Join the campaign to stop trucker illiteracy today!

[dash riposki]

A high number of US truckers seem to be illiterate, and can't even read simple road signs.

Here we see a trucker who can't read 'No turn on red' and 'stop here on red' signs, or chooses not to obey them.

Maybe they use too big words on the signs? 'NO' is kind of hard to understand?

This intersection is a public side street that leads to the entrance to a large, and busy truck stop. It's posted this way since there is not enough room for turning trucks in multiple directions. Somebody gets blocked when a truck tries to turn into this street on a yellow, or exit on a red.
You turn left to get to the PA Turnpike, right to get to I-81.

 

[Gibson99]

Plenty of them know how to read... I see them reading text messages and Facebook all the time. Just like every other driver out there.

Not all of them, obviously. Just like car drivers, not everyone is busy playing with their phones/etc... Just seems that way sometimes.

 

[dash riposki]

Don't get your hopes up about them being able to read. I suspect many are looking at porn.



It actually is a federal regulation that you have to have some level of speaking and reading the english language to get a CDL, but you'd be surprised at the amount of drivers who can't.
It's not the suspect groups you may guess.

Illinois had a major problem with immigrants being able to 'buy' a CDL not too long ago.

 

[Gibson99]

Don't get your hopes up about them being able to read. I suspect many are looking at porn.



It actually is a federal regulation that you have to have some level of speaking and reading the english language to get a CDL, but you'd be surprised at the amount of drivers who can't.
It's not the suspect groups you may guess.

Illinois had a major problem with immigrants being able to 'buy' a CDL not too long ago.

Illinois has a lot of problems with being able to buy things you shouldn't be able to buy... like mayorships.

 

[Dee_82]

is it just me or are all these signs in the US unnecessarily complicated. Over here its more or less, if its red, you stop, if its Green (or green with directional arrow) you go. this idea of a small sign saying to no do something that seems pretty damn obvious in the frst place because you can do it at other times is just asking for trouble. perhaps its just because ive not been taught in that system but surely, the simpler something is to understand the better??

 

[DT MI]

is it just me or are all these signs in the US unnecessarily complicated. Over here its more or less, if its red, you stop, if its Green (or green with directional arrow) you go. this idea of a small sign saying to no do something that seems pretty damn obvious in the frst place because you can do it at other times is just asking for trouble. perhaps its just because ive not been taught in that system but surely, the simpler something is to understand the better??

The problem came about because for many, many years a red light meant stop - nothing else. Some years back that was changed to allow right turns (and in some cases left turns on to a one way street) on red. The revised law usually says that 'right turns on red are allowed unless otherwise posted'.

That's why there are so many intersections with those signs to prevent the turn that would otherwise be legal by law.

 

[Number400]

Have some problems here on the highway with some trucks crawling/climbing large hills in the left lane when there are "No trucks in left lane" signs everywhere. Not much different than the speedy tools who use the truck lane to pass everyone on the right though.

 

[Gibson99]

to add, the "stop here on red" is to allow cross traffic to actually complete a turn without hitting you because the intersection is an unusual shape such that if you go past the stop line, you will be blocking traffic, even though it's not immediately obvious, or in some cases, to make sure the crossing guard arm doesn't come down on your car if you happen to be stopped there when a train starts coming through. it also helps when the stop line is constantly being worn away by heavy traffic.

but like most other signage, people tend to just ignore it and do whatever the hell they feel like.