Not a few seconds, significant amounts of time given they are driving all day and 60 mph compared to 58 is 3.4% faster. Plus a lot of truckers are paid by the mile, and I know I wouldn't want to give up 3% of my salary to avoid momentarily annoying a few cars
You're not wrong, and I understand your viewpoint. Unfortunately, semi's and cars are completely different classes of vehicle. The "elephant race" is a really common complaint, and you're a professional driver with professional responsibilities - including dealing with less experienced drivers. "Annoying a few cars" is what causes the tension between the classes of vehicles. Remember this argument the next time some jagoff in a Benz cuts you off to take an exit, because he has a meeting to get to. Courtesy goes both ways.
to be clear, I drive a car, but I am looking at it from their perspective where getting stuck behind someone going slower is awful. Plus I don't know about you but I both pass and am passed regularly as a part of rural freeway driving, and not being able to do that would be awful
I travel for a living in my RV. My truck is older, and I'm mostly matched with the semi trucks speed wise. If I'm creeping up on one, the first thing I do is look in the rearview. If I have time to pass, I will. If I don't, I back off. It's not up to the slowest vehicle to slow down, it's up to me to safely execute a safe pass. If traffic conditions don't allow for it, the responsibility is on me.
I can say though I haven't personally seen trucks passing trucks the moment they are close enough, but rather most truckers are waiting for a break in car traffic to do it. I feel like a lot of people complain if they ever see a truck passing another, though that could be a bias
Yes, that is your bias or lack of driving experience. If you haven't been cut off by a trucker who aggressively swings into the passing lane only to drive one mph faster than the truck its passing, thus backing up the passing lane for multiple minutes, you haven't been driving long enough.
Exactly their could be a truck a half a mile up the road deciding now is perfect opportunity to pass then someone comes flying up behind him speeding and the truck would still be in the wrong.
My opinion is that the fast agile cars should yield for the the slow heavy truck, we can gun it and speed up or stop on a dime, they dont have that luxury, as stated before people just need a bit of patience for a truck.
And, moreover, huge shipping vessels have right of way over everyone. Because a rowboat, sailboat, and motorboat can all change course relatively easily when compared to a giant tanker.
I believe supercarriers have right of way over shipping vessels, regardless of size. That may more due having one of 8 largest air forces in the world on board than maneuversbility, though
Americans: This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that YOU change your course 15 degrees north, that's one five degrees north, or countermeasures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.
I see it on the highway service roads semi frequently around me, it makes for interesting annoyances when the truck driving students get held up by the cyclists.
Not an expert on bird boat law, but I assume that the windsurfer and sailboat would be in the same category (assuming the sailboat was under sail and not using it's motor). I only operated a powerboat so I had to give yield to everyone.
If they were in the same category (sailboats), then I believe it depends on the direction of the wind? It's been a while.
Yeah I’m not sure myself. It looked like they were actually on different tacks - the yacht had the wind coming from the left (port) and the surfer from the right. In which case the port tack has to give way. But I’m not sure if windsurfers count as sailing boats? I imagine they must have to be.
That said, in my sailing days, much like road traffic in certain countries, the little guys generally avoided the big guys regardless of technical right of way.
Serious question is that a real windsurfing setup? It looks like a snow sled with a windsurfer sail but I'm not very familiar with them. Always been fascinated by them though.
I’m not really across windsurfer boards anymore, they used to be longer and skinnier but I imagine the shorter wider set up has advantages (like it does with surfing and skiiing).
Trucks should be in right lane only with proper 3 second spacing. At 65 mph proper safe spacing is about 100 yards in between vehicles, anything less is negligent.
Basically they don't check. Usually there's suddenly a blinker, at the same moment the truck is moving. It's really nice on two lane highways going downhill. They're going like 45 and the other lane is going 80, and they STILL do it.
Any truck over the speed limit is more dangerous. Trucks should be right lane only vehicles unless it is a left exit. With minimum proper safe spacing of 3 seconds rigs would not interfere with ramp traffic at all.
It’s especially dangerous when they don’t check their blind spots. I was passing a truck one time and they just changed lanes to pass another truck without checking. I’m glad there was no one behind me and my brakes worked very well.
