# Why do semis block all lanes of traffic on the interstate **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280 "2013-05-25T01:03:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/41 "2013-05-28T17:34:37Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > At least in California (AFAIR), trucks are restricted to the right two lanes. Which is all well and good until there are only two lanes in each direction. IT HAS BEEN DECLARED, DAMNIT. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/42 "2013-05-28T17:57:00Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > This happens to me all the time on I-70 in Missouri (2-lane interstate) when I drive back and forth between Kansas City and St Louis. A line of semis in the right lane, me coming up to pass on the left, and the last semi in line pulls in front of me to pass the others. Most times there is nobody behind me so it seems like the semi driver is just being a dick - if he had waited 15 seconds for me to pass before he pulled over to pass, no problem, but now he’s blocking me and taking forever to get around the rest of the semis. (And yes, they have to pass _every other_ semi on the right before they will get back over.) There is no way this is not done deliberately. Depending on the grade and the load, the 15 seconds to let you pass may mean the difference between the semi doing 50 mph at the top of the hill and doing 5. The reason semis pass each other so slowly is because once they drop a gear, they may have to chase it all the way to the bottom and basically start over. Slowing you down for a few seconds is a better alternative to spending the rest of the grade in the far right lane struggling up the hill with the hazard lights on. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/43 "2013-05-28T20:53:37Z")
Never seen such a thing around here, but most of the interstates around here are more than 2 lanes, so they really couldn’t do it (without more trucks anyway) ---
**Author:** ![asurprenant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f1d935/32.png) [@asurprenant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asurprenant)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/44 "2014-08-27T22:34:40Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > At least in California (AFAIR), trucks are restricted to the right two lanes. Up here (Washington state), they don’t seem to have that restriction – and we have a lot of freeway miles with only two lanes in each direction anyway. I’m in the Bay Area CA and trucks are \*constantly \*in the first, second, third \*and \*fourth lanes during rush hour traffic. It drives me batty and I can’t figure out why the hell they are being so ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/45 "2014-08-27T22:39:53Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Again, where are you seeing this? Chicago. I see it all the time, but it’s nothing deliberate. One is passing the other, and unlike me, they can’t hit the gas, get up to 80, and zoom by the other truck. It takes time. A long time. Sometimes I swear one is going 60 and the other 61, but I’m the impatient sort. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/46 "2014-08-28T00:03:00Z")
> [@asurprenant](#): > > I’m in the Bay Area CA and trucks are \*constantly \*in the first, second, third \*and \*fourth lanes during rush hour traffic. It drives me batty and I can’t figure out why the hell they are being so ridiculous. Which roads? Semis are only allowed in the slow lane and the next lane, and I’ve never seen them further to the left. What bugs me are the trucks in the second lane, moving even more slowly than traffic, and then pushing over to the right to enter the truck scales on 880. Or those who adhere to the truck speed limit of 55 (good) but do it in a a middle lane (bad) when traffic is moving - which happens once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/47 "2014-08-28T00:15:20Z")
I’ve got stuck behind trucks a lot of times, it rarely bothers me. It does bother me when the truck for 1, or 2, or 4, or 8 miles just can’t pass the other truck at 60 mph. “Give it up, motherfucker!” Then when he does finally pass the other truck, I get by and pull over so all the other cars can pass me, he sits approximately 6 inches off my rear bumper at 85 mph. “Yeah, so you couldn’t pass him at 60. Right.” ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/48 "2014-08-28T00:25:48Z")
One case I remember from 40 years ago or so: Drunk driver comes up against a wall of semis, and then another comes up behind him, so he has about 50’ of road. Until the 4th comes and blocks the other lane. Truckers have him completely boxed in and call the cops on their C/B radios. I make it a point to block merge lanes so we don’t have idiots try to merger into the bumper-to-bumper at the end of the lane - get into the lane while there is still some room betweeen cars. And people: When you come up onto a merge lane: either get out of the merge lane (preferred, as the merging idiots will come up bumper-to-bumper) or drop back and create a space for a merging car. It prevents that show of cars stopped dead while they once again figure out that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/49 "2014-08-28T04:15:12Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > I make it a point to block merge lanes so we don’t have idiots try to merger into the bumper-to-bumper at the end of the lane - get into the lane while there is still some room betweeen cars. This behavior should be punishable by public flogging, followed by 2 bullets in each kneecap. It’s “use both lanes to the merge point” for a reason. Your action increases delays needlessly. You are not helping, you’re hurting. Nobody asked you to do this. It is not your job. You are not some auxiliary highway cop. Behavior like this makes life just a little harder than it already is for all the rest of us. Please stop. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/50 "2014-08-28T04:33:27Z")
What is funny is to sit around listening to truck drivers talk about the stuff all the good drivers of cars do. ---
**Author:** ![Osiris\_the\_1st](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de0a6/32.png) [@Osiris\_the\_1st](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osiris_the_1st)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/51 "2014-08-28T15:35:52Z")
> [@Isosleepy](#): > > This behavior should be punishable by public flogging, followed by 2 bullets in each kneecap. It’s “use both lanes to the merge point” for a reason. Your action increases delays needlessly. You are not helping, you’re hurting. Nobody asked you to do this. It is not your job. You are not some auxiliary highway cop. Behavior like this makes life just a little harder than it already is for all the rest of us. Please stop. No, what slows everone down are the jack-asses who wait until the last minute to try to merge into a bumper-to-bumper line of cars. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/52 "2014-08-28T16:29:16Z")
