Dash Cam of the Week: Lane discipline

Those white stripes and double-yellow lines are supposed to mean something. But, as this Dash Cam of the Week collection shows, a lot of folks—truckers and four-wheelers, alike—seem to see these lane dividers more as suggestions than as purposeful boundaries.

Here, the four-wheeler likely got a rush of adrenaline along with a scary video. Reminder to truck drivers: Slow down on curves, pay attention.

In this clip, neither the trucker nor the automobile driver was inclined to give way—although the trucker did see fit to get out and give the four-wheeler some suggestions. What do you think he said?

Can’t wait for universal speed limiters. Elephant races everywhere, all the time. Interesting discussion here, in which several self-identified truck drivers say it’s not unusual for truckers to intentionally speed up when they’re being passed by another rig. Say it ain’t so—c’mon, man. (Heads up: The clip is four minutes in which nothing happens, but that's the point.)

Finally, how do you feel about zipper merge? The DCOW staff tends to favor early merging because that’s the way we were raised, but we’ve also come around to understand that if everyone waited, traffic would move more smoothly. The problem is when only a few are aggressively asserting their right to wait until the last second. Running 60 or 70 mph faster than the others lanes then expecting to be let is clearly dangerous and arguably rude.