Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×
 


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 05-28-2021, 07:04 PM   #41
Rivet Master

 
2007 22' International CCD
Corona , California
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 9,180
Sturgeon’s Principle: 90% of everything is crap—T. S.

10 points to the person that knows who said this first.

(Drivers included).
__________________
Rich, KE4GNK/AE, Overkill Engineering Dept.
'The Silver HamShack' ('07 International 22FB CCD 75th Anniversary)
Multiple Yaesu Ham Radios inside and many antennae sprouting from roof, ProPride hitch, Prodigy P2 controller.
2012 shortbed CrewMax 4x4 Toyota Tacoma TV with more antennae on it.
rmkrum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-28-2021, 07:17 PM   #42
3 Rivet Member
 
mykytiukr's Avatar
 
1965 24' Tradewind
almena , Wisconsin
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 171
Welcome To My World!

Coming from a regional truck driver in the upper midwest. The farther southeast you get, the worse it is!!!!
mykytiukr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-28-2021, 07:33 PM   #43
Site Team
 
richard5933's Avatar

 
1994 25' Excella
Waukesha , Wisconsin
Join Date: Sep 2020
Posts: 5,558
Images: 5
Quote:
Originally Posted by mojo View Post
...However, there was a time in west Texas when old timers would move over to the shoulder to let faster traffic pass by. That was cool...
I learned to drive in Texas in the 70s and that was the situation then. If the shoulder was wide enough to drive on safely, you were expected to pull over for others to pass when possible. I miss the manners people had back then.

Of course, in those days it was also quite legal to drive with a long-neck bottle of beer in one hand and a long gun mounted in the back window.
__________________
Richard
11018
1994 Excella 25 Follow the build on Gertie!
1999 Suburban LS 2500 w/7.4L V8
1974 GMC 4108a - Custom Coach Land Cruiser (Sold)
richard5933 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-28-2021, 07:41 PM   #44
Rivet Master
 
eubank's Avatar

 
Airstream - Other
2016 Interstate Grand Tour Ext
Bosque Farms , New Mexico
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 7,028
It takes significant effort to flunk a driver's training course. I guess the only thing that one must admit that some people don't have that much difficulty flunking the course.

Lynn
__________________
ACI Big Red Number 21043
eubank is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-28-2021, 08:22 PM   #45
Rivet Master
 
Silvr_Bullet's Avatar

 
2017 16' Sport
N/A , N/A
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,789
I pride myself in practicing defensive driving. Rule # 1 when driving in the slow lane, if a driver pulls up ahead of me on the left and there is 2 car lengths between that person and the car in front of them, be prepared to be cut off, never fails. Rule #2 when driving in the right lane and a vehicle is coming down the entry ramp to merge in front of me, expect to be cut off…so I slow down and yield. Rule #3 when I observe some driver weaving in and out of traffic behind me, it’s time to pray…it’s unpredictable what that drivers actions will provoke. Rule #4 ( not really a rule ), ‘ didn’t that police cruiser see what that driver just did?’ Rule # 5 stay clear of motorcycles, last year a passenger on a motorcycle bike on my left at a stop light leaned to one side of the bike and the cycle operator in the opposite direction, and down they went. Luckily they walked away, I hope they didn’t have injuries that they weren’t aware of in the moment. BTW, it was several motorcycles traveling together. When Air-streaming most people don’t like to drive behind you, so that’s something to watch for too.
Silvr_Bullet is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 04:49 AM   #46
Rivet Master
 
2017 19' International
Tallahassee , Florida
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 938
Quote:
Originally Posted by Minnie Jewel View Post
I too was taught by a coach in Texas ... to speed up on the ramp to the same speed as the highway traffic, with blinker on, find an empty spot, and merge with the traffic. I still do it that way.
"Coach" taught me to get to a speed greater than the traffic flow, if needed.

I'm often yelling at the lame mergers, "Speed up!"
WhereStream is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 04:55 AM   #47
Rivet Master
 
2017 19' International
Tallahassee , Florida
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 938
Quote:
Originally Posted by SouthForkAS View Post
I was born and raised Miami.
Came to LA to goof around for a couple weeks... back in '80. Very surprised how well behaved most drivers are in SoCal so when I see FL tags, I turn around and go the other way
Miami traffic, unpredictable, the most so in a state known for exciting driving conditions.

