Dallas County plans to keep semis out of the inside lane, claiming that other traffic shouldn't have to change lanes so often. Does anyone live in an area where this has been tried? Is it really effective?
Dallas County Begins Ban On Big Rigs In Fast Lane

~curiousRob

 

Round these parts the only time you see one in the fast lane is on a 2 laner and just for passing. If its a 3 or 4 lane I think its illegal. seems to work I suppose. Only problem is stinking cars in the fast lanes will slow down to the same speed when passing on a hill or darn near stop for some freakish reason. I still havent figured this one out. The mind works in odd ways eh? Its usually faster for me to stay in the slow lane going up our local several mile long grade. Are trucks actually allowed to travel in the left lanes all the time there??

 

i think FL outlawed driving in the hammer lane as well. any trucker that knows anything knows to stay in the slow lane except when passing. i don't see how 4wheelers have any more right to drive faster than commercial drivers. nothing is worse than driving along with the cruise set at 70 and coming up on one of those 20 wheel 100ton cranes going 40mph. sorry but if i get behind one of those i'm going to pass it regardless of the law.

i think more resources should be spent on educating the general public on how to safely operate a vehicle. we commerical drivers already know how to drive.

 

If the truck wants to get in the left lane and speed at 65 (10 over the limit), and I want to maintain the speed limit at 70, the truck is breaking the law and impeding. Don't say all truck drivers know how to drive. You might, but not all and even the good ones have their day just like everybody else. For example, at this moment there is an unloaded, overturned milk tanker tying up the junction of 196 and 131 in Grand Rapids, Mi. Fortunately he has minor injuries, though he was transported. He wasn't even belted in. No other vehicles involved, just took the ramp too fast.

 

I drove trucks in the distant past and have been drivivng again for a local farmer here lately so I sympathize whith their cause, but do they slow traffic down in the fast lane, YES. Even when they are trying to pass each other they still take 15-20MPH off the general public who's time is just as valuable. And I have seen these trucking schools pumping people out as fast as they can pay there money and no most of them can't drive worth a spit.

 

Its that way in Austin, and as a driver I think it sucks.

 

Big trucks must stay out of the left lane here in Western Washington unless it's only 2 lanes. I think it works. Where I-5 goes through Mount Vernon and Bellingham it goes to 2 lanes, Bellingham has a couple very short onramps
and you can't blame the truckers for staying in the left lane, to hard for them to get over if they are in the right lane and all of a sudden there are cars trying to merge into traffic.

 

The only place that it helps traffic flow is in states where the unsafe law is that truck have to go slower than cars. The day when trucks can not keep up with traffic is long over. Truck related traffic accidents are higher in states that make them drive slower. If you want to make a dent on traffic, make the left lane trucks only and there will be a reduction in traffic problems.

States with split speed limits also encourage cars to have a superior feeling that they are more allowed to use the roads than trucks. Four wheelers need to wake up to the fact that trucks are catching their numbers and belong on the highway the same as they are. You always have some old coot in an suv trying to slow down the trucks that he feels are driving too fast at the speed limit in Alabama Georgia and other sensible states without the split limit. Here we drive the speed limit and use the left lane at will. Annoys the heck out of 4 wheelers from California Illinois Ohio and the other anti truck states. Restricting the left lane only says that cars can go faster than the speed limit but trucks can not.

What gives the car more right to a road that a truck pays ten times the taxes to build. Only that cars have more votes than trucks. That will one day come to an end as fuel goes up and trucks catch up in numbers with cars.

 

Totally agree with Haulin in Dixie. The other thing that I have noticed lately is that these newer fuel efficient cars cant run the speed limit! They get on a grade and drop below the posted limit. When ever I haul my trailer and just roll into the throttle, instead of trying to maintain a set speed limit, I find myself passing the same little beer can car a good 15 or 20 times. These are also the same idiots that are going 80+ on the flats and down hill. If anything I think that they should make a law saying that if your car is under say 200HP you need to be in the left lane and let the rigs with 425+ HP run just as fast in whatever lane they want. I always see rigs passing these little eco boxes on hills also.

 

The big problem for us in Edmonton is in the city. You'll get three trucks lined up side by side at a stop light and they hold everyone up. Get to the next stopligt and the same three are right there.

 

Ok on the blvd, that is a completely different problem, and I can see a restriction on that type of road.

 

Valid points Haulin, but here all traffic must make an effort to get over to the right lane, not just trucks. Cars tie the left lane up just as bad. But I disagree a little on the split-speed. There you start getting into stopping distances, full loads at higher speed damageing the road, engineering of curves, etc. Regardless of how I or anybody feels about car speeds, I don't see this state dropping back down to 55 after haveing a taste of 70, especially after the latest report of seatbelt use going up from 80-82% and fatalities going down.

 

As shown by studies and recommended to the states from the federal, the safest that trucks can drive is at the same speed and flow as cars. This allows the necessary stopping distance to be maintained between the truck and the next car.

Trucks going slower causes constant passing and weaving of cars around them and pulling in front of the truck as less than the necessary distance for the truck.

Trucks (as well as cars) that tailgate are unsafe regardless of the speed.

On flat ground, the slower speed is beneficial both for economy and pollution, but for both cars and trucks. On hilly ground, not up mountains, the faster speed keeps the traffic moving instead of braking down the truck to speeds of the 40's. A loaded truck of todays power can maintain speed up short hills at 70, but at 55 must down gear a couple of times and labor up the hill.

And I am very much in approval of the law as it stands, only enforced, keep right except to pass, but for all vehicles.

 

Truckers have a lot more obstacles in there way campared to a tin can hybrid. So why don't they get respect? They deliever what the people need and they still complain about the rigs on the highway. I know many truckers couldnt drive worth a spit but the good drivers get the bad reputation because of that. People need to be a little more educated towards the trucks and understand we dont pick up as fast and obiously we have more to worry about than pleasing the car beside us.
If you have it. A truck brought it

 

There are alot of good truckers on the road, that's a fact and we need them there. I'm not so afraid of the idiot in a little sports car as I am the idiot in the truck though. I used to run a dedicated route right into downtown St Louis every morning during rush hour and it didn't matter if the lane you needed into was clear for a mile back as soon as you hit the turn signal to move over every car back there would floor it just to keep you from getting in front of them. But it is just a fact that when a big truck pulls into the hammer lane to pass another truck odds are pretty good that cars are gonna pile up behind him cause he's gonna be there for a while. And yes the cars are probably speeding but that doesn't matter because right or wrong that's the flow of traffic in that lane and the trucks hold it up.