People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
RULES:
Trick is to not give a fuck about how fast other people are going, and cruise at 65mph (105km/h) at a safe distance behind a combination tractor trailer.
You can drive without much stress, because impatient drivers don't like to be in that spot behind a truck so you are less likely to be cut off. You'll have plenty of time to react to anything in front, and also be safe in knowing that if there is a pileup ahead, a clear path will be smashed through for you.
Fuel efficiency will even be better in the slip stream.
Unfortunately, to get the benefit of the slip steam, you gotta be pretty close to the back of the truck. If you have space for good reaction time, you're probably too far back
This is correct, especially at lower speeds. Greater fuel efficiency would come from lower wind and drivetrain resistance and use of a more efficient range of the motor’s powerband.
Most vehicles are geared for optimal speed to fuel consumption around 55-65 mph (90-100 kph) not 70+ mph (110+ kph). So just going a bit under the speed limit can have a significant impact on fuel consumption.
Yeah, be at least far enough back be able to see the truck's side mirrors. 'Can't speak for all truck drivers of course, but when I'm driving a big vehicle I actually like that someone "has my back" like this. It's much nicer to have someone trailing me at a safe distance than to have an impatient driver trying to speed me up by traveling too close.
Thank you for being mindful of the passing lane and staying behind another slow moving vehicle if you are going to travel slower than the flow of traffic.
You are most welcome.
There is only one bone I have to pick with people who make "slower traffic keep right", "the left lane is for passing", and "the flow of traffic" type of comments. That is in the case of a commercial vehicle travelling 65mph passing another travelling 63mph. This is a perfectly valid use of the passing lanes on a highway, unless signs or local rules indicate otherwise (e.g. no trucks this lane). In this case, 65mph is the flow of traffic in that area and everyone behind should be aware that they are travelling faster than the flow of traffic until the pass has completed.
The worst part about this scenario is both trucks believe they're in the right. They're likely both set to cruise at the speed limit, but slightly out of calibration making them travel at slightly different speeds.
Also, following a truck will increase your mpg.
And not because of the lower air pressure zone behind the truck; you have to get dangerously close for that.
Truckers spend a fuck ton on fuel, so they have a huge vested interest in driving efficiency. My highway mpg rating is 27mpg, but I got 38mpg on an hour drive by chilling a safe distance behind a semi. It only added like 5 minutes tops to my trip.
Exactly. Similar to how others responded to a similar comment to yours, there isn't much slipstream savings without getting into the danger zone of around 30m (100ft), which you can't get with 3 second gaps at speed.
But you do get more fuel savings from driving at that slower speed, and from coasting and accelerating lightly/cruising. It perplexes me why people alternate gunning it with braking so much on the highway.
Yep. Like having an NFL running back in front of a high school player running the ball. And with adaptive cruise control, easier than ever these days
Poor guy has blue pee
I mean as long as you're not sitting in the left lane people should leave you alone
the only time you should be going the speed limit anywhere to the left of the furthest right lane is if you're passing someone who's going below the speed limit in the rightmost lane
Exactly.
Keep Right Except To Pass.
40 states have “Keep Right” laws. Many of them have “must yield” laws that require slower traffic to move to the right lane if faster traffic approaches from behind. A few states have exceptions where you can use the middle lane temporarily in areas where there is a lot of merging traffic.
There are a shocking number of people that cruise in the center lane slower than prevailing traffic. I don’t get that at all.
40 states have “Keep Right” laws. Many of them have “must yield” laws that require slower traffic to move to the right lane if faster traffic approaches from behind.
It's a damned shame that they don't enforce those laws. The highways would be a lot more pleasant if they did. We have habitual very slow drivers in the Seattle area who love to match pace with another slow driver in the right lane, and block the flow of traffic for miles on end, creating traffic jams and general congestion. From a lot of the comments I've seen on Reddit and Lemmy, they're fully aware that they're inconveniencing everyone, and get some sort of enjoyment and feeling of power from it.
