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Comments
Well anyway it was just a generic saturday and I pulled the generic tank of of my generic grill to get more generic gas. Well I filled it up at the generic hardware store and secured the generic tank in the back of my generic station wagon. Well wouldn't you know it as I am driving down the generic 4 lane road back to my generic house some generic idiot in a generic BMW SUV got so close that I couldn't see his generic front bumper. :mad:
Since I didn't want to generic heaven this soon I just generically slowed down hoping he would merge into the other generic lane and pass. Nope this generic idiot just stayed on my generic rear end.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
What you fail to understand is that generic idiots never get the generic drift.
Wouldn't you know the guy behind me started honking his horn trying to get me to move faster. :mad:
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
If both of you were side by side, there was no need for you to wait. If you had sped up a bit, you, and very possibly the guy behind you, would have reached your destinations before the semi had even completed his turn. I am not surprised that he was upset. You were holding him up.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
The low boy doesn't have such a rear driver so his trailer cuts into the adjacent lane.
Snakeweasel did the right and safe thing.
Superior drivers "drive" for the other vehicles while the average guy just thinks of only himself.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
A number of truckers are pests on the interstate but about a third of them quickly change lanes for a well-used ramp at my local town's two enterances onto the interstate. The ramp is uphill and the interstate is going downhill which makes it hard to check the lane for traffic as you merge up the ramp. The hillside blocks your view until you're almost up and starting back down to merge. Truckers often clear that right lane for us; they seem to realize it's an awkward ramp unless you're double jointed.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I remember one time coming back from the Quad Cities on I-80 I was clipping along pretty well closing in on two truckers in the right lane. I had gotten into the left lane to pass well behind them when I saw the rear trucks left turn signal come on. No big deal I took my foot off the gas flashed my lights to let him know it was clear and passed him after he passed the other truck.
My passenger told me the trucker looked down gave use a big smile and a wave as we passed him.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Exactly right. I have been stuck behind some peple who are simply afraid to speed up and pass the truck and consequently hold up traffic behind them. How inconsiderate! I see no difference between them and LLCs or those who would not speed up beyond 5 mph at the slightest hint of snow on the road.
No thanks. I would rather have a clear left lane from him, which is kind of difficult, if his buddy (in an equally humongous vehicle) is going at a differential of -1mph in the right lane.
That may not be such a bad idea if your vehicle could not even pass a truck at an intersection!
I have no tolerance for people who drive their vehicles illegally. The law states that all vehicles (unless marked "wide load" and accompanied by a pilot car) must remain within their lanes, and no exception is mentioned for a "low boy". The trucker is the one who needs to wait so as not to inconvenience anyone. I fail to see why I must modify my behavior to suit somebody who is driving illegally.
Time: about 4:00
Weather: partly sunny, but slick surfaces following 2 hours of steady downpours
Place: southbound Hutchinson River Parkway, just after the merge with I-684 and exit for I-287. Several bad traffic problems here: one, there's almost always a bottleneck, as the Hutch goes from 2 lanes, then 4 (incoming merge lanes from the interstates), then 3, then back to 2. On a Sunday afternoon, this will cause traffic to be stop-and-go for 1-2 miles.
Furthermore, there's lots of dangerously pronounced speed differentials on this stretch of road: I-684 has, imo, far and away the fastest average traffic flow of any road in the New York City area. It's three lanes through sparsely populated areas of Westchester, and you can do 80 and be the pokiest car on the road. The southern terminus of 684 merges in with the Hutch via a modernized ramp that's very gradual and can be negotiated at high speeds. On the other hand, the interchange with 287 is cramped and tight and exits and entrances need to be conducted at slow speeds even in the absence of traffic.
So you have a lot of people who've been driving at 90 for the last 25 minutes merging onto a 1930s-era parkway that's one of the few highways around that truly needs a 55 limit, and ugly stuff can happen -- there've been some spectacular wrecks over the years, and I've seen/heard dozens of cars lock up their brakes as they come up too quickly on stopped traffic.
Today traffic was fairly light, and the slowdowns were happening right at the spot where 3 lanes go down to 2, roughly a half mile past the 287 interchange. The roads were soaked -- in fact, we'd gotten stuck in a 45-minute, 4-5 mile stop-and-go 15 miles back in Greenwich, CT, because an old Impreza wagon spun out and crashed into the woods, ending up with a giant tree in its backseat.
I saw the brake lights at the chokepoint, and began to gradually slow down from 65, in the middle lane, all sorts of space in front of me. All of a sudden, I see something at the very limit of the peripheral vision in my right eye. The only thing I can process is that it's something car-sized and its motion is not the motion a car should be making at this point on the highway. Before I can turn my head and look, a half second later my wife says, "Oh my--" and then a Ford Explorer (late 90s) is sliding toward me, with its RIGHT REAR END approaching the front right passenger side of my car, its tires shrieking. This is while we're going 50-55 mph, mind you.