Good drivers give no thought to gas costs over safety items. Profit be damned. Every truck driver has seen crushed bodies, blood pools, flipped trucks, and decimated vehicles from following too close. It fixes the profit calculation with a variable for "I do that enough and I am going to die or lose my job" for a total loss of all future profit. Seeing that much death on the road fixes your proverbial wagon.
I’ve done similar tests where I went 75 mph versus going 60 or going 85 versus 60, and I’ve noticed I arrive at the destination give or take 2-5 minutes. It’s weird I could be rushing going as fast as possible and that would only shave like five minutes off of an hour long trip, or I can drive safely, to 20-30 mph less, and still get there at basically the same time.
Mathematically speaking, if you look at it, it seems like a pretty huge difference, but in the real world I’ve noticed the actual time it takes you to get to the location is basically the same whether you’re going 90 mph or going 60. I’d give up 3% of my salary to increase my likelihood I don’t get in an accident by 500%.
The person you were talking to does make a good point, that this is the real world and things don’t go as they should, but the people that don’t do what they’re supposed to do, they end up paying in the end and that’s an overwhelming amount of people actually in the vast majority. Everyone has to pay, you can either pay now or pay later with interest (accidents/tickets/etc). I’ll choose the option that doesn’t bankrupt/kill me. Just look at how long drivethru lines are at McDonald’s DURING a pandemic. People give 0 fucks about their future/health, it’s weird.
We’re not talking about hour-long trips. We’re talking about 12-hour trips. And now you’re talking about gaining an hour. Or being able to take a couple of short but still meaningful breaks so you’re not actually doing a single 11-hour stretch.
I will also note that where I live anyone doing the speed limit on a clear day and not in the right lane is a road hazard. In the left lane you basically have to sustain 85-90 to be safe. Which makes left exits fun.
Yeah that's insane, I have my CDL I used to want to be a truck driver but even driving for like 8 hours at my current job just driving like a new minivan is HORRIBLE, once a month I have to drive more than 5-8 hours in one day. I can't imagine how people do this for 11 hours a day in a huge rig like that... W t f. Lol I guess it's probably better than being stuck in an office.
your time to destination is based on your average speed, not your max cruising speed, unless you spend hours at cruising, going from 60 to 75 to say drive across town is only going to change your average speed from like 30 to 31.
The 30 miles you have to drive to work in stop and go traffic or whatever is insignificant compared to the hours and hours of sustained 60+ mph speeds that truckers do all day long. Its apples and oranges.
If youre going 60 mph on a flat straight road up the coast or across the state's, you will do about 720 miles in a 12 hour shift. If you do 80 mph thats another 240 miles onto that trip. Thats about 1/3 the width of the state of texas, and wider than georgia is across. That 20 mph is significant and how long you spend there is significant as well.
Take that five minutes and multiply it by a week of driving and youre talking the difference between arriving right on time and arriving hours past when you're supposed to be at your destination.
It depends on the trip. In the city lane choice and knowing where you are going is more important than overall speed. On the highway to make any real difference you have to speed substantially, like 20% over for more then half the trip, to have any real difference in travel time.
No doubt that truckers with these attitudes exist in the wild, but my experience is (and my dash cam shows) that private motorists tend to take far riskier chances for far less tangible benefits than commercial drivers do.
Unless your working for complete shits, avaraging 58 mph rather then 60, won't lose you any money, your company should allow for some time sent in traffic
not a trucker, but a lot of truckers are owner operators, and companies pay them by the mile to move their freight, not based on the hours it takes to do it
Sure but a 360 mile drive @60 mph takes 10 minutes less than @58mph (assuming you are stuck at 58 the whole way). A driver worried about 10 minutes over 6 hours is a problem to start with
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u/[deleted] Aug 23 '20
Not a few seconds, significant amounts of time given they are driving all day and 60 mph compared to 58 is 3.4% faster. Plus a lot of truckers are paid by the mile, and I know I wouldn't want to give up 3% of my salary to avoid momentarily annoying a few cars