Rant - mimivans in traffic

[redramnc]

Does this happen to anybody else? At least once a commute it seems to happen to me.



I have driven 3/4 ton Dodge pickups for 20 years. Due to the fact that they are heavy and have NO rear wheel weight under hard braking I try to leave myself at least 1-1/2 to 2 car length space in front of me when doing 60+ (and that still makes me uncomfortable).



Now, my commute is 21 miles around the Raleigh Inner Beltline and out to RTP to the airport area. The Beltline is a minimum of three lanes wide. I tend to get to the left lane a cruise at 70-75 along with the rest of the faster traffic.



Every morning it seems that, while I am cruising along in a line of cars doing 70-75 in the left lane, we will come up on a line of vehicles doing 5-10 mph less in the center lane. As the left lane goes by I get a vehicle (this morning it was minivans on two different occasions) that pulls over in front of me and proceeds to be unable to pick up speed. It usually happens on a slight uphill stretch so the offending vehicle actually loses speed in front of me.



I drive a bright red 96 without a silencer ring and effectively straight-piped. You would think that they would be able to see and/or hear me coming along and would wait for me to go by before pulling over in front of me and SLOWING DOWN.



I checked this morning when I got to work and there is no banner on the front of my truck that says PULL OVER IN FRONT OF ME AND GO SLOW. Yet this seems to happen all of the time.



Maybe I should be flattered - my wife says it happened to her all of the time when she drove OTR for a living. They must think they see and hear a semi coming and figure that they can pull over in front of it because it will slow down going up the hill.



Funny thing is that this only happens when I drive the shiny red 96. When I drive the beat up 78 W200 with the snow plow setup hanging off of the front it doesn't seem to happen as much. Maybe the 78 puts out the vibe that it doesn't care if it runs over you while the red truck says I won't hurt you because I don't want to have to be repaired.



I'll have to ask my brother if it happens to him. He drives my old 82 D350 in traffic fairly often. It used to happen to me in that truck also. Wonder if it is just me?



Rant over - I would be interested to hear others stories/comments on this subject.

 

[TORQUE THIS]

ME 2

I think there is a sign on the front of mine that says CUT ME OFF



The funny part is, the person who cuts in front of you gives ya :-{} :-{} :-{} for the next half mile!!!

 

[Shovelhead]

The only thing worse is when the "soccer-mom" in the mini-van cuts YOU off..... THEN gives YOU the one-finger salute.

It happens around here all the time.



THAT'S WHAT SMOKE-OUTS ARE FOR

 

[klenger]

It's even worse when I'm towing my 5er. Nobody wants to be behind a camper in tow, not even for 1/2 block.

 

[illflem]

red, your problem is that you are a safe driver. Whenever I get in an urban area it seems that folks just can't stand it if there is a unfilled space between two rigs and have to fill it to tailgating specs. I hate to be a jerk but have found that flashing my brights when a slow moving vehicle pulls in front of me gets them to move out of the way 99% of the time.

 

[me4osu]

Yep, happened to me today.

I was in a line of cars cruising along in the inside lane with a comfortable gap in front of me. Suddenly, a little "Fast and Furious" wannabe dork in a fart piped mitsubishi cut across three lanes of traffic at I-10 and Mason road to get in front of me. Then, he slowed from 65 to 60.



I see these little idiots do this all of the time on my 50 mi commute. Most of the time they cut right in front of a loaded 18 wheeler. That is the mark of supreme stupidity, and will insure them a sudden and untimely demise.



The worst thing I saw this morning, was a woman in a little brown Saturn station wagon with honor roll student stickers on it. I was sitting behind her at a light when a kid (the honor roll student, I assume) leaned up in the back seat from laying down under a blanket!! She had her seat belt on, and this kid was laying down, unbuckled, in the back seat!! I got as far away from her as I could.

 

[jthorpe]

Originally posted by redramnc

Does this happen to anybody else? At least once a commute it seems to happen to me.



I have driven 3/4 ton Dodge pickups for 20 years. Due to the fact that they are heavy and have NO rear wheel weight under hard braking I try to leave myself at least 1-1/2 to 2 car length space in front of me when doing 60+ (and that still makes me uncomfortable).



Now, my commute is 21 miles around the Raleigh Inner Beltline and out to RTP to the airport area. The Beltline is a minimum of three lanes wide. I tend to get to the left lane a cruise at 70-75 along with the rest of the faster traffic.

Wow, you're close! I travel from Garner to Miami Blvd in Durham every morning and run into that all the time. What really gets me is where I40 turns into 4 lanes from 3 heading toward Durham from Raleigh. You get these guys doing 55-60 mph who move to the left lane, then just sit there doing the same speed. What drives their desire to move to the 4th lane at that stretch? I'll never know. Then the hill starts and they just sit in the left lane the whole time. Argh. It's no better on the way home. Especially those who don't realize they're coming up on the Wade Ave. exit even though they've made the drive 10000 times, they still feel the need to wait until the last second, then cut everyone off when they're 1/4 way down the exit ramp, trying to get back on I40.



