Help me understand California Turnouts - Updated

I ran into this problem the on my first trip to CA, I was driving a fuel truck chasing a helicopter on forest fires. The truck was under powered and sloooow,they hated me on 299 east of Redding but there was nothing I could do about it. I pulled over every chance I got.
Unfortunately there are those that will take stupid chances to get by putting others at grave risk, the news reports them daily. All we can do is be courteous as possible without putting our own safety in jeopardy.