I’ve seen it quite a lot on the stretch of I-35 between Cowtown and Austin. Some parts of this route have been widened to three lanes and trucks are prohibited in the leftmost lane. I hope they start enforcing this rule with Predator drones. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/53 "2014-08-28T18:01:31Z")
> [@Isosleepy](#): > > This behavior should be punishable by public flogging, followed by 2 bullets in each kneecap. It’s “use both lanes to the merge point” for a reason. Your action increases delays needlessly. You are not helping, you’re hurting. Nobody asked you to do this. It is not your job. You are not some auxiliary highway cop. Behavior like this makes life just a little harder than it already is for all the rest of us. Please stop. You’re from Pittsburgh. You seem to know how to do a ‘zipper merge’ in Pennsylvania. I’ve seen helpful signs in that state, saying “road closed, zipper merge ahead, use both lanes until merge”. Sadly, too many places in the country find this approach to be too complex to grasp, and thus 90% of the populace merges left as soon as they see “right lane closed 2 miles” and gets pissed at the other (smart) 10% who don’t because they know a zipper merge is the safest and most efficient, unless they’re taken out of the picture by homocidal idiots. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/54 "2014-08-29T02:45:33Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > If there are 2 lanes on the interstate it is not uncommon for 2 semis to block them both, driving side by side so nobody can pass them. Either they will be staggered or they will be side to side and they will drive like that for miles. > > There are signs on the road saying ‘trucks with trailers keep right’ so this must be an issue. What is in it for them? They make the rest of us drive 10mph slower and they prevent anyone from passing. Why is that something they would benefit from? I probably have seen this once or twice in my life, but such an incident is vanishing rare in my experience. Trucks, and cars, do pass each other relatively slowly. I blame cruise control. Both vehicles are on cruise control and neither wants to go off. Unless they are both exactly the same, eventually one will have to slowly pass the other. But even that is rare in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/55 "2014-08-29T03:01:47Z")
> [@Osiris\_the\_1st](#): > > No, what slows everone down are the jack-asses who wait until the last minute to try to merge into a bumper-to-bumper line of cars. Nope. Using all available lanes to the merge point reduces delays by 15%, and length of backup by 40 to 50%. So say I, but also the Texas Transportation Institute, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, to name a few. What slows it down is assholes who don’t get this, and refuse to take turns at the merge point. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/56 "2014-08-29T11:17:20Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’ve seen this behavior many times. I recently saw it a few days ago. Two semis were driving side by side for miles, each going in the low 60s on the interstate and blocking both lanes of traffic heading eastbound. The semi in the right lane pulled off and the other semi (the one that was in the left lane) then pulled into the right lane and spend up to about 70. > > So that explanation doesn’t work either that they can’t go faster than 60mph. In this most recent incident, the semi sped up to almost 10mph faster than it was going when it was blocking the left lane. > > Maybe in some situations that is what is happening, but that doesn’t explain it. I see car drivers do this more often than trucks. I travel I95 and I295 in Maine and those roads are two lanes north of Portland to Houlton. I will come upon a truck in the right lane doing around the speed limit and some passenger car in the left lane traveling beside it, doing around the same speed. I switch to the left lane to pass the truck and the car takes many miles and minutes to finally pass the truck and move out of my way. About eight of ten times the car will speed up by 10 mph after passing the truck and will leave me in the dust. I would rather share the road with trucks than cars, but when passing a truck, pass it, dammit. You don’t want to be doing 65-70 next to something that can crush you like a tonic can. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/57 "2014-08-29T12:46:45Z")
Threads like this make me want to start an _Ask me about driving in rural Thailand_ thread. On two-lane two-way roads here it wasn’t unusual for a (probably meth-crazed) truck driver to drive down the middle of the road, forcing approaching cars off the road. (Driving has gotten better in recent years – due to the War on Drugs?) > [@bump](#): > > Instead, they do this slow-motion ballet passing- the passer can’t go much faster, and the passee doesn’t want to slow down too much because it’s hard to get back up to speed fast, so the rest of us have to wait while they do their thing. Would slowing from, say, 60 mph to 57 mph be such a hardship? When being passed in Thailand (where passing is often done dangerously) I take my foot off the gas and make it slightly easier (and preparing to brake if sudden danger appears from a side road). I mentioned this to two other Westerners who both thought I was crazy. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/58 "2014-08-30T17:39:53Z")
> [@Isosleepy](#): > > This behavior should be punishable by public flogging, followed by 2 bullets in each kneecap. It’s “use both lanes to the merge point” for a reason. Your action increases delays needlessly. You are not helping, you’re hurting. Nobody asked you to do this. It is not your job. You are not some auxiliary highway cop. Behavior like this makes life just a little harder than it already is for all the rest of us. Please stop. Are you quoting local signage or something? I understand the concept of the zipper and find it logical, but I’ve never ever seen any signs here in this part of New England that tell you to use both lanes until a merge point. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280/59 "2014-08-30T23:59:25Z")
The real problem with losing lanes on the freeways is that people refuse to keep a sensible distance between their vehicles. Either zipper or early merging would work fine if people would stay away from each other, but they seem to get lonely and have to snuggle up on each others’ rear ends. The Germans know that safe following distances allow everyone to go faster in all traffic situations, and they enforce them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-semis-block-all-lanes-of-traffic-on-the-interstate/659280.md?page=2)