my new worst enemy: rental moving trucks
04-02-10 | 08:52 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 2,215
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From: Westwood MA (just south of Boston)
Bikes: 2009 Trek Soho
my new worst enemy: rental moving trucks
reasons:
1. big and bulky, taking up the lane (and bike lane)
2. not driven by professionals, thus not used to wide turning radius etc
3. no accountability (I think) - if I call the company and complain, they're just going to say "gee sorry but those are not our drivers"
dimwit in a rented Ryder truck just about steamrolled me while turning through an intersection this morning. didn't even look.
and now that we're coming into moving season (esp. for students) there will be more of these numbskulls on the road.
1. big and bulky, taking up the lane (and bike lane)
2. not driven by professionals, thus not used to wide turning radius etc
3. no accountability (I think) - if I call the company and complain, they're just going to say "gee sorry but those are not our drivers"
dimwit in a rented Ryder truck just about steamrolled me while turning through an intersection this morning. didn't even look.
and now that we're coming into moving season (esp. for students) there will be more of these numbskulls on the road.
04-02-10 | 09:14 AM
#3
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 469
Likes: 1
From: Whitby, Ontario Canada
Bikes: 2013 Brodie Section 8 , 2014 Easy Motion Neo City e-bike
Yep, same thing nearly happened to me last monday. It's not intentional on their part but they're not professional drivers and they're in machines that are just too big for them to drive well. Give these guys a wide berth.
04-02-10 | 09:17 AM
#4
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 289
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From: Cambridge MA
They're a hazard, no doubt about it. But I can't suppress a touch of sympathy, having done several moves in those rental trucks myself. The whole occasion of moving turns you into a "dimwit" and a "numbskull": consider everything that's going through your head while, simultaneously, you're trying to pilot an unusual vehicle in an unusual place!
04-02-10 | 09:18 AM
#5
Pedaled too far.
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 12,851
Likes: 9
From: La Petite Roche
That's why they write "Rental" all over them, to give you fair warning that the driver is clueless and that they should be given a courtesy right of way in all circumstances, because very likely, one day or another you will be one of them, and you would hope that on that day, other people will be kind to you because they know that one day they will be the clueless one in the rental truck.
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04-02-10 | 09:30 AM
#6
Thread Starter
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Joined: Dec 2009
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From: Westwood MA (just south of Boston)
Bikes: 2009 Trek Soho
They're a hazard, no doubt about it. But I can't suppress a touch of sympathy, having done several moves in those rental trucks myself. The whole occasion of moving turns you into a "dimwit" and a "numbskull": consider everything that's going through your head while, simultaneously, you're trying to pilot an unusual vehicle in an unusual place!
04-02-10 | 09:43 AM
#7
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 289
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From: Cambridge MA
To be sure. Discourtesy and recklessness are deplorable whatever you're driving. I thought, however, that you were making a different, and very timely, point about the clumsiness of rental-truck drivers generally.
04-02-10 | 09:45 AM
#8
Plays in traffic
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 6,971
Likes: 16
From: Rochester, NY
Bikes: 1996 Litespeed Classic, 2006 Trek Portland, 2013 Ribble Winter/Audax, 2016 Giant Talon 4
They're not all bad. I got a nice one-mile pull drafting one last night on the way home. It accelerated gently, held a steady speed in the lower 20s, and braked gently. A perfect tow.
