Originally Posted by
pdlamb
Well...
I never felt particularly safe in Appalachian coal country on roads with lots of switchbacks. Too many people (not just coal truckers) would cut the switchbacks wide, always a nasty surprise when you were coming into the switchback from the other direction. Or, because the road was winding even between the switchbacks, imagine coming around a curve with a bit of speed (maybe 30-40 mph) and finding a slow coal truck had just pulled out of a mine entrance
And yet, we never blamed the truckers. Their loads were what housed and fed the local population, we all knew that. And which is worse, a loaded coal truck maintaining 15 mph around a switchback, or being behind that same truck trying to accelerate uphill (hah!) from a 5 mph corner?
good points. Being in truck country is always tricky, and like you, I realize the drivers are dealing with a large vehicle and usually are doing their best.
re downhills with switchbacks. My memories of this in the Pyrenees are that we generally had a good line of sight on the upcoming traffic, and I often would purposely get out in front of fellow downhill car traffic as I often was faster than them, so getting out in front meant less baulking happening. Often with groups of cars, you'd have a mom or pop who was very unsure of things, so passing them was both safer, as other cars would be bottlenecked behind grandma or grandpa, and this would allow me to do my "have fun" time with successive hairpins.
Again, good line of sight looking over my shoulder coming to a hairpin would allow me to use more of the road and carry more speed out of the hairpin, and therefore keep ahead of the train of cars as much as I could.
fun fun fun til your daddy takes the t bird away. I get my jollies when I can, as safely as I can, but dammit, after working my arse off going up a pass, I;m sure as heck going to have fun going down.