Unusual truck warning signs
Unusual truck warning signs
03-Jun-05
I've started watching signs intended only for trucks. Many are very self-evident, but there's one that still mystifies me when I see it. Well, not it as in single, since this involves two or more in a series. Picture yourself driving a tall vehicle down a limited-access road such as the US Interstate system. Bridges will for the most part be labeled with the vertical clearance. It is a major disaster if you try to pull a trailer under an overpass of some sort that is not quite tall enough. The standard trailer height is 13' 6", but different states have different labelling rules, so that you often see those signs for higher clearances. The mystery to me is why state highway departments waste signs in a situation involving two bridges/overpasses where the second one is higher than the first and there's no place to enter the highway between them. Maybe that doesn't make sense, since if you see a 14' sign and can clear it, do you really care if the next one is 15' 10" since you know you will clear a higher one if you already went through a lower one. The opposite way, yes, both are needed, but the way I described it, there's no way the truck can grow 1' 10" taller in between them without some very highly unusual circumstances.
Speaking of bridges, I believe New York is the only state which doesn't follow the method other states use. I've been told two different explanations for their system, and am not sure which one is correct. Number one says they measure from the center of the axle, which is approximately one foot. The other says they have planned their system so that if there is one foot of packed snow on the road, the sign will still show a correct clearance. Personally, if there's a foot of snow packed down into an icy sheet on the road, I really don't want to be driving on it. But, back to my New York bridge story. I was making a very early morning delivery in the Buffalo area and there was little traffic as most hadn't started going to work yet. I had some incomplete directions which only told me which street to turn on without a direction such as "left" or "West". I got the the street, mentally flipped a coin, and turned left. Uh oh, almost immediately I saw a bridge labelled 11' 8". Following the rule I just gave you, since there wasn't any snow, I mentally added the foot and thought that my 13' 6" trailer wouldn't fit under a 12' 8" bridge. I stopped, put on my 4-way flashers to alert other traffic, and had my cell phone in my hand to call the police to help me turn around. The company for which I work forbids U-turns unless under the direction of a police officer, and I really couldn't do it without backing up a good distance since there was a concrete divider between the two directions of traffic. I was poised to call when I heard a horn sounding very close to me, so I looked. Directly on the other side of that barrier was a man in a small pickup truck yelling at me. I rolled my window down and he told me I could make it. I asked how he knew and was informed that he drove a large truck for a local delivery company and came through here all the time. I pointed to the sign and asked how I could clear. He told me to look closely and notice that the underside was arched, and that it was measured at the lowest point over the traffic lanes, near the edge. He told me to get as close to the barrier as I could and go through slowly and I would make it. I pulled up very close and started edging forward slowly. At the point where the tractor was under but the trailer wasn't, I stepped out and looked and sure enough, I had inches to spare! Thanks to the good samaritan I was spared the laughter of a police officer when he told me the same thing and watched me drive under.
I have gone under several marked 13' 6" and looked overhead and seen concrete missing or shiny spots on exposed metal which leads me to believe some tried it with too much snow pack, or hit a bump which caused a bounce. I've never hit anything overhead except for overhanging tree branches. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the future.
03-Jun-05
I've started watching signs intended only for trucks. Many are very self-evident, but there's one that still mystifies me when I see it. Well, not it as in single, since this involves two or more in a series. Picture yourself driving a tall vehicle down a limited-access road such as the US Interstate system. Bridges will for the most part be labeled with the vertical clearance. It is a major disaster if you try to pull a trailer under an overpass of some sort that is not quite tall enough. The standard trailer height is 13' 6", but different states have different labelling rules, so that you often see those signs for higher clearances. The mystery to me is why state highway departments waste signs in a situation involving two bridges/overpasses where the second one is higher than the first and there's no place to enter the highway between them. Maybe that doesn't make sense, since if you see a 14' sign and can clear it, do you really care if the next one is 15' 10" since you know you will clear a higher one if you already went through a lower one. The opposite way, yes, both are needed, but the way I described it, there's no way the truck can grow 1' 10" taller in between them without some very highly unusual circumstances.
Speaking of bridges, I believe New York is the only state which doesn't follow the method other states use. I've been told two different explanations for their system, and am not sure which one is correct. Number one says they measure from the center of the axle, which is approximately one foot. The other says they have planned their system so that if there is one foot of packed snow on the road, the sign will still show a correct clearance. Personally, if there's a foot of snow packed down into an icy sheet on the road, I really don't want to be driving on it. But, back to my New York bridge story. I was making a very early morning delivery in the Buffalo area and there was little traffic as most hadn't started going to work yet. I had some incomplete directions which only told me which street to turn on without a direction such as "left" or "West". I got the the street, mentally flipped a coin, and turned left. Uh oh, almost immediately I saw a bridge labelled 11' 8". Following the rule I just gave you, since there wasn't any snow, I mentally added the foot and thought that my 13' 6" trailer wouldn't fit under a 12' 8" bridge. I stopped, put on my 4-way flashers to alert other traffic, and had my cell phone in my hand to call the police to help me turn around. The company for which I work forbids U-turns unless under the direction of a police officer, and I really couldn't do it without backing up a good distance since there was a concrete divider between the two directions of traffic. I was poised to call when I heard a horn sounding very close to me, so I looked. Directly on the other side of that barrier was a man in a small pickup truck yelling at me. I rolled my window down and he told me I could make it. I asked how he knew and was informed that he drove a large truck for a local delivery company and came through here all the time. I pointed to the sign and asked how I could clear. He told me to look closely and notice that the underside was arched, and that it was measured at the lowest point over the traffic lanes, near the edge. He told me to get as close to the barrier as I could and go through slowly and I would make it. I pulled up very close and started edging forward slowly. At the point where the tractor was under but the trailer wasn't, I stepped out and looked and sure enough, I had inches to spare! Thanks to the good samaritan I was spared the laughter of a police officer when he told me the same thing and watched me drive under.
I have gone under several marked 13' 6" and looked overhead and seen concrete missing or shiny spots on exposed metal which leads me to believe some tried it with too much snow pack, or hit a bump which caused a bounce. I've never hit anything overhead except for overhanging tree branches. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the future.
posted by Trucker Dude | 1:27 PM
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