[O.K., so it’s a slow day at the office…]
So, anyway, on the way into work this morning I got stuck behind a garbage truck. It took me something like 5 minutes to go 2 blocks, and the whole time I kept thinking, “Could there possibly be a more annoying vechicle to be stuck behind?”
The worst one I could think of was a gravel truck (especially on a bumpy road), but I thought I’d open the topic for debate…
Barry
I was stuck on a highway behind one of those trucks that pumps out septic tanks once… in a convertible… while on a date. I didn’t notice until it was too late (and where is that barfing smiley when you need it?)
The school buses here kill me. I don’t mind that they’re slower, but damn, they stop every 20 f*cking feet to pick up the kids, instead of having them walk a few feet to one local spot for a pickup.
Y’know, back in my day…
An SUV.
The trucks in Livermore that everybody is always up in arms about are the ones going to and from the gravel quarry.
They are SO SLOW and scatter little rocks all over, creating lots of broken glass. If it hits your headlamp you might not even know until dark.
Not only are they heavy and slow, but they can’t stop in any reasonable distance, which the unaware don’t appreciate, causing accidents.
A Hummer full of monkeys flinging their feces at me.
Back in the early eighties I was part of a group that was going backpacking in central Colorado. We went in two cars, my then new Ford mustang and a VW rabbit that had a diesel engine. Everything went fine unit we hit the first real mountains west of Denver, I was following since the driver of the rabbit was “The leader” and was the only one on the trip that had been to the place we were going. I swear that I first thought that he had caught his tires on fire, the black smoke coming out of the back of that thing was so thick. I only stayed behind him for another few secs and decided that I would go first even if I had no idea where I was giong. Getting lost was a better choice than passing out from diesel smoke.
Going back from Italy once, we approached and finally overtook a car spilling a steady flow of gasoline like water from a garden hose onto the highway.
Pretty damn scary.
Gravel truck. Replacing a windshield is an expensive thing - I don’t need to do it again.
A city bus. Those things REEK.
A dump truck that’s not covered. I’ve had nasty things flung onto my windshield from those. Fortunately more and more places are requiring that they be covered while on the road.
A log truck. Being anywhere near a log truck in my little car scares the bejeebus out of me.
Amateurs, your all amatuers. I was driving a vanpool and about 200 feet in front of me there was an accident, one large truck pulling a trailer and a couple cars. The trailer tipped over on it’s side. Inside the trailer was the remnants of a meat packing plant, the truck was on its way to a rendering facility. The smell was sickening, there were folks trying to help but the smell was so over powering people were puking all over the place. I inadverdantly stepped in some of the slop on the road while attempting to help. After the trip home was resumed, the odor was in the van, we thought it was just in the air. Half an hour later, the aroma was still fresh. My shoes were hung from a bike rack the rest of the way home. The next morning the van still reeked, I had to remove the carpeting to get rid of the smell. The most powerful cleaners could not get the smell out of my shoes, I had to throw them away. I take any of the above instead of a rendering truck.
Gravel trucks are the worst, IMO. They take a long time to get up to speed and once they’re moving I run the risk of having my windshield getting chipped up by flying gravel. Just about any large vehicle is unpleasant to get stuck behind because of how long they take to get moving after being stopped. Few things suck in traffic as much as coming up to a red light and there’s a big truck in each lane. :mad:
School buses are annoying, too, having to stop along with them as they pick up or drop kids off.
As for smaller vehicles, I can’t stand getting behind any vehicle that continuously spews smoke out of its tailpipe. How they pass emission tests is beyond me. Also, any vehicle whose back window is angled just right to the sun so that I get an annoying glare in my face.
I once made a poor decision to try and follow an ambulance that was carrying a family member. I will never try that again.
I don’t know. Gravel trucks are annoying as all heck, true. They’re usually pretty easy to avoid, though–and, as they can cause appreciable damage to my car, I make a special effort to do so.
What bothers me the most is being between two semis on a multi-lane highway. It’s especially bad when one of those semis is carrying a big-ass tube that I’m afraid is going to slip its moorings and come crashing down on my modestly-sized car.
I don’t know about annoying, but I am terrified of following those car-transport trucks. I’m always certain something’s going to unhitch itself and all those cars are going to land on top of me.
Around Sacramento (CA), an unpleasant thing to be behind is a tomato truck. These things are loaded at the fields fuller than full, so they can arrive at the Campbell’s soup plant full. During tomato season, the highways are red from all the spilled tomatos. Cars get pretty well spotted in red as well.
But, I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned driving up a mountain road, all curves and switchbacks, and being behind an RV for 25 miles. And do their drivers understand the significance of those road signs saying “TURNOUT”? Of course not!
A van with its rear doors open, containing a bunch of guys pointing machine guns at me. :eek:
I’ve always hated the farming implement vehicle doing 4 mph in front of me. With some dude waving me around, even though there’s oncoming traffic.
I’ll nominate amateur haulers on the expressway - either an old pickup with scrap metal casually dumped in the bed, or Mr. Fix-it with a load of PVC pipe or a mattress tied on top of the family car and inadequately secured.
Had a sheet of corrugated metal fly off such a truck in front of me a couple of years back. Reacted, rather than thought. Still not sure how that thing missed our car.