This is mundane to the max, no one I know really wants to do it. Still…
Let’s say a bunch of my friends and I want to take our cars cross-country. And we want to go with them. We contract with an auto transport firm to move the cars. Why can’t we all get into our cars, fasten our seat belts, and ride back there?
Again, we’d all agree to wear our seatbelts. We’d each have our own radios or other in-0car entertainment systems. We could arrange with the driver to stop for food and rest breaks when necessary. We could even use radios or cell phones to chat when the need arose.
I can’t cite why it would be illegal but I’m willing to bet it would. Why? Or have I just stumbled on a new business venture? If so, what’s a good slogan?
I believe it is illegal to ride in a trailer of any kind. It’s also dangerous - trailers have no controls of their own, and they’ve been known to fishtail, jackknife, and turn over. Not a viable business venture, and totally uninsurable, I imagine.
But is it more dangerous to be on the trailer but with my seatbelts on than on the road subject to all those crazy drivers out there? Heck, I’d even be willing to stipulate that we all leave our engines running so as to have the benefit of air bags. (I don’t know if airbags work while the vehicle is in park. I’m just hypothesizing.)
Have you ever seen a trailer overturned on the side of the road? It’s not a pretty picture. I’m not sure seatbelts would make a whole lot of difference, especially if the vehicle was thrown off the trailer. Frankly, I trust my own driving among all “those crazy drivers” more than I trust some trucker who I don’t know. Maybe that’s just the control freak in me.
Too bad more places don’t have the AutoTrainoption. My inlaws came that way from Florida last year - their car was in the auto carrier, and they were in a passenger car, with access to the dining car, bathrooms, and such.
The car transport things I’ve seen are all weirdly angled. I can’t imagine you’d be very comfortable in there. An accident in one of those would turn massive and unfortunate property damage into massive and ungodly loss of limb/life.
Also, if you were to have a life-threatening medical emergency, how would anyone know until they went to unload the cars and you fell out dead?
Automobile safety design over the years incorporate numerous ways to dissipate the energy of a collision, so that your vital organs do not become hamburger.
I am not aware of the same effort for trailers. The few accidents I’ve seen suggest that they are equivalent in ruggedness to a mobile home after a tornado.
So overall, not illegal everywhere, but still not a good idea. (Which I knew at some level.) I like the idea of the train transport, though, and wish it was an option widely-available.
Still, someone drove it up there and someone has to drive it off. It’s the kind of thing I (personally) wouldn’t mind as the monkey bars were always my favorite thing at the playground. Then I discovered the other sex and started making more of a monkey of myself.
I’d love to be driving behind that transport loaded with cars and drivers and, when it slows to to make a turn, suddenly see 8 left arms extend outward, one from every vehicle.
The driver won’t want to coordinate with your need to stop. They want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, stopping only when they need to.
I am agreed with you that nobody can get rid from car transport companies because now they have become necessary for us. We can’t move our vehicle quickly without their help.
