As per my last thread on I-40, I commute on a busy interstate (mostly because its the only reasonably fast way to get there from here).
Well, I have a new hatred: Truckers in the morning. Look, people, its blatantly obvious that there will be many on ramps through town. Why the hell do you not get out of the way, over into the middle lane? One truck can easily block off two or even three cars, so get the bloody hell out of the way!
Is it your personal goal to force people to accelerate 30+ MPH over a 100 foot strip so they don’t get run off the road or smashed by you?
Did you ever notice that triangular sign on the entrance ramp that is marked YIELD? It’s not for the trucker, or anyone else on the roadway, other than the vehicles entering the main road. Two choices apply: match your speed and safely merge or wait. (What a concept):rolleyes:
It has been a few years since I drove large trucks, but I do recall that I’d make it a point to get into a slower lane miles ahead of my exit, as 4 wheelers delight in zipping around on both sides without any consideration to safety.
Also, most state’s traffic laws require trucks and busses to keep to the right lane. I don’t know about Tennessee, specifically, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t have similar laws.
Hey Dances, did you ever stop at one of those yield signs when you were driving a truck? (Yes, I mean when you were entering the highway).
Some of those urban ramps have very little room to accelerate. If you stop or drop speed when entering - you are hosed.
I have two vehicles. One is a nice economy four cylinder that gets great mileage but I wouldn’t want to drag race in it. The other is a pickup with a big ol’ V8. My truck would have no problem yielding on the entrance. My economy car would be toast if I had to stop it at the yield sign.
I see your point about needing the right lane if you have an exit soon, but I’ve also been in smiling bandit’s position and had to choose between racing a truck or decelerating to the point were I couldn’t enter the highway at any speed above 40MPH less than the flow of traffic.
I’ve seen truckers on I35 going through Austin move to the left lanes just so they wouldn’t be part of some horrible accident involving the entrance ramps so you may have a few brethren who disagree with your opinion.
It’d help if they weren’t going 15-20 over the speed limit. Though I suppose I can’t complain about that since you practically have to.
The next exit is a mile down the road, true, but mostly they are getting on the exit right before this one. Its a huge truck stop, and lots of them spend the night there.
If the previous exit (where you say the trucks are entering from) is also a mile back then you are asking for a lot from one of those trucks in that short mile. They don’t accellerate that quickly and so to get up to traffic speed themselves and to have found a safe place to merge left in under a mile is not that feasible from what I remember from riding in such trucks as a kid.
Yes Bubba, I have stopped at the end of a ramp. Waited waited and waited. Impatient shits behind me can honk their honkers off-I won’t enter a highway in an unsafe manner, particularly if I cannot accelerate to match the speed of those in the roadway and don’t have a reasonably clear lane.
Your premise is valid in that if I’m doing a drive through of a metro area, I’ll get out of the low speed lane to allow other motorists to merge easily.
The odd thing is, as I stated in my earlier post, if I move to the middle lane, some SOB in a 4 wheeler will jump to my right and block the open entrance that I’d sought to afford another motorist attempting to enter the roadway.
All things considered, truckers are far more considerate and safety conscious than the cell-phone jabbering, makeup-applying, eating, shaving self-absorbed asshats who proliferate our roadways.
The law generally requires traffic entering an expressway to yield, as indicated by signs.
Courtesy of the road suggests that when a vehicle proceeding down the expressway in the right lane observes someone accelerating down an on-ramp, that the driver check to determine whether he can safely move left a lane, that he do so to permit unimpeded movement by the vehicle entering the expressway. He’s under no obligation to do so – it’s a courtesy extended when safe.
If you have to stop, you have to stop. About eight times a year (four each way), I use the ramps connecting US-15 with PA-581, and I nearly always must come to a full stop, wait for a brief interval, and then accelerate like Hell to enter the flow of traffic in the momentary break that allows me to do so.
Around here, traffic nearly always is mellow enough to permit such merges without any stop, and people nearly always move left to allow it. I nearly always do (always when safe) and most of the time people will do it for me.