Travel - truckers' world

We are gathered around the truck delivery nodes. If an alien intelligence thought the nodes were part of an organic system, we would be feeding from the nodes.

Look at the lights in the world view at night in the map above (or the QTVR movie) and realize that half of the lights are trucks. The truckers are either driving produce to the stores or the trucks are parked, while the drivers sleep. The truck lights and refrigeration must stay on to keep the produce from spoiling. Rest areas, on ramps, truck parking at service stations, any place along the highway where the truck can get off is OK. There's a roar and glare of consumption of energy about these monster trucks that emphasizes the work and resources that go into getting our food and goods in stores everyday.

The stopping distance for the 20-foot GMC truck I was driving is twice that for a car. So you need to leave four seconds between you and the next truck. It must be more for the huge fully-loaded trucks. My experience was on I5 going south in California and I10 going east across the southern states. The signs say truck speed limit is 55 but they go faster. They jostle for space in the line of trucks. Before passing they pull up within feet of the vehicle ahead. So much for the four seconds. More like a few microseconds behind. It takes them awhile to pass because they can't put on too much speed. They usually pass one vehicle at a time. They know exactly how long their truck is, and when passing, pull in within feet of the vehicle behind.

I learned that there are driver signals to the truck driver passing you. When the truck is ahead a safe distance to pull in, flash your lights. And give a wave when finish is OK. The truck drivers I met were tough independent types, but very helpful. The carolyoga page for injury has a lament on the interstate highway junk food.