Urban driving tips for truckers
Posted on Thu, Dec 02, 2010 @ 08:29 AM
For truckers that don’t travel into cities that often, they may not know how different urban driving is from highway and even suburban driving. Urban driving is different for one main reason: congestion.
Roads in U.S. cities are much more congested than suburban roads. They are also more congested than highways on average, but during rush hours highways can be just as bad. Many rules and tips of regular driving apply to urban driving; however there are some slight variations.
Most of these driving tips for truck drivers are applicable to truckers driving on rural roadways and when entering a city. However, it does not account for some points made in these urban driving tips:
- Leave yourself more than enough time to reach your destination. Traffic and congestion are unavoidable during certain times of the day, so take some extra time to plan out your trip.
- It pays to check ahead of time to see if construction has turned your chosen path into a virtual parking lot.
- Don’t let cab drivers and buses freak you out: Stay calm and alert at all times and be prepared for them to swerve in and out of lanes. One way to avoid cabs is to stay in the left lane. Cabs will usually travel on the right so they can easily pick up passengers.
- Pick a lane and stick to it: Believe it or not, changing lanes frequently will get you there only a few seconds earlier, while greatly increasing your chance of a collision.
- Drive with mileage in mind: Don't speed up just to slow down. If you're bumper-to-bumper, improve your fuel economy by slipping the car into neutral instead of constantly riding the brake.
- Go right: Making right turns as opposed to left turns saves a ton on fuel and delivery time. Also, your odds of being in an accident increase greatly when taking a left turn. Remember, two wrongs don’t make a right; but three rights make a left.
According to the Texas Transportation Institute, congestion decreases the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by almost 1 percent. The overall cost (based on wasted fuel and lost productivity) reached $87.2 billion in 2007 – more than $750 for every U.S. traveler. The total amount of wasted fuel topped 2.8 billion gallons – three weeks' worth of gas for every traveler. The amount of wasted time totaled 4.2 billion hours – nearly one full work week (or vacation week) for every traveler.
Because of the high risk of an accident in urban areas, it is important to take caution while driving and to follow the basic rules of the road, especially for those driving a large, 18-wheel truck navigating through traffic and pedestrians.