I definitely see regional, even city-specific, driving styles. In Mississippi, for example, drivers do OK, but get to Jackson, the largest city, and, wow, it is like Little Miami. Lots of zoom and swoosh going on along I-55 through the heart of the capital.
WhereStream is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 05:01 AM   #48
Rivet Master
 
2017 19' International
Tallahassee , Florida
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 938
Quote:
Originally Posted by n2916s View Post
You left out that in Florida ...
There are no vehicle inspections — if you can get it rolling, you can drive it down the Turnpike at 90.
Yes, no vehicle inspections in Florida. That must sound crazy to people in other states.

Those ended years ago, when a governor's daughter spent too much time in the inspection line ...
WhereStream is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 05:02 AM   #49
Rivet Master
 
2014 20' Flying Cloud
Sag Harbor , New York
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 17,523
The New Jungle

Welcome to the new jungle!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OTRA15 View Post

"Wake up" . . . I guess [IMO] . . . "common courtesy" is long-gone . . .

Add in 2 years of metastasizing "Covid Brain Fog" . . . and it is now officially a "jungle" out there . . . er . . . here!
. . .
"Mo' people . . . mo' problems!"

OTRA15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 05:36 AM   #50
Rivet Master
 
Silvr_Bullet's Avatar

 
2017 16' Sport
N/A , N/A
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,789
The end game here is that people need to merge into the traffic flow, consideration for both situations either in the flow or entering the flow, would be a good thing.
Silvr_Bullet is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 06:46 AM   #51
Rivet Master
 
2017 20' Flying Cloud
Williamson County , Texas
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 813
Images: 1
Quote:
Originally Posted by new2trailer View Post
.......... California was a revelation of how nice driving could be. I could put my blinker on and merge. The through drivers understood how hard it was to find a space in dense traffic so they yielded.

....................................

Mike
In my experience Texas drivers are in general also really good about drivers being courteous and opening up a gap to drivers who are signaling a lane change. I was in Austin the other day and realized I needed to get over 2 lanes and figured it would take me 2 blocks to do it but as soon as I signaled all the drivers to my left opened up a gap and let me change over. Likewise on the freeways. Bear in mind it works two ways as you are also expected to immediately open a gap for someone signaling a lane change (as it should be).
__________________
2018 GMC Canyon CCSB V6 Mallet Supercharger
2006 Chevrolet CCSB 2500HD 6.6T LBZ
SYC2Vette is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 11:32 AM   #52
2 Rivet Member
 
RuffRider's Avatar
 
2017 28' Flying Cloud
anthem , Arizona
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 27
Merge

I think one of the worst is when pulling the airstream and on the entrance ramp and somebody stops in front of you. Yikes
RuffRider is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 12:16 PM   #53
2 Rivet Member
 
2014 20' Flying Cloud
1994 19' "B" Van Airstream 190
Olympia , Washington
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 78
Just yesterday, driving our B van home - a lady who had been behind us in a long line of traffic to the Interstate (and had multiple opportunities to pass, but never did) - decided to pull up NEXT TO US IN OUR LANE while trying to merge onto the freeway... uh, we were merging and she realized she would be run over so she slammed on her brakes causing multiple other people behind her to do the same. That was in Texas, with those crazy high speed limits on almost every road!
chevl66 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 12:39 PM   #54
Moderator
 