I didn't have time to survey the left lane, but I knew from my last mirror check that there was an SUV back there who'd been gaining on us fairly quickly. But I didn't want to absorb a body check from the back end of an Explorer, either. So I pretty aggressively swerved to the left, and thankfully there wasn't anything there. The approaching SUV turned out to be a Toyota Highlander, and he either saw the Explorer go into its skid and gave us some space, or there was enough left-lane shoulder for him to work with despite my encroaching upon his lane.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a second, we get around the Explorer and back into our lane. Once we were okay, I check the rear view and see the Explorer has abruptly whipped back through the middle and right-hand lanes, and is probably going 15-20 mpg--backwards, but in the direction of traffic--in the breakdown lane. She (my wife saw the driver) managed to stop a few seconds later, miraculously without a scratch as far as I could see. At that point, we were slowed to 5-10 mph, approaching the back of the bottleneck, and I got to keep my eye on what was happening with the Explorer. She sat in the breakdown lane for a couple seconds, then started up again, slowly going forward in the breakdown lane, but facing the wrong direction! And that was the last we saw of her.
It was pretty scary. We were very fortunate that she didn't plow into us when I couldn't see her and couldn't do anything about it. I was very happy with how our car (an 04 Forester) felt during my lunge to the left -- it held the road nicely and did exactly what I told it to. On the other hand, I wasn't as prepared as I could have been -- I was driving with just my right hand on top of the wheel, left arm on the armrest, and while I wasn't actively distracted (just listening to news radio) or fatigued at all, I was driving with the attitude of someone who'd sat through one long jam and was about to enter another, a 45-minute trip turning into a 100-minute one . . . let's just say I wasn't bringing my A game at that point.
I wish I knew what sent the Explorer into its skid. It could have locked up coming off 684; it could have hydroplaned; she could have had a blowout; she could have been avoiding another bad driver and gotten out of control that way. If it turns out she'd been going too fast for conditions, I hope she's learned her lesson. I sure learned a lesson about attentiveness.
In the words of the late Michael Conrad -- let's be careful out there!
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I learned long ago in physics that trucks are much bigger than my Mustang or leSabre. I get out of their way or stay out of their way. If he's trying to turn, I ain't gonna try to make him stay in his lane. If there's a police officer in the line and he wants to make the truck stay in his lane, more power to him.
I watched a truck ooze out across 4 lanes of traffic to make a left turn out of a truck stop in 5 o'clock traffic in our city. He had no other choice but to make cars stop to let him across. Trucker won; but he did it carefully picking a better time to start out to make cars stop.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
No sarcasm,please. It does not work well. It does not help you get your point across.
The is no car made that could have gotten past him without being sideswiped by the low boy.
OK, if you say so. But I do question your judgment about that since the guy behind honked at you to go faster. Nobody could be that stupid.
You needed physics lessons to learn that? Interesting.
I'm not clear what is the problem people are having with the situation here and how to handle it.
There is no problem: it is just that I (and others) have a different opinion than you do. Is that very hard to accept? I did not say I would try to keep the trucker in his lane: what I am saying is that I would not go out of my way (stop at 10 feet behind a stop sign, for example) to accommodate a trucker. Nor do I crave for smiles and waves from a trucker! Comprendez?
And yes people are that stupid this forum wouldn't exist if they weren't.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
As I am coming out I notice this huge overheight van (commercial with plenty of bright advertising on it) so big and so visible passing all the parked cars and pulling into like the fifth or sixth spot. As he was pulling into the spot the car parked in the forth spot backs up just a bit the pulled forward along the parking spots in front of this huge van. The van slammed on their brakes and barely missed that car.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Have a cup of coffee on my tab. We disagree. Movin' on.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
You needed physics lessons to learn that? Interesting.
No sarcasm,please. It does not work well. It does not help you get your point across.
Nobody could be that stupid.
Ok, maybe not so random, my bad :P
james
Oh and the women LLC's who are on their cell phones. Chatting away, pacing the car next to them. :mad:
I hate my commute to work.
I'm sure it has little effect, just like those "Baby on Board" signs of a couple of decades back (and making a minor comeback).
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
On that same freeway, a cop had pulled over a tractor trailer maybe 200ft forward of an onramp. Terrible place for the trucker to stop! They were halfway into the merging lane because the shoulder's narrow there, leaving us very little space to get up to speed. Worse, we were coming out of a metering light, and since it's on a hill you can't see the freeway traffic until you reach that point 200ft behind the cop car.
I gunned it to 60, put on my blinker, took a VERY quick glance at the next lane and jumped in. Hitting a truck would've bounced me right into the police car.
UT does not have helmet laws for bikers, very few rest stops, but a lot of church buildings.
89 only if you have patience. Watch the octane when buying gas. Their regular is 85 and their mid grade is 87.
Since we traveled through Utah in the winter (December), we didn't see any motorcylists, or for that matter any motorhomes that I can recall. But entering the state from Nevada on US Route 6/50, one of the first signs you see is "next services 83 miles." This is a very desolate part of the state, but I did like the "Confusion Range" that we passed through.
Rest stops? Well, there was so little traffic, you could pull off any time nature called and have complete privacy.
Don't try either on I-5 though!
I can beat that.
http://www.alaskaroads.com/next-services-244mi-large.jpg
:shades:
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
People are advised not to travel it as it is a gravel road with lots of trucks traveling it. But if you do bring extra tires and some survival gear.
Yes I would love to drive it someday.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Sorry, I am not a truck worshipper, as you seem to be.
I guess they should replace the "yield" and "stop" signs with "yield to the heavier vehicle" or "stop only if the other vehicle is heavier"! Let's get back to the law of the jungle. Might is right!
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D