Driving in modern traffic

[Robin Craig]

Those of you who know me are aware of my strong opinions. I am well known for saying out loud what I feel, without a filter. In Ontario I write for our newsletter and this piece written three years ago echoes the sentiments already stated but I fell it is worth saying again for other further afield.

VENT TUBE
An Opinion Column from An Individual By Robin Craig

If nothing else, the year 2020 will be set down in history where the free world lost itself, horribly. You, ladies and gentleman, do not have to follow that disgraceful lead. We live in an era of knee jerk reactions via social media and an incredible sense of entitlement and exemptions to the rule of norm by individuals, “the law doesn’t apply to me because I am special” attitudes abound. The restaurant presents you with a menu, but you want half the items substituted.
While most of us in this hobby are not millennials, we are edging towards absorbing their behaviour it seems.
Let me say, I have been wrong, I have been called out by my peers and shown the errors of my ways more than once.
At this point, those of you who know me, realise that something is under my skin and you know I am going to share my ire.
What am I talking about? The Slow Moving Vehicle Sign or SMV sign. I feel uniquely placed to comment on the use and abuse of this device from the standpoint that I farm for a living and this sign is a requirement of the Highway Traffic Act for the use and operation of the tools of my trade while on the public highway. These tools, of my trade, are more specifically known by the delicious definition of “the implements of husbandry”. Ask a high school graduate what that means without using Google.
This sign is an identifier used around the world, specifically for use by anyone involved in agriculture, and in some cases construction or road building equipment.
Every year on the roads, even on our sleepy little island, there are close calls between farm equipment and other road users. The major cause is speed. The majority of road users have forgotten that one of the primary ground rules of driving is being able to stop within the distance of the driver’s field of vision. The world of advertising does much to conjure up the perception of open roads to be traveled at full speed, all the time. Don’t worry about an obstacle in your path, the latest high tech gadgetry will alert you via some sub-conscious alerting system and apply your brakes and save you. It won’t.
The SMV sign is designed to alert other road users that the vehicle ahead is moving at a speed of less than 40 kilometres an hour. Your distance to slow down and or stop is dramatically decreased because the vehicle in front is moving substantially slower than you. That is the basic premise.
Nowhere does the Highway Traffic Act encourage or allow other road users to use this sign for their own modified purposes. The two that I see so commonly in the military vehicle (MV) world originate out of two separate causes, peoples MVs are not registerable for the road in the first place, or they are not appropriate for the class of road that their owner has put them on to. Again, I refer back to the statement that the law doesn’t apply to you, because you are special in some way, and you are going to use a vehicle that isn’t appropriate for the road because you feel like it is your right to do so. The SMV sign does not make this right, ever. Secondly, driving a beautifully restored and historically accurate World War One Omnibus, capable of a massive 18 miles an hour top speed, down a divided highway in a major metropolitan area is not made safe or appropriate by the adornment of an SMV sign as some kind of magical force field to stop that B train semi with an all up weight of 65 tonnes turning you into a grease spot on the highway, for one day and a tragic headline somewhere. You are going to turn yourself into an exception; you are going to remove yourself from the rest of us who stay living while you go to the cemetery. Get yourself off that road and figure out a safer way to get to your event or don’t go. Period.
Anyone who was involved in some of the convoys down through the US to major events ten or more years ago, will remember the close calls and the need for an escort vehicle. Some might argue that even then it just wasn’t safe and it is only by the grace of a God or entity similar, that someone didn’t die. Over the last few years in Europe there has been about one death every other year in an MV on a major highway where a smaller, darkly painted, dimly lit, slower vehicle is run down by a bigger faster moving vehicle. People, wake up! Your actions are inappropriate and unsafe. You are about to become a sad statistic and a mere memory to the rest of us left behind in the hobby. The addition of an SMV sign won’t save you. Don’t do it. Put it on a trailer, or travel on slower roads and think about having a well-marked and well illuminated escort vehicle behind you, engage with local authorities about having an escort from them if it is possible.
For those of you driving vehicles that the Highway Traffic Act excludes from being allowed on the road, get off the road and stay off. If the road is closed to other road users for a parade, then it is appropriate to be there, that is it. An SMV sign is not an exemption device to allow you to do what you please.
Check your calendars, its 2020, you are not in 1972 anymore. Be safe and stay alive.