jcanavera's Avatar

 
2004 30' Classic Slideout
Fenton , Missouri
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 10,404
Images: 143
Send a message via AIM to jcanavera Send a message via Skype™ to jcanavera
Quote:
Originally Posted by BAB View Post
Since my Classic is in the shop for $32,000 of repairs (yes, you read that corre
As we were driving our badly wounded trailer home from SC, we encountered something that goes WAY beyond stupid. Several "high speed" Charger RT's weren't going to wait their turn to get in an appropriate lane, so they did high speed burnouts on the shoulder to get around everyone who was patiently taking turns zipper style. All it would have taken would have been the carcass of a truck tire tire to end their fun.
Ran into 4 of those Charger vehicles traveling together south on I-55 on May 1st on the way down to Gulf Shores. It was a scene out of Smokey and the Bandit where these guy were probably doing 90+. I wasn't towing and I was doing 70. All 4 had loud exhaust systems and scared the heck out of us. They were passing everything in site no matter what lane it was in. They had super dark tinted windows and they came up on you so fast and that you wouldn't have time to get out of the way. License plates on all 4 cars were obscured. Probably about a half hour later I noticed the Arkansas State Police apparently got wind of these guys and sent multiple cars. Bottom line I saw they had picked off 3 of the four at various spots on the Interstate. Looked much like as one was picked off the others kept going. I noticed one that was picked off on the outer road so it looked like they tried to evade the police.

Jack
__________________
Jack Canavera
STL Mo.
AIR #56 S/OS#15
'04 Classic 30' S.O.,'03 GMC Savana 2500
jcanavera is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-29-2021, 02:52 PM   #55
Rivet Master
 
2017 19' International
Tallahassee , Florida
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 938
Quote:
Originally Posted by RuffRider View Post
I think one of the worst is when pulling the airstream and on the entrance ramp and somebody stops in front of you. Yikes
Had that happen once on our most recent camping trip.

Fortunately, I could see the driver was not likely to merge — going way too slowly up the ramp — so I gave plenty of room so I was not crowding them when they stopped short.

This did mean, though, that I had to launch a hit-the-gas-hard merge, since I was starting from an almost dead stop.
WhereStream is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2021, 08:01 AM   #56
Half a Rivet Short
 
2017 30' Classic
2022 Interstate 24X
Carlisle , Pennsylvania
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 15,713
Quote:
Originally Posted by WhereStream View Post
......

I'm often yelling at the lame mergers, "Speed up!"
Hi

If you go back far enough, folks were taught that you never wanted to floor the accelerator. The point was that the wear and tear on the drive train was significant if you did this. That wisdom was passed along long after it applied to most vehicles.

Most folks are no longer driving a car from the 1940's or 1950's. The information they are using to drive their car dates back to then ....

Bob
uncle_bob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2021, 08:36 AM   #57
Rivet Master
 
Silvr_Bullet's Avatar

 
2017 16' Sport
N/A , N/A
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,789
Quote:
Originally Posted by uncle_bob View Post
Hi



If you go back far enough, folks were taught that you never wanted to floor the accelerator. The point was that the wear and tear on the drive train was significant if you did this. That wisdom was passed along long after it applied to most vehicles.



Most folks are no longer driving a car from the 1940's or 1950's. The information they are using to drive their car dates back to then ....



Bob


The forces applied from a dead stop as opposed to say from 20-30 MPH to full instantaneous full acceleration is far different. Forces from a dead stop applies excessive torque to the engine and its supports as well as to the engine and transmission fluids ( the result can be seen in heat increases to the transmission and engine coolant temps. ) I wouldn’t make a habit out of dead stop full accelerations unless necessary. Most drivers have an instinctual sense about this. You do not need an engineer degree to know this.
Silvr_Bullet is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2021, 10:09 AM   #58
Site Team
 
richard5933's Avatar

 
1994 25' Excella
Waukesha , Wisconsin
Join Date: Sep 2020
Posts: 5,558
Images: 5
Had a near disaster at an on ramp yesterday driving our vintage coach through Illinois - a heavily loaded semi was coming down the very short on ramp and heading directly at us. Impossible to see him till we approached through a blind curve, and he didn't slow down despite me having no where to go.

In the end I was able to get the brakes slammed on and slow to about 30, and he squeaked by with only inches between us. Not sure who designed brakes for GM buses in the 70s, but I have a few words for him. Definitely a weak point in an otherwise stellar design.
__________________
Richard
11018
1994 Excella 25 Follow the build on Gertie!
1999 Suburban LS 2500 w/7.4L V8
1974 GMC 4108a - Custom Coach Land Cruiser (Sold)
richard5933 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2021, 10:52 AM   #59
3rd RV, First Airstream
 
ETroup's Avatar
 
2021 27' International
Orlando , Florida
Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 148
Send a message via Skype™ to ETroup
I was taught in Driver’s Ed and then later in Driver’s training (when HS actually taught useful things) to accelerate to near the speed limit and merge into a gap in the traffic.

