted I could draft him and we would "get the wheels rollin'". He wasn't lying either, we made great time on the way back and I used MUCH less gas from being behind him. It was awesome and he gave us a friendly honk when we got off the interstate and he trucked on. We named him Moses because he lead us home to the "promise land" of Asheville.

So AK and Spike, what do you think about cars tucking in for a draft? Does it bother you? I was worried about rocks and such, but didnt have a problem. That day me me realize how friendly truckers are, most of them at least.

 

How do I feel about cars drafting?

Several years ago I was driving to Ft. Wayne IN, it was 4am and I was in the passing lane doing 70.
This Saturn came up behind me and was drafting pretty hard because I was in his way.
Well I was around the other truck and had room to get back over but then I saw a dead deer laying in the road, I strattled the deer...what do you think happened to the Saturn?

Years later coming back from Ft. Wayne IN with a friend chit chatting on the CB going into a construction zone, one orange barrel was laying in the lane, I was being tailgated by a mini van, I mean any closer and he would have been in front of me.
I swerved at the last minute to miss the barrel...all four of his wheels came off the ground as he rode right over top of that plastic barrel...and then pulled over and stopped to change his pants I'm sure.
My buddy was laughing so hard he almost peed his pants.

Another time I was driving across town with a buddy, we both had just came off of a overnight route, I came from Alpena MI he had came from WI.
We were taking the truck full of our companies owners daughters stuff from college, she was moving back home and he and I were moving her in and we were still on the clock.
There was a Oldsmobile Intreige taligating pretty bad, there was a real Christmas tree laying in the road...

Drafting and tailgating big trucks is a real bad idea.

Driving down I-69 on our way to...you guessed it, Ft. Wayne IN...there was a car in the ditch and a truck with a roll off dumpster parked a few 100 yards down the road, one of the big rollers on the back of his roll off fell off and went through the windshield of the car smashing the female drivers head like Galliger does with watermelons.

Do not tailgate or draft trucks, the few extra mpg you get are not worth it.

 

hmmm interesting... I would have never done it unless the driver was ok with it, but he said he wanted to at the gas station. I even passed him going up the mountain thinking he would slow down to much, he did a little, but on the downside he and rolled back by and got in front of me, blinked his lights, and we rolled all the way up to my exit. With all your horror stories, I will never do that again!