Kiss the Semi
02-20-07 | 07:46 AM
#2
domestique
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,005
Likes: 1
From: off the back
I swear truck drivers don't have to go to driving school anymore. Years ago, they were the best drivers on the road. Now days, they drive like they're in their cars going to 7-11 for more beer. Changing lanes frequently. Hanging out in the left lane going slow. Drifting off onto the shoulder while looking for their cigarettes. All kinds of stupid stuff. It's scary.
02-20-07 | 07:53 AM
#3
Fattest Thin Man
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,648
Likes: 4
From: Directly above the center of the earth
Bikes: Miyata 610, Vinco V, Rocky Mountain Element
A good friend of mine teaches at one of those driving schools for tractor trailer drivers. Some of the stories he tells me are bone chilling. They're definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel for drivers these days.
Az
Az
02-20-07 | 07:53 AM
#4
No one carries the DogBoy
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,320
Likes: 2
From: Upper Midwest USA
Bikes: Roubaix Expert Di2, Jamis Renegade, Surly Disc Trucker, Cervelo P2, CoMotion Tandem
Not that I don't think the semi was wrong, but that didn't hold up to the "Kiss" in the title. I was expecting a collision! I guess I'll just have to go back to watching Crits.
02-20-07 | 08:36 AM
#6
Banned.
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 2,887
Likes: 0
From: Bannation, forever.
I have that happen a lot with semi's. though not because the driver wants to get into a right turn lane. But because they are passing me & are coming back over. Sometimes it is because there is an oncoming vehicle & the driver thinks he is far enough past me. When a semi. passes I slow down & make sure I fall behind them so when they do come over to early there is no chance of collision.
It is a scarier feeling compared to when a car does it.
It is a scarier feeling compared to when a car does it.
02-20-07 | 08:44 AM
#7
The Legitimiser
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 4,849
Likes: 6
From: Southampton, UK
Bikes: Gazelle Trim Trophy, EG Bates Track Bike, HR Bates Cantiflex bike, Nigel Dean fixed gear conversion, Raleigh Royal, Falcon Westminster.
I got run into a curb once as a kid by a bus doing that. It was on a fast descent as well, I must've been doing 25+ when he started to pull into me. He actually did push me into the curb though - shoulder on the bus, braking hard (80's steel rims - not much happening)til my wheels hit the curb. Ouch.
On the road these days, that only ever seems to happen to me if I'm in the car.
On the road these days, that only ever seems to happen to me if I'm in the car.
02-20-07 | 10:13 AM
#8
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 2,601
Likes: 0
From: Arizona, USA
Bikes: Mercier Corvus (commuter), Fila Taos (MTB), Trek 660(Got frame for free and put my LeMans Centurian components on it)
Wow, that is out of the ordinary? Happens quite regularly to me. Kept waiting for the a semi to right hook and then the video ended.
__________________
Sunrise saturday,
I was biking the backroads,
lost in the moment.
Sunrise saturday,
I was biking the backroads,
lost in the moment.
02-20-07 | 10:13 AM
#9
Gemutlichkeit
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,423
Likes: 1
This trucker says:
He missed ya by a country mile. For you guys that talk about what it was like "back then", you're right. There have never been so many cars, mattress delivery trucks, vans, traffic lights, hidden driveways, utility trucks and crews, orange cones, flaggers, glaring ad signs, drunk drivers, digitally-impared drivers, drivers in over insulated, sound deadend, super amped SUV's and yes, morons (or not) on bikes.
There is a mini-mall at almost every corner. Or, a set of commercial driveways wider than some intersections. Coffee huts with three to ten cars lined up, sometimes blocking the only delivery entrance or exit that a semi can use.
There is the growing trend in business to send out tractors pulling 53' trailers because they can push the drivers to work longer hours and deliver to more stops in a shift that way. Used to be that a very large combination was rarely used on urban routes. Not any more. It's the explosion of business that is driving this. We buy more $#!+ from China every year because we love it. What do we expect? There is very little we can list that does not comt to us from a truck - even bottled water. It's one of the all time biggest selling beverages here in the Seattle area - a place that has the finest snow fed drinking water in North America, right out of the tap.
"Back then" was a far more peaceful place - and a far more courteous one. And yes, companies are screaming for good truck drivers. Obviously, the one in the vid did not set himself up for that right turn in time to do it in a safer manner. Hard to say what kind of driver he was - maybe very skilled, as there was no collision. Or maybe very lucky.
In our company, there are 54 drivers. We all drive the big combos. We have to because that's what the economy demands. As far as driving slow in the left lane: that's largely a result of having been cut off from moving over to the right in a timely manner. Usually, a cager won't notice that the rude bastard who caused it has long since moved ahead, leaving the trucker looking like he wants to be there.
Just play heads-up ball on a bike, be predictable, we'll all be fine - mostly.
He missed ya by a country mile. For you guys that talk about what it was like "back then", you're right. There have never been so many cars, mattress delivery trucks, vans, traffic lights, hidden driveways, utility trucks and crews, orange cones, flaggers, glaring ad signs, drunk drivers, digitally-impared drivers, drivers in over insulated, sound deadend, super amped SUV's and yes, morons (or not) on bikes.
There is a mini-mall at almost every corner. Or, a set of commercial driveways wider than some intersections. Coffee huts with three to ten cars lined up, sometimes blocking the only delivery entrance or exit that a semi can use.
There is the growing trend in business to send out tractors pulling 53' trailers because they can push the drivers to work longer hours and deliver to more stops in a shift that way. Used to be that a very large combination was rarely used on urban routes. Not any more. It's the explosion of business that is driving this. We buy more $#!+ from China every year because we love it. What do we expect? There is very little we can list that does not comt to us from a truck - even bottled water. It's one of the all time biggest selling beverages here in the Seattle area - a place that has the finest snow fed drinking water in North America, right out of the tap.
"Back then" was a far more peaceful place - and a far more courteous one. And yes, companies are screaming for good truck drivers. Obviously, the one in the vid did not set himself up for that right turn in time to do it in a safer manner. Hard to say what kind of driver he was - maybe very skilled, as there was no collision. Or maybe very lucky.
In our company, there are 54 drivers. We all drive the big combos. We have to because that's what the economy demands. As far as driving slow in the left lane: that's largely a result of having been cut off from moving over to the right in a timely manner. Usually, a cager won't notice that the rude bastard who caused it has long since moved ahead, leaving the trucker looking like he wants to be there.
Just play heads-up ball on a bike, be predictable, we'll all be fine - mostly.
02-20-07 | 11:14 AM
#10
I see a truck passing in front of you to access the right turn lane.
Was there something special about that?
Was there something special about that?
__________________
This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in a wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.
This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in a wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.
02-20-07 | 11:54 AM
#11
CRIKEY!!!!!!!
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 4,276
Likes: 702
From: all the way down under
Bikes: several
I wish the truck drivers were that courteous around here, I only get that much room on a good day.
__________________
"Surely one can love his own country without becoming hopelessly lost in an all-consuming flame of narrow-minded nationalism" - Fred Birchmore
"Surely one can love his own country without becoming hopelessly lost in an all-consuming flame of narrow-minded nationalism" - Fred Birchmore
