Fuel for Thought

Shouldering The Load

No one wants to find themselves in need of using the shoulder of the road. If you need to use it, it will generally mean there was a problem while you were driving that requires your immediate attention from a parked position. Once you pull onto the shoulder of the road, turn on your four way flashers, then you can start to assess and address the issue or issues. Many times it can be a quick stop to adjust something or grab something out of your arms reach from the driver’s seat. Other times, it may require you to call for the wrecker or roadside assistance. If it is the former, using your four way flashers will suffice, however, in the case of the latter, be sure to properly place your triangles to alert other vehicles of the situation.

No matter what length of time you spend on the shoulder of the road, if no tow truck is involved, there will be a time when you are ready to merge back onto the road along with the other vehicles.

Decades ago, when I learned to drive trucks, I was taught and shown that when leaving the shoulder of a road to get back on the roadway, it was proper and safer to start building up your speed while still on the shoulder to more easily merge with the traffic. That does not mean to get all the way up to highway speed on the shoulder, but to at least get half the speed or better to match the traffic before entering the lane of travel and to watch your mirrors and plan your merge, just as you should do from any on ramp.

Who has been teaching drivers how to leave the shoulder of the road and merge back onto the highway in the past several years? When did it become acceptable to turn the wheels left from 0 MPH on the shoulder to enter the highway creeping along? And to do this without regard for the traffic already traveling in that lane at highway speeds? What kind of thought process would even tell you that this is a safe and acceptable course of action to take? Didn’t any of these drivers get a clue from the on ramps that you need to at least get rolling somewhat before merging with high speed traffic? 

Too often and for far too long truck drivers have been merging(if you can even call it that) from the shoulder of the road right onto the highway from a dead stop as if they were turning from a four way stop intersection. If this is how you re-enter the highway from the shoulder, STOP IT. This is how rear end collisions happen. You enter the lane of travel at 3 MPH directly in front of 70-75 MPH traffic and you expect them to be able to react to your idiotic driving behavior?

Do better. Think more often. Achieve better results.

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? 

-  George Carlin

See you down the road,

Greg