Both the traffic in the travel lane and the merging lane are supposed to adjust to accommodate the merger. The existing lane traffic does NOT have automatic right of way. The sign indicates “Merge” not “Yield”. This is especially true when the on-ramp does not provide a parallel acceleration and merge lane but pushes the traffic straight onto the highway. In lane traffic should slow down, move over to make room or accelerate out of the way.

I have seen several instances where existing traffic deliberately accelerated to close an existing merging gap for the apparent purpose of forcing the merging traffic onto the shoulder or hitting the brakes and stopping. This is illegal and should be ticketed.

Furthermore, it is common practice that a vehicle heading up hill has right of way over meeting a vehicle going downhill. This is because it is harder to accelerate up hill. A typical merging ramp is often uphill and especially in the case of a heavy truck / trailer it takes too long to accelerate up to a safe merging speed so you must start early and cannot adjust very much at the top.

Finally existing traffic approaching a merge has a better line of sight and is in a far better position to anticipate and adjust to enable safe merging. Deliberately making merging difficult or dangerous is an act of road rage.
ETroup is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2021, 12:07 PM   #60
Rivet Master
 
Silvr_Bullet's Avatar

 
2017 16' Sport
N/A , N/A
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,789
The lost art of ... on ramps and merging

Here is a excerpt from NYS Driving Manual, other states I doubt are not much different in context and meaning. There are rules for safely entering an expressway. Everyone may feel they have right-of-way, entering traffic coming down an entry ramp may not have all relevant information to those traveling on the expressway, it may not be safe for the traffic to slow down to allow entering vehicles, although if safe they should.

EXPRESSWAY DRIVING
"Expressway" means any divided highway where traffic moves in one direction on two or more lanes. You normally enter or exit the expressway on ramps (controlled-access). The speed limit is normally 55 mph (88 km/h), but can be posted at 65 mph (105 km/h) in some rural areas. Examples or expressways are the New York State Thruway, major interstate routes and parkways.

Before you travel on an expressway, identify your entrance and exit points on a road map. Know where to get on and off the expressway and be prepared to get into the correct lanes for your entrance and exit. If you enter an expressway going a different direction than you intended, or at the wrong exit, stay on the expressway until the next exit. After you exit the expressway, you can figure out where you need to go and (if necessary) get back on the expressway. IT IS DANGEROUS to back up on an entrance or exit ramp, or to try to cross a median.

Expressway Driving - on ramp



Unless there is a STOP or YIELD sign or traffic light on the entrance ramp, use the ramp to accelerate to expressway speed and blend with traffic. Signal, then look over your shoulder for traffic already on the expressway. If necessary, slow down to safely merge into traffic.

If the entrance lane is too short to allow acceleration to expressway speed, the safest method to enter is to stop and wait for a large space in traffic. Then enter the expressway and accelerate quickly. To avoid conflicts with other entrance lane traffic, stop when necessary and merge into expressway traffic as soon as possible.

As you drive on the expressway, make sure to signal all lane changes and check over your shoulder to make sure you will not cut off any vehicles behind you. Make sure your directional signal goes off after you change lanes.

Remain alert for traffic that enters ahead. If possible, move from the right lane when you approach the entrances to allow more room for traffic entering the expressway from the ramp.
Silvr_Bullet is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How to test your axles...and ruin your ramps. outofcontrol Axles 25 04-27-2015 11:27 AM
Anyone use Ramble RV Leveler ramps? barrettjl Jacks, Stabilizers, Lifting and Leveling 3 04-10-2012 06:41 AM
Flying J and Pilot merging ArtStream On The Road... 16 07-17-2009 09:56 PM


Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Airstream, Inc. or any of its affiliates. Airstream is a registered trademark of Airstream Inc. All rights reserved. Airstream trademark used under license to Social Knowledge LLC.



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:29 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.