I was driving near Boston, in the 2nd lane. Signs were up that the right lane was closed ahead. When I reached the obstruction (road crew), there were 2 vehicles in the right lane ahead of me but behind the car in front of me, and one vehicle beside me. A silver crew-cab pickup was roughly level with the rear guard on my trailer (yep, this happened while I was driving the Peterbilt of Natural Selection).
Even though a merge is supposed to be like a Chop Suey house (one from column "A", one from column "B"), I let the 3rd guy go too (rather than just the 2 who were clearly ahead of me), staying level with his rear bumper (to avoid leaving space for the silver pickup, who was clearly behind me). Cue the Masshole, who gunned it and tried to cut me off. Since I was carrying a load of SC brains (had made my delivery, and was on my way to pick up my backhaul), my acceleration was better than normal. Pickup couldn't get ahead of me, and when he tried sliding into the (occupied) lane, I leaned on the horn. He didn't get far enough ahead to cut in before he had to stop to avoid hitting the work crew's truck.
After he got past the obstruction, he got back in the right lane, and as he passed me he "flipped me the bird". Clearly he didn't understand:
1. "Merge" is supposed to be alternating traffic. It's not like I was stuck to the bumper of the guy ahead of me to "starve" the other lane - I was letting 3 vehicles through instead of just 1.
2. When changing lanes, you are supposed to yield to traffic already in the lane you want to enter.
3. If you cut over in front of another vehicle, and get hit, where on your vehicle is the impact most likely to take place? Since you can't cut over until your front wheels are ahead of the other vehicle's bumper, that puts your driver's door directly in the path of the front right corner of the other vehicle.
Fun fact #1: Pickups, vans and SUVs don't have to meet passenger car safety standards, including the requirement for side impact beams.
Fun fact #2: Even without fun fact #1, side impact beams are designed for protection against class 1 vehicles. A class 8 rides higher than a class 1, and is far bigger and heavier, so it'll either go above the side impact beam, or right through it.
Fun fact #3: A "Texas bumper" is made of steel plate roughly 3/16" of an inch thick.
Put all this together and you get the conclusion that someone who tries to cut off a big rig, but miscalculates, is likely to wind up with a large piece of steel sharing space with the driver's seat. The Masshole barely avoided a Darwin award.
Even though a merge is supposed to be like a Chop Suey house (one from column "A", one from column "B"), I let the 3rd guy go too (rather than just the 2 who were clearly ahead of me), staying level with his rear bumper (to avoid leaving space for the silver pickup, who was clearly behind me). Cue the Masshole, who gunned it and tried to cut me off. Since I was carrying a load of SC brains (had made my delivery, and was on my way to pick up my backhaul), my acceleration was better than normal. Pickup couldn't get ahead of me, and when he tried sliding into the (occupied) lane, I leaned on the horn. He didn't get far enough ahead to cut in before he had to stop to avoid hitting the work crew's truck.
After he got past the obstruction, he got back in the right lane, and as he passed me he "flipped me the bird". Clearly he didn't understand:
1. "Merge" is supposed to be alternating traffic. It's not like I was stuck to the bumper of the guy ahead of me to "starve" the other lane - I was letting 3 vehicles through instead of just 1.
2. When changing lanes, you are supposed to yield to traffic already in the lane you want to enter.
3. If you cut over in front of another vehicle, and get hit, where on your vehicle is the impact most likely to take place? Since you can't cut over until your front wheels are ahead of the other vehicle's bumper, that puts your driver's door directly in the path of the front right corner of the other vehicle.
Fun fact #1: Pickups, vans and SUVs don't have to meet passenger car safety standards, including the requirement for side impact beams.
Fun fact #2: Even without fun fact #1, side impact beams are designed for protection against class 1 vehicles. A class 8 rides higher than a class 1, and is far bigger and heavier, so it'll either go above the side impact beam, or right through it.
Fun fact #3: A "Texas bumper" is made of steel plate roughly 3/16" of an inch thick.
Put all this together and you get the conclusion that someone who tries to cut off a big rig, but miscalculates, is likely to wind up with a large piece of steel sharing space with the driver's seat. The Masshole barely avoided a Darwin award.
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