There are a shocking number of people that cruise in the center lane slower than prevailing traffic
These folks frustrate me to no end. Nothing makes me more excited than expanded public transit so I don't need to deal with those jackasses
Here we're taught to go with the flow of traffic. It's safer to go the same speed as everyone else than to be the one car everyone has to go around.
Where is ‘here’?
Anywhere with sensible traffic schools. Accidents are almost always caused by drivers going 10mph faster or slower than the rest of traffic. Being the odd man out in this criteria is dumber than ignoring some numbers on a sign that everyone else is ignoring.
EDIT: Since it's become apparent it needs stated for those of you who missed that week of Driver's Ed, and didn't read the manual; One: I merely quoted the manual; Two: it is INDEED the job of EVERY driver, regardless of their position relative to specific other drivers, to take any actions neccessary to avoid or mitigate an accident in the making. Idiots like you are the reason No Fault states exist.
It takes some real mental gymnastics to put the blame for a crash on the driver going “too slow” rather than the inattentive speeding driver who crashed into them.
Just be careful when driving out of state, I got singled out and issued a citation near Las Vegas going the flow of traffic @ 10-15 mph over the limit.
Here we are taught to follow traffic laws. Of course it doesn't make sense to do that to ridiculous degree but speeding because others are speeding is not something encouraged here. Flow of traffic makes sense if everyone is slowing down, then it's probably hazardous weather or something.
I like to imagine he's actively filtering pee out of the water by sucking it in through his ass and peeing out the filtered water.
Pee is stored in the balls and filtered in the ass.
"Having a smoking section on a plane is like having a pissing section in a pool"
People don’t realize that the idea behind that whole campaign was to get people to start ostracizing smokers, and also make the smokers feel ostracized, so that less people would smoke overall. And it worked!
Look at this loser! He drank a bunch of water and peed in the lemonade pool!
in some cities such as LA, i found it safest to simply drive at the same speed as everyone else. obviously adjust for merging, passenger lanes etc but on those roads being the slowest can actually a danger to yourself and others.
glad i don't need to do this any more in my current city, just two cents
They teach you in driver's education that you should match speed on the highway. Otherwise you impede the flow of traffic which causes far more problems.
I'm from the UK and this isn't too much of an issue beyond the couple of usual idiots. Went to the US though and it was insane, we were getting overtaken by school busses going 95. We were at the speed limit and getting overtaken by almost everything.
It's true. Cities set speed limits with the expectation that the average driver will be driving 5-10 over.
I tried, for a while, to obey the speed limits and my wife told me "Don't you see? You're risking everyone else by driving that slow!". She was right, but WTF?
Pff, whatever. If I've got a right hand lane to sit in and let people pass I'll do 10km/h under the limit (90 instead of 100) and save a non-trivial amount of fuel.
The cost-benefit on that shifts a bit if I need to make a longer trip, but for my usual drives in the 100-200km range that's an extra 7-15 minutes on a 1 to 2 hour trip, which barely matters.
Time is far more valuable to me than gas. I have no problem with people staying in the right lane though you can drive as slow as you want there. The people who are the problem are the ones who want to get in the middle/left lanes and turn their brain off that's what causes traffic to back up. IMO police should enforce proper lane usage rather than speed. This would also stop traffic caused by everyone bunching up when they encounter a cop on the highway because they're scared to pass him.
Not only that, a cop will probably pull you over for driving too normal.
I know a guy who was straight up pulled over for drunk driving because he was going the speed limit. Cop said that only drunk drivers go the speed limit on that stretch of highway at night.
Problem I have is I’m always going faster than the slow lane, so I get over to pass and of course I’m not going fast enough for those lunatics (don’t worry, I don’t block them, I get back over as soon as it’s safe). Half the time I end up giving up and going slower than I want too just because it’s easier.
Not sure if i care, i reach home in one piece and more fuel in the tank.
The speed limit is what's enforced here you are totally fine going 10km over the speed limit only excepion is school zones
Also like wearing a mask in public
But when there’s only one lane on a mountain road and someone is going slow because they are scared of the mountains or scared of a tunnel for some reason…. Like dude pull over and let people pass