RV
I was in Saguaro west yesterday and kept getting passed by the most enormous RVs I’ve ever seen. I don’t get out much any more and somehow I seem to have missed the last decade’s advances in RV technology. They’ve gotten a lot bigger.
Do people need special licenses to drive those things? I’m talking about the 80 year-olds with the big, square, opaque black sunglasses and the large bottles of medication on the dash. I’m not trying to be ageist here, but let’s face it, you reach a certain age and your reflexes start to go. For awhile you can make up for the loss with the advantages that wisdom and experience bring to age (I like to think that is where I am now) but eventually things catch up to you.
Just like we don’t drive after we’ve had a few, maybe we shouldn’t be driving an RV the size of a planetarium down a little windy road when we’re past a certain age, either. My own parents sold their car when they got in their ’70’s, although they still rent one a few times a year. But they are very aware of their limitations, and they would never consider barreling through Saguaro NP behind the wheel of a tour-bus size RV.
It is socially permissible in our culture to express outrage and contempt for people who drink and drive. Should we be permitted to show the same outrage and contempt for people who display a similar lack of concern for other users of the road?
–Erik Ryberg
March 15th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Don’t get me started. My favorites are the monsters with a Hummer in tow and beach cruisers on the back of the Hummer. Ironically enough it’s usually the wheel of the bicycle on the back that almost takes me out.
On my tour down the west coast last summer we often heard them referred to as “murder homes.” Appropriate given that every time one passes you it’s a brush with death. The PCH can be very narrow, and I’ve had these people come within inches just to get around me quickly.
In most states no special license or certification is required to drive them. So basically these people are operating a truck with no special license whatsoever. No one, let alone a senior citizen, should be able to drive something like that without training.
These things are very popular among both families and the retired crowd. Go to any national park campground nowadays and that’s pretty much all you see. The wholesome days of pitching a humble tent and hanging out around the campfire are long gone. I’ll never forget going to the Rocky Mountain National Park campground and seeing a woman inside an RV running on a treadmill while watching a flat screen TV…a mentality I will never understand…
March 15th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Well, in the case of the El tour driver who managed to hit 10 cyclists, yeah, I think it’s justified to be outraged. That’s just one more example of a clueless snow bird who shouldn’t be on the road.
March 15th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Hi Lauren.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
@ 200 ish
A murder home honks at me with a bike on the back, while straddling the centerline going into a tunnel. They did pass me with 3 feet I guess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guSDgFGIOAE
The worst thing is passing lanes as they think they are still slow moving traffic (wrong I am ). When in fact they just took my shoulder away can you say 89 to Page. All the truckers understand what is going on.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:57 am
A few years ago while riding El Tour, there was a motor home going West on Tangerine Rd there by Dove Mtn–in the thick of all the cyclists. The old guy driving the RV seemed pretty scared and he slowed to a crawl–then would speed up–it was a bit crazy to see hundreds of cyclists and then this huge RV trying to get through.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
My car was totaled a few years ago by an 80 yr old woman who plowed through a red light because she “didn’t see it.”
I’m all for age limits on driving.
March 17th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
i remember years ago renting a uhaul to move — i think it was 24′… i asked the rental guy several times: “are you SURE i don’t need some sort of truckers license??”.It was pretty scarey, i don’t think i’d do that again.
Anyway, the magic number for a plain-old driver’s license (it’s called class D in arizona) is 26,000 (!) pounds.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Re: Ed
The so called “class A” monsters that ER mentioned can be 45′ long and over 50 THOUSAND pounds (dry weight) The problem is that many dealers don’t particularly give a shit if you have a CDL endorsement or not when you are paying 800k for a depreciating asset. The other thing that exacerbates the dilemma as I see it is that many “Motor Coaches” (I am told the cognoscenti prefer that term) are driving on roads that were NEVER meant to regularly accommodate vehicles that big. Anyone who has watched an RV wheel it’s way around Gates Pass on the way to The Desert Museum or Old Tucson no doubt knows the feeling.
What you will virtually never see is a Freight truck trying to take those roads. A: they know better. B: their are some pretty stiff fines designed to keep them of those roads.
The question I want to ask is why aren’t those fines levied at Rver’s? Taxable revenues much?
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I notice that they’ve cut that rock corner back considerably, but I used to love to pack a lunch and ride up to Gates Pass, find a spot on the hill overlooking that corner, and watch the RVers cause a traffic ruckus by swinging wide into the oncoming lane around that blind corner – and *still* manage to leave a contribution to the rocks’ trophy collection of “Winnebago Beige.”
March 28th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
ug, I mis-spoke about the 26,000 pound weight limit.
It turns out there are specific exemptions for “an authorized emergency vehicle, a farm vehicle or” … you guessed it… “a recreational vehicle”.
So there you have it, no size or weight limitations whatsoever, 28-3102. I guess the RV-lobby has had its way with us.
http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/28/03102.htm&Title=28&DocType=ARS
December 12th, 2009 at 5:28 am
Whaaaaaaaaaah!!! It’s so scary to go outside!
January 27th, 2010 at 10:46 am
man old people these days shouldnt be drivin stuff that big its really crazy and my brother got ran over by an old man lol