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#158945 - 12/18/08 06:40 PM Re: Just slow down [Re: CAP613]
Mike_H Offline
Addict

Registered: 04/04/07
Posts: 612
Loc: SE PA
Originally Posted By: CAP613
I think it'S PENNDOT's fault. The West is no better I find myself slipping even on just wet roads, I do not remember that happening ten years ago.


Ok, glad that I'm not the only remembering that roads used to not be as slick. Maybe it is those aliens... ;-)
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own..." - Adam Savage / Mythbusters

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#158948 - 12/18/08 06:56 PM Re: Just slow down [Re: Susan]
benjammin Offline
Rapscallion
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/06/04
Posts: 4020
Loc: Anchorage AK
Every single one a native? Dang, when I lived there back in the 70s and 80s, it didn't seem nearly as bad. I can definitely tell you out on the east side of the state it was real easy to tell the natives from the immigrants. Come the first icing of the roads, all the transplants' rigs would be in the ditch.

I guess you must be dealing with the 2nd generation (referring to themselves now as native Washingtonians), who obviously learned their driving skills (and requisite bad attitudes) from their parents.

Well, I suppose each region has their own troubles. I was often frustrated in Florida when the freeway became an instant parking lot the moment the thunderstorm cell started to cross the road. I can understand slowing down, but to just stop and wait the storm out, what a groaner. Usually it seemed that some old person who's vision was marginally legal at best could no longer see through the blur of the windshield once the downpour started, even to the point of not being able to find the side of the road on which to vacate to, so they just stopped where they were and that was all their was to it.

In my own culpability, I have to admit that I made the mistake of trying to drive to work right after an ice storm and ended up with my pickup truck in the ditch as well. Fortunately where I went off the road it was under control and out in the middle of nowhere, so at least I had the sense to screw up where it would have the least effect on others. I left my pickup and crawled hands and knees across the frozen road to the edge of a field where I could stand and walk the rest of the way to work. 6 hours later after the Chinook came in and melted off all the ice I went and retrieved my truck, none the worse for wear thankfully.
_________________________
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

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#158952 - 12/18/08 07:09 PM Re: Just slow down [Re: benjammin]
Andy Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 09/13/07
Posts: 378
Loc: SE PA
Originally Posted By: benjammin


In my own culpability, I have to admit that I made the mistake of trying to drive to work right after an ice storm and ended up with my pickup truck in the ditch as well.


When I was college kid and madly in love (with my wife of now 36 years) I once drove to her house on a icy, foggy night during Christmas break. The trip home was the scariest 5 miles I have ever driven. The fog was so bad I literally had to open the car door and look for the edge of the road as I drove. Hormones overcome common sense every time.
_________________________
In a crisis one does not rise to one's level of expectations but rather falls to one's level of training.

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#159441 - 12/22/08 01:44 AM Re: Just slow down [Re: Mike_H]
Eugene Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/26/02
Posts: 2995
Originally Posted By: Mike_H
One thing I've noticed here in SE PA is that the roads tend to get very slick, even with just light rain. I never noticed that in the NE.

I wonder if it is a function of the increased traffic, material road is paved with, something else?

Either way, people tend to not know how to drive in snow down here.


PA does build their roads differently than any other state. Other states they lay concrete with expansion gaps and then blacktop over. PA pours one continuous bed of concrete then comes back with a big saw blade and cuts the expansion gaps. They seem to cut too deep or too close together and water gets under and the concrete slabs then shift so you get that bu bump, bu bump, bu bump, bu bump, all the way. When they repaved I79 a few years back it was worse when they finished than when they started.

That state has worse drivers than others, you go to pass someone and there will be no one around yet they will cut over in front of you and they will be going 50mph when your going 65+ and you have to hit the brakes to keep from hitting them. No other state does it as consistent, twice it happened on this trip and the second one flipped me off.

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#159451 - 12/22/08 02:37 AM Re: Just slow down [Re: Eugene]
Eugene Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/26/02
Posts: 2995
I should have posted that we made our trip. Went down Friday and came back Sunday.
When we got there Friday they had no power so I setup the kids beds and unpack by the flashlight in my BOB. Its really dark out there when there is no power and the clouds block the stars and moon. My son's leapfrog Tad thing that plays music was getting low so I swapped some batteries in my bob and popped the ones from it in the maha 401fs powered from the second battery in the truck to top those off since I didn't know when we would get power again. Parents have a small noisy generator but they weren't sure if it would power the electric stove so I was ready to cook the Turkey on my small portable grill I carry in the truck. I was prepared.
Wife let me spend $200 at Cabelas on the way home smile

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#159472 - 12/22/08 11:24 AM Try doing that in a heavy truck! [Re: Mike_H]
snoman Offline
Member

Registered: 09/22/02
Posts: 181
Originally Posted By: Mike_H
Somebody needs to explain mass and inertia to them.