Ok, I'm done ranting too.



Jack

 

[M Barnett]

I see these little idiots do this all of the time on my 50 mi commute. Most of the time they cut right in front of a loaded 18 wheeler. That is the mark of supreme stupidity, and will insure them a sudden and untimely demise.

After 26 years of driving a big truck grossing 85,000 I can confirm the stupidity of people doing this. Last night came upon a big truck turned over on I 10 before I got to Phoenix and this may have happened to him. There isn't anything you can do about this problem except back-off and stay calm. If I let it bother me I would have gone of the deep end long ago.

Michael

 

[redramnc]

M Barnett - My wife has said that, during the time she drove for a company, the one thing she always made sure of was that the mechanics hadn't screwed up the brakes on her rig. Her comment was that she didn't want her perfect driving record messed up by 1) some idiot that just had to cut her off and 2) the brakes not working due to somebody "fixing" them. When she became an O/O she had two guys she would allow to work on the brakes - both were older mechanics that she trusted and had never had any complaints about them by anybody else.



It amazes me at the "physics-challenged" people that obviously do not understand momentum and how much energy 85K at 60mph is. People that wouldn't think of pulling out in front of a freight train will pull out in front of a loaded semi, not to mention a loaded pickup/trailer combo.



There is a bumper sticker I would love to be able to find for my vehicles - "Ban low-perfromance drivers, not high-perfromance vehicles. " Of course, if they did that the roads would be mighty empty.

 

[BHaner]

Nothing that a set of 300k CP KC Daylighters wont solve... .

 

[Diesel Freak]

Originally posted by BHaner

Nothing that a set of 300k CP KC Daylighters wont solve... .

I had a set of three daylighters on the front of my old chevy..... occationaly I got cut off at night, and had to hit them with the five suns (had them wired into the high beam circuit with H4 Bulbs in the head lights)..... just the sight of the light beams shooting out their wind shield was enough to make you feel better.



now if I get cut off in the left lane. . I just cruise around them and once in front... let the boost fall off, and give them a nice Diesel salute.

 

[Straight6Jeff]

Illflem, I too would like to flash the lights, but in the Kennedy-ruled Jerkweed state of MA, that is considered agressive driving, which results in a license suspension. But yet the tree hugging, VW driving, granola eating , liberal D-Bags, can cut and weave all they want.

 

[TPCDrafting]

what is this traffic thing your all talking about??

 

[wyosteve]

Out here in the wide open spaces of I-80 it's the dam* big rigs who do it to me all the time. Between the typical west wind and the never ending hills they end up using both lanes at about 50mph. They are much more inconsiderate or maybe ignorant than the mini-vans. There--venting completed!

 

[klenger]

"Traffic" is a condition where you can see more than three cars on the road you are on at the same time. Come on down and we'll show you. You run into it at about the Budwiser brewery north of Ft Collins.

 

[TPCDrafting]

I was just kiddin. I go down to Denver at least a few times a month for work. I agree it's a nice drive till I hit Fort Collins. Then the crazy's get on the road. I concur with wyosteve on the I-80 issue. The truckers drive 90000 mph down hill and 50 up hill and have no consideration for anyone else. I pick on my brother cause he and his wife bought a minivan a while back. I call him "Minivan Dan". Problem is he's about 4 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier.

 

[dseabaugh]

I don't think some people will ever be made to understand. My wife has chewed on my a$$ for 19 years that I shouldn't follow people so far back but you never know what the idiot up front that is too stupid to signal and comes from a state with no inspections so he doesn't have working brake lights either is going to do. I am anywhere from 8900# empty to 80,000# depending on what I am in and what I am pulling and have made every attempt to not get a ticket or be in an accident. On another note though, going down the road in our mini van I told my with there are too many red rams on the road! Just kidding. :-{}

 

[Dkevdog]

Traffic?? Getting cut off?? Nothing a set of Grovers or Hadley's won't fix !!



Kev

 

[DarrellB]

I like the people that are so far up the a$$ of my truck I can't see them out of the rearveiw. and it's always worse when I have a trailer in tow. With the trailer it can be a little more fun though, ever heard of trailer brakes The look on the dumba$$ behind you is just priceless when he see's the smoke roll off those 8 tires on the goose neck and figures out that those legs on the ramps are going through his windshield. :--)



That's what I call a "Smoke Out"



Big D

 

[wyosteve]

Klenger-- How true! and it lasts until you hit the New Mexico border.