Why do people slow down when their car is next to a truck on the highway?

I think people freak out because when you’re driving next to a truck, it’s so large it feels like it is almost creeping into your lane. I think people become more cautious, slow down, and don’t drift to the right side of their lane.

Fear and stupidity? That is so annoying.

I do the opposite.
I speed up to get the HELL AWAY from it.

you must be behind a Michigan driver. crazy bastards.

Some people get a little spooked by the turbulence as they’re coming out of the truck’s draft, too; makes ‘em reflexively ease off the pedal instead of punching through it.

If I’m coming up on a truck in the next lane, I check my surroundings before I pass them. I might slow down for a second or two just to assess the situation. If everything’s good, I get past them as quickly as possible.

Sorry PnL, I do it too. I’m scared of them… it always seems like they creep into my lane just as I’m at “the point of no return” next to them.

@poofandmook See, that’s why you have to scope it out before you get next to them! I won’t get next to them at all if there’s one of those concrete construction barriers mere inches from me on the other side!

@aug: I’m a left-laner, almost exclusively. I feel safer there, for some reason. So that’s almost never an option for me. LOL

I’m a left-laner too, because I have a lead foot!

I’ve asked myself that a thousand times! Guess it’s just poor judgment.What really gets my dander up is the car that just has to start passing just as I’m approaching, and then they go slow, wtf? they can’t wait that half second? and of course this is going uphill so I lose all my momentum…I guess this is some sort of freeway murphy’s law….

some drivers are horrified when driving next to trucks. best advice is to just inhale and whiz by the behemoth. on rainy or slushy days, these same drivers get alongside an 18-wheeler and stay there as if hypnotized in the mist and splash. just turn up the wipers, steer straight and pass.

@free i hate when drivers do that.

Because they’re scared the truck driver is some drunk who lives with his mother and won’t know what he’s doing and crash into you.

Because I remember the time the truck next to us went out of control and ran us off the road (the driver had fallen asleep). I tend to slow up because I am watching to see if he is awake.

Sometimes it’s easier to stomp on the brake and let him keep going past you than to try to floor it and hope for the best.

It’s a phenomena similar to the Bermuda Triangle. Once in “the zone”, they can’t leave. Some motorists get mesmerized and are drawn to the side of a truck like a moth to a porch light!!

I’m pretty sure it’s just fear. Irrational and irritating fear.

@free, I think the scary fact is that there are a lot of drivers who are clueless as to how fast vehicles are approach them from the rear. It is that lack of situational awareness that drives me nuts.

As a former truck driver, let me tell you that staying alongside a truck is stupid (especially on the trucks’s right side) because you are in his blind spot. Second dangerous blind spot is right near his cab door on either side. When I am driving across a certain bridge from IA to IL, and the truck is in the right lane and I am in the left lane, I will slow down and stay behind him, (making sure I can see his mirrors, because if I can see his mirrors, chances are he can see me) in case he decides to move over for the merging traffic coming up the TWO ramps on the right side of the road. People behind me bitch and honk, but fuck em, I will show respect to the largest vehicle on the road before I do some dipshit in a SUV. On the highway, size rules.

Trucks are large, ungainly, and hard to control. Your car on average weighs about 4,000 lbs. A fully loaded semi weighs around 80,000 lbs. It is 20 times heavier than your vehicle. Best bet is to give them a wide berth, pass only when it is safe to do so, and for God’s sake, don’t pass them and then slow down. The only thing worse than that is to pass them without leaving at least two car lengths between you and the truck. When I pass a truck, I make sure I can see him in my rear view mirror before moving over in front of him. I’ve seen cars get clipped by the bumper of a big truck during a speedy pasing maneuver, and let me tell you, it isn’t pretty to see a car go rolling end for end in the median. Those people usually die or get to spend a long time in the hospital with tubes coming out of them.

I’ve always suggested the people in cars who don’t respect truckers should have to drive a big 18 wheeler for a week, or at the very least, ride along. You’d then learn to appreciate the sort of shit truck drivers have to deal with on a regular basis from people in cars.

@steelmarket, even worse, the human mind is unable to concieve of how fast a vehicle is approaching/coming towards them. That is why making a left hand turn into/across oncoming traffic is the SINGLE most dangerous driving maneuver a person can make. If you want to stay safe, don’t turn left. But then, that leads us to this: two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do. :-)

Fear, but it makes no sense. If you’re afraid the truck is going to run into you, why do you slow down and parallel? It just gives them more opportunity to hit you! Speed up a little and put some distance between you and the trucker – what goes on behind you can’t impact you, just what happens in front of you!