Driving a Tiny Car Amongst Semi Trucks

I agree with you. I hate tailgaters, especially when I'm already in the right lane. The first thing I do is stretch out the space in front of me to give some maneuvering room. And then try to get out of the situation, changing lanes if that works, passing the vehicle ahead, or pulling over to let the offender pass. The size of the vehicle I'm in doesn't matter - avoiding hazards ahead is enough work without having to pay extra attention to problems behind. I do prefer drunks/sleepy drivers behind me rather than in front...

 

I live in the busiest part of the country for trucks. There are places I sometimes (accidentally) drive where it is nothing but trucks and no cars. But I take some comfort in knowing a few things. One, truck drivers are professional drivers. As long as there is nothing ridiculous going on like poor sleeping habits or poor truck maintenance, they are safer logistically to be around than any other vehicle. In the fog you want to be following a truck. Two, they are bigger than me. Three, I once dated a trucker and he told me a lot about how to be around trucks. My car was not hit by a truck.

There was a story in my family once where a Fiat Spyder car got pinned between two trucks in New York City, and I know the driver of the car liked his gas pedal. He tried to wedge between them and miscalculated. We laughed and laughed. He wasn't hurt. The car was totaled.

Tailgaters are the worst no matter what is being driven and a truck tailgating you is a stupid driver. You want to be away from stupid drivers no matter what they are in especially a truck. There are signs on some trucks that say "If you can't see my mirrors then I can't see you" and so rule number one, make sure you can see their mirrors. You can indeed pass a truck but it had better be on the left side.

Trucks can only be in the two right lanes of a highway unless there is an interchange or a merge. In a two lane road they have to be in the right lane. Stay out of the right lane in order to avoid being tailgated by trucks. Some truckers believe that the right lane belongs to them.

If a truck is in good condition and the driver is steady, don't worry about the size of their vehicle. Just worry about being too close for them to stop if you stop, and get out of their way if they tailgate. If you want to use the right lane, move to the left and slow your pace to let the overriding truck pass you, then go back to the right lane.

 

I feel relatively safe, it really does not matter if you are driving in a C or Lexus LS when you are up against two semi trucks

 

I prefer little cars in tricky situations...they have more options and can respond quickly. I feel more comfortable in the Pri and in the much smaller Integra 2-door I used to drive than in my lifted 4wd on the highway. Just try to relax, leave plenty of following distance, as you've been doing, and try to anticipate the moves of the other drivers. If you do encounter a panic stop between two heavies, veer for the shoulder (or off the road, if that's an option). Think like a pilot--always have a "landing" in mind.

 

I get nervous whenever I'm being tailgated, be it a Mini or a Semi. But I just open up lots and lots of space in front of me so that I'm assured of being having lots of room for a safe stop if something happens up ahead. If you're going the same speed as the guy in front of you then you'll still get there at pretty much the same time whether there's 10 or 500 feet between you and him.

 

That's when I tilt down the rear view mirror... know that if they hit you they get hit too.
And, that's why I drive an orange painted car.

 

'novice trucker destroys historic indiana bridge' yahoos, cowboys and amateurs, with one of the strongest lobbies in the country.

 

Slow movers ahead and heavy tailgaters behind is always annoying.

 

Drive defensively and stay out of truck sandwiches.

 

If a multi-car pileup occurs on the freeway I figure I'm safer following a reasonable distance behind a truck because he'll plow through most of the cars ahead of him...

 

All in your head. If you get sandwiched between 2 semi's in your Prius C, you are just as dead if you get sandwiched in your company's 4x4 pickup.

Here's a pickup that was caught between 2 semis...

 

That just gets a lot of drivers cutting in front of you, which annoys the heck out of a tailgater more who will perhaps tailgate closer to try to tell you to get out of the way or get going. Leaving a large margin in traffic where you get cut off can cost you 30-45 minutes in commute time on larger city interstates. But then perhaps you think you have every right to the highway (or resent being bullied), so the situation becomes ripe for an accident or a road rage incident.

On the other hand, the driver in back may just is annoyed with folks cutting him off and has closed rank to block sneaks. Drivers can get competitive within the confines of a car, or are just having a bad day.

If you want to play safe, move over and let the idiot pass by. You'll still get there about the same time with less stress and safer.

 

I frequently end up in a similar situation on the Merritt Parkway, which thankfully doesn't allow trucks. Here's my advice:
1) You generally can't pick an exact speed to drive at. Your choices are either the prevailing speed in the left lane, or the prevailing speed in the right lane. If the left lane is too fast for your liking, you'll have to slow down to whatever the prevailing speed is in the right lane.
2) The exception to the above is when the right lane is going unreasonably fast. You have to be going slow enough so that people trying to merge on and off the road don't create dangerous situations.
3) If you're behind a slow poke and the person behind you isn't tailgating, consider *not* passing the slow poke. You're in an ideal situation where faster traffic will tailgate the driver behind you, and when passing won't merge back in until they pass the driver in front of you.
4) Realize the traffic tends to form packs, and it's best to maximize the time you spend between packs. This means that when you get in front of a slow poke and find yourself in an area of sparse traffic, don't be in such a hurry to catch up to the next slow poke. Drive just fast enough to stay in front of the pack behind you.

When traffic is heavy, safety is really more about where you place yourself in the traffic rather than the speed you're going. Unless everybody wants to drive 80 in a 45 zone (New Haven, <cough>), and I don't have a good answer for that yet, but am experimenting with going a bit slower than the next slowest driver.

 

First of all, I don't drive in rush hour traffic. I've always used transit to commute.

Secondly, I'm a "2-second rule" kind of guy, and I'm sure not going to start tailgating the guy in front of me just because the guy behind me is in a hurry. He can go around me if he wants, and if I'm on a road where there's no passing opportunities then I will pull over when I can to let him pass.

When freeway driving I usually find that sooner or later I come up behind a truck who's not really going all that much slower than I am, so I just settle in at a reasonable distance behind him. When you're following a truck people will blame the truck for your speed instead of you, and I find that people don't cut in front of me to get behind the truck unless they're maneuvering to make a freeway exit, in which case they're usually gone in a few seconds anyway.

 

when I was in high school in the 70's I had a 1964 Austin Healy Sprite, I would look up to see the bumpers of semi's so I understand where you are coming from. but I still loved the car.

 

sometimes it boggles my mind that on public road ways these huge mountain of gigantic trucks are allowed to travel along w/ these tiny little cars... public transit along w/ the system of mass hauling needs serious update in this nation.

 

Truckers lobbying vs. public... we need some major public safety lobbying!

 

A brake light modulator will help keep tailgaters alert. I have them on my motorcycles and my C.

 

What comes to mind for me, is getting onto the Trans Canada one very rainy night in Burnaby, and outa nowhere there's a massive truck, so close you can hear his tires singing, and his headlights are baking our headrests. I just hung in there, white knuckled. He hung around for about 5 minutes like that, super-close. Then abruptly switched over to the left lane, camped behind his next victim.

Really don't like those jokers.