Tell me when you are driving so I can stay away because simple physics seem to boggle your mind.
If you seriously think physics is on your side, please let me know and I will demonstrate that you’re a dumbfuck.
And I thought this board was supposedly to fight ignorance, but here it is in full force.
Physics aren’t on my side. Hence the posts about not being able to stop in time for a red light. How come, when I have tried stopping and couldn’t stop right in front of a state trooper, he just went the other way? I’m not stupid, I work hard, and driving a truck is not like driving a car. Cars don’t realize that trucks don’t drive like cars and that it is actually work. If I have to hear that nonsense again, I’m going to scream. Unloading the trailer is easier work than driving a truck.
Because, as I said, you get a little leeway.
If your argument is “sometimes I’m forced to drive through red lights because I’m going too fast to stop for the yellow” and you’re claiming this is perfectly reasonable just because you have gotten away with it in front of a cop, then I’m afraid you are stupid.
I was going slower than the speed limit. If the light turns yellow with only having 200 or 300 feet to stop, I’m not going to be able to stop. I am not stupid.
ANd what I was saying is that cops realize that trucks can’t always stop. I believe they want us to try and I do, but that is why I also said earlier about looking both ways before entering an intersection at a fresh green light. Of course, a stale green light is just as dangerous.
You’re a professional driver and you’re unaware that the speed limit is not always a safe speed, especially for very large vehicles? You may wish to reconsider your “I’m not stupid” claim.
As I said, I was going slower than speed limit. I tend to travel slower than speed of traffic.
“Slower than the speed limit” doesn’t automatically mean “safe.” Being unable to stop your heavy vehicle in time for a yellow light is a sign you’re going too fast, not an indication that the dumbasses around you should give you more room.
According to this from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (PDF!) the federal stardard for an airbrake equipped truck is 355 feet from 60 MPH. The actual average is 298 feet from that speed.
So assuming that you are not speeding on a standard run of the mill 35 MPH limit city street and you have 200-300 feet to stop you have plenty of distance.
You were right earlier, the physics of this is not on your side.
I don’t think YOU read carefully. The merge is in effect after the light; there are NO MERGE SIGNS before the light, which goes from 4 lanes (two straight and two turns) to two to one very quickly. There is only 1/4 of a mile in which to merge.
I tried to get over immediately, but there was no way to do it. No one would let anyone in. Of course I kept driving-- you don’t stop until you have to in moving traffic. If traffic backed up in the right lane, it would quickly back up into a very crowded intersection. It seems obvious that the way things are supposed to work is that the right and left lanes should merge into one in a speedy fashion, which will only happen if people on the left leave a little space between them.
Why can’t people in the left lane be courteous and allow the smooth merging? No need to ride the bumper of the person in front of you rather than allow someone to merge.
We must have very different roads, then. On the roads I’m referring to, the merge signs are way before the light, and then there’s about 10 feet after the light before the lanes become one. Not very much time to merge, therefore it should be done before the light. Yet, I all the time see people not only not merge before the light, but a lot of them will even get out of the left lane where they should be, and get into the right lane so that they can race through the intersection and get in front after the light. Why would you do that? Sheer assholishness, pure “I wanna be in front!!” Those people need to eat shit.
That seems likely. I’m talking about this specific light where the incident with my friend’s housemate happened. There isn’t even a sign that says merge per se, there’s a picture of two lanes going into one. The left lane can go over the dotted line if they have to, though practically, it’s not possible during rush hour because too many cars are always going the other way.
Believe me, if there were merge signs before the light, I would merge. There aren’t. The expectations of the signmakers seem to be that there should be 2 lanes of traffic going straight through the light, and they should merge after the light. The road is a high volume state highway, and it changes width all over the place fom 4 to 2 to 1 and back.
I totally agree with you. This happens all the time and it is assholishness. In the case with this light, though, the road planners are overestimating human kindness by thinking two lanes can go into one in 1/4 mile after a large, busy intersection.
Here is a map of the intersection. I was traveling from left to right. As you can see, the merge is 1/4 mile after the light, which should be enough space for sane people to let each other in.
and you are a expert trucker? There are numerous things that could prevent a big truck to stop quickly. The Truck could be hauling liquid or something you cannot secure and when the truck tries to stop fast the weight of the load shifts forward making it more difficult to stop. Most truckers know this and compensate for that but when a car slams of their brakes he or she might not have time or room to stop.
Regrettably Liberty, if you do hit someone while running a red, you realize (despite that one trooper letting you go) that you will be cited and considered at fault?
If your vehicle takes longer to stop, then you have to drive more slowly.
If a traffic light is going to be red by the time you reach it, you need to have stopped.
A driver of a much heavier vehicle (perhaps carrying a flammable or toxic load) needs to exercise more care.
The person I was responding to was talking specifically about a case where he was going too fast to stop for a red light, not someone slamming on their brakes in front of him.