Years ago, I was driving an 18-wheeled milk tanker. 5000 gallons of raw milk sloshing around inside an un-baffled tank on it's way to the dairy. I'm on a 4-lane at 55 MPH when a guy 4th in line at an on-ramp decides he's in too much of a hurry to wait and pulls out in front of me and STOPS and then starts waving the people that were in front of him on the on-ramp to go. I had cars in the lane next to me and couldn't move over so I hit the brakes and the horns (luckily no one else on the ramp decided to go for it!). Needless to say, I nailed the guy. I can say from experience that when 80,000 pounds of truck hits a 3000 pound car, you feel nothing. That truck didn't shake, shimmy or vibrate in the slightest, it just shot that car away like a cannonball! The car was an '79 Olds Cutlass Supreme, a fairly large car, and it was scrap after that. I'll bet that car was shortened by three feet after I hit him, and with his girlfriend and daughter in the rear seat! He gets out and starts screaming at me that I should have stopped. I'm thinking "Yeah, no kidding. That's easy to say, it's convincing the truck that's the problem." Big trucks don't "stop," they just keep slowing down until they're not moving.
I started screaming back at him that I was already on the road at the legal speed limit. You're supposed to yield to oncoming traffic, hence the big YIELD sign! Luckily, no one was hurt, but he ended up suing my company anyway. He lost, but I was still angry about it. I was doing everything by the book, he drove stupidly and yet still blames everyone but himself for what happened. Driving heavy trucks is a very frustrating way to make a living.
Anyway, one of the kids, who's good at math, figures this out and gives it to me...
- 80,000 pounds of truck, moving at 55 MPH, has exactly the same momentum (Momentum is mass x velocity) as a 2200 pound car moving at four times the speed of sound.
Every time I heard someone complain about stupid drivers, I yell "Try it in a heavy truck!" grin


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#159482 - 12/22/08 12:56 PM Re: Try doing that in a heavy truck! [Re: snoman]
OldBaldGuy Offline
Geezer

Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 5695
Loc: Former AFB in CA, recouping fr...
He obviously didn't know about the "lugnut rule."

To get a good idea of what happens when a big rig hits a stopped car, just watch the first few minutes of "Beverly Hills Cop." I used to show that to new officers, so that they would have an idea what to look for the first time they had to work a big rig vs parked car T/C on I-5 (which happen just about every day)...
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#159485 - 12/22/08 01:22 PM Re: Try doing that in a heavy truck! [Re: OldBaldGuy]
benjammin Offline
Rapscallion
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/06/04
Posts: 4020
Loc: Anchorage AK
Yep, reminds me of a stupid train wreck I saw once. Big Tractor trailer pulling a low-boy loaded with a D-9 Cat trying to sneak in before the arms come down. The train didn't look like it was phased in the least as it hit that trailer and sent the D-9 flying through the air. Made a helluva racket, though.

I guess the sooner someone invents the forcefield, the fewer such accidents will happen.
_________________________
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

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#159491 - 12/22/08 02:29 PM Re: Try doing that in a heavy truck! [Re: benjammin]
KG2V Offline

Veteran

Registered: 08/19/03
Posts: 1371
Loc: Queens, New York City
Originally Posted By: benjammin
Yep, reminds me of a stupid train wreck I saw once. Big Tractor trailer pulling a low-boy loaded with a D-9 Cat trying to sneak in before the arms come down. The train didn't look like it was phased in the least as it hit that trailer and sent the D-9 flying through the air. Made a helluva racket, though.

I guess the sooner someone invents the forcefield, the fewer such accidents will happen.


A tractor/trailer arguing with a train in like a Geo Metro arguing with a Tractor Trailer - NOT good for the smaller vehicle

I was talking with a Engineer one day, and he said he ONLY worried about hitting 2 things - a loaded propane truck (figured the blast would kill him) and a bus load of kids (he said he figured he'd kill himself)
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73 de KG2V
You are what you do when it counts - The Masso
Homepage: http://www.thegallos.com
Blog: http://kg2v.blogspot.com

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#159495 - 12/22/08 02:36 PM Re: Try doing that in a heavy truck! [Re: KG2V]
Desperado Offline
Veteran

Registered: 11/01/08
Posts: 1530
Loc: DFW, Texas
Originally Posted By: KG2V_was_kc2ixe
Originally Posted By: benjammin
Yep, reminds me of a stupid train wreck I saw once. Big Tractor trailer pulling a low-boy loaded with a D-9 Cat trying to sneak in before the arms come down. The train didn't look like it was phased in the least as it hit that trailer and sent the D-9 flying through the air. Made a helluva racket, though.

I guess the sooner someone invents the forcefield, the fewer such accidents will happen.


A tractor/trailer arguing with a train in like a Geo Metro arguing with a Tractor Trailer - NOT good for the smaller vehicle

I was talking with a Engineer one day, and he said he ONLY worried about hitting 2 things - a loaded propane truck (figured the blast would kill him) and a bus load of kids (he said he figured he'd kill himself)


Don't know if there is any truth in this but...
I was once told by an engineer for BNSF that it isn't IF you have hit a car but WHEN. He said it took three years before the first car got in front of his train and he was amazed at how far it flew the first time he hit it.
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I do the things that I must, and really regret, are unfortunately necessary.

RIP OBG

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