Tips on changing lanes

0rion wrote:
this is just another reason I love my Chevy. I have extendable tow mirrors that have wide angle lens in the bottom section of the mirror. My truck virtually has zero blind spots from the cab to the back of the trailer. After a few miles you'll know pretty quickly when you're past someone and can change lanes. You'll also find that semi drivers are some of the more alert/helpful drivers out there. They almost always "flash" to let you know when you're past them. More than a few 4 wheelers will flash to let you know also but you can't solely rely on that. Just takes a bit of practice and you'll know when you're past.

X2 except I love my FORD for the same reasons.
My FIL drove OTR trucks for thirty+ collision free years. Travelling back and forth to Florida for a couple years with our trailers taught me alot about freeway and major city towing. He stayed out of the right lane as much as possible, maintaining a speed in the centre lane that was not a fast as the lefty lane but faster than the right lane. It was impossible to state a speed at which he drove as he matched his speed to the conditions and traffic flow around him to always maintain the safest possible position in the traffic. Sometimes that meant hitting the left lane and motoring on through with the thru traffic staying out of the local traffic in the lanes to the right. I gained a huge amount of experience and confidence following him on those trips.

A trick I use on slow city traffic is making eye contact with other drivers so they know you are looking at them and if eye contact is not possible to look at the front wheels for directional intentions of the other driver.

Neat trick a couple of pages back about looking at the telephones wires on curves for reflections of oncoming vehicle lights. THX