I have been commuting the streets of Sioux Falls almost daily for 4 years on my E-Bikes. Certain things stick out with our traffic flows. The thing that has surprised me the most is how rude and aggressive big truck drivers are. While most of the drivers are men, it doesn’t seem to matter their gender or race they are all guilty of being very BAD drivers and rude. I’m not talking about commercial trucks, those drivers are usually good because the company they work for is plastered all over their vehicle, it is people who drive large extended cab pickups or very large 4 door SUVs for personal use. I used to think it was because of phone usage, but it is NOT, most large truck drivers will look right at you and pull in front of you. If they see you crossing the street they speed up to scare you or try to hit you. And if they fail in messing with your commute they usually roll their window down and yell profanities at you. They are RUDE as F’CK. And like I said it is ALWAYS people in large personal trucks. I don’t know if they think it is some status symbol to own a truck that costs more then the original purchase price of my home (no kidding) or if it is tiny dick disease (can women have this too?). But I don’t understand why large truck drivers are so aggressive, not just towards bicyclists and peds but other drivers. Here’s an example; I drove my car thru a little snow storm the other day to work, and the roads were pretty bad. I was going down South Cliff and all of the traffic was moving cautiously and slowly until some jackass in a King Ranch blows past everyone doing 50 MPH and blowing snow all over everyone. They are just soooo damn rude.
I know this isn’t scientific, but every time I have a close call it is always with a large personal vehicle. I don’t think visibility in those vehicles is better, I think it is worse. I saw a lady driving a Nissan Armada (they the most ridiculous SUV you have ever seen, it looks like a SWAT team armored vehicle, but bigger). All you could see was the top of her head and the way she was driving it was obvious to me she couldn’t see crap. I also think there should be weight limits on large personal vehicles. If you are a contractor hauling around equipment and tools, you need something super duty, but what is the purpose of driving a King Ranch as a commuter in town? It’s silly. And who has $600 a month to spend on gas?
I’m not sure how you make large truck drivers better, but you can certainly regulate them. I would love to force them all to drive a Mazda Miata for a year.