[maple_leaf_eh]

A few thoughts come to mind after reading Robin's piece. And we know each other quite well, so his voice is clearly in my head now!

I tend to drive my HMV on secondary roads where the speed limit is 80 kph, and unless absolutely necessary, avoid higher speed limit roads. Not for road safety but because I don't want to be the slow poke at the head of long column of frustrated drivers expecting to go faster.

I have an SMV triangle for my spare tire, as I also have a high-visibility vest to drape over the jerry can. The intent is to be noticed by other drivers. I also have an SMV triangle on my galvanized steel utility trailer, because when towing it, I know the top speed will be at the posted limit for controllability.

We know HMVs on the road are a spectacle for others on the road, and they gawk. In the military I used to warn drivers they had to drive their 2 1/2-t truck with all its behaviours and remember to think for the person in their 4-door rattletrap car. There are always stories of drivers spearing their windshields while fixating on the muzzle of a towed 105-mm gun moving from one site to another.

Bob rightly mentions visibility inside the cab and especially with RHD vehicles. Other than beacons lights or illuminated placards, how else are approved road users expected to warn other drivers to share the road?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

All valid points! Next to obvious technical upgrades - see e.g. Streetable CMP truck - one needs to adjust driving habits and style.

Personally I find a Jeep too small to drive onto the main (high)ways, a 3/4-ton truck has much more presence on the road, even if driving slower than most traffic. Having said that, I recall a GMC DUKW was involved in an accident in the UK many years ago. A large car driving at speed hit it from behind, flipping over the DUKW because of its undercut hull shape, and people got killed...

[maple_leaf_eh]

I should mention that 'implements of husbandry' signage isn't necessarily a free-pass to do anything on the road. John Grainger and I were moving two vehicles from his yard to an event. Maybe it was Mike Calnan's Canada Day parade? Him in his Iltis, and me following in a diesel 5/4t or CUCV. Head lights on, as is my driving custom. We were moving together but not in close tandem, and approached a wagon piled high with hay bales. It pulled over to the shoulder, and John passed. As I was approaching to pass, the hay wagon pulled across in front of me into an entrance! I locked up the brakes, smoked the tires, even momentarily contemplated taking the ditch! Anything to avoid a collision. I was pleased to avoid damaging someone else's carefully maintained HMV.

[Philliphastings]

I don’t really know what to say...

I’m an active member of a WW2 Jeep club here in Australia and although I don’t currently drive one (At 6’6 and 140 kg I’m building one with custom features) I do travel a fair bit in them

I’m not aware of any actual issues which would cause any of our members to give up driving their Jeeps rain, Hail or shine through hundreds or even thousands of miles of public roads.

As long as one is aware of the vehicles’s limitations and is a diligent and defensive driver accidents are rare.

Of course there are near misses from other less skilled or less caring drivers, but I get that even in my modern Toyota Landcruiser.

Just my thoughts but I do find it sad to think of enthusiasts giving up on their belived vehicles our wonderful hobby out of fear of the unknown.

‘Drive them Jeeps’

Cheers

Phill

[Ed Williamson]

When I drive my GPW I have a red flashing light on the spare tire It is the type that bicycles use. It is an LED light and very bright and I checked with local law and its legal.

[Paul Singleton]

Just be aware that it is illegal to display the slow moving vehicle triangle on a vehicle that is capable of a sustained speed of more than 40 kph. When I was still working one of our grass cutting crews was inspected on the roadside. The commercial riding mower was on the trailer with an SMV triangle and the MTO inspector wanted the sign removed or covered so it wasn’t visible. The inspector claimed that because the slow moving sign was visible it applies to the truck and trailer also. The SMV sign was a decal on the mower and not removable, so the operator unloaded the mower and loaded it the other way round onto the trailer.
The fine apparently could have been $350!