Amount of fuel saved is actually negligible. With a fleet of 100,000 trucks, it comes out to be less than 1 gallon per truck per year in savings.
Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
11–20 of 132 posts
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#12In Denmark, the term højresvingsulykke (right turn accident) is common, meaning when a car, typically a truck, turns right and hits a bicycle. Lots of people are killed from this every year. One theory is that it is primarily foreign truck drivers who are not accustomed to the high number of cyclists in Copenhagen.
When I initially saw the title, I was expecting it to be a mistake and actually say "Why UPS Trucks Don't Turn Right". I guess the problem is less severe in the rest of the world.
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#13In Denmark, the term højresvingsulykke (right turn accident) is common, meaning when a car, typically a truck, turns right and hits a bicycle. Lots of people are killed from this every year. One theory is that it is primarily foreign truck drivers who are not accustomed to the high number of cyclists in Copenhagen. When I initially saw the title, I was expecting it to be a mistake and actually say "Why UPS Trucks Don…
It's reversed in the US. Lots of accidents occur when people make a left hand turn and don't see a motorcycle/bicycle going straight in the oncoming lane.
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#14From the article: "While the no left turn rule has an appealingly simple and algorithmic quality to it, you will see UPS drivers take left turns on occasion, especially in residential neighborhoods without much incoming traffic." So, no, they do turn left. More title mythology.
Well, sure, when there's no traffic against which to have to turn, the cost of making a left is negligible -- especially in American residential neighborhoods, which are often laid out so as to prompt suspicion that they weren't intended to be navigable at all. (And this is not even entirely false! A city neighborhood with access from multiple traffic arteries, and with straight, minimal-distance routes between them,…
I'm just annoyed we have another article with an inaccurate title that doesn't actually have any examples in the article (like a map of different routes) that show the how and why. Its basically a UPS fluff piece with no substance.
It really bugs me because this something to show folks the value of math and analysis. What types of problem solving go on that can really be improved by application of maps and big data. Heck, even the linked article doesn't have a map explaining why this is important.
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#15In Denmark, the term højresvingsulykke (right turn accident) is common, meaning when a car, typically a truck, turns right and hits a bicycle. Lots of people are killed from this every year. One theory is that it is primarily foreign truck drivers who are not accustomed to the high number of cyclists in Copenhagen. When I initially saw the title, I was expecting it to be a mistake and actually say "Why UPS Trucks Don…
as a cyclist in the US there's a very common scenario here, too - turning right, looking left, not looking into the turn and bam, cyclist at high risk.
TO CLARIFY - the situation i am most referring to is a cross street, where the car is perpendicular to your path and would be coming from your left as a cyclist.
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#16It's hard to imagine that a high number of intersections are so bad for left turns that a three right turn detour is warranted. I've seen some left turn lanes get severely backed up during rush hour on the busiest of streets, but as a general rule I'd expect the left turn would win. I'd be curious to see more data on this.
In most situations I'd imagine the routing systems can avoid the three-right detours just as much as avoiding left turns. Another truck can likely handle the other road on its route.
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#17Mythbusters covered this.
http://youtu.be/ppCz4f1L9iU
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#18In Denmark, the term højresvingsulykke (right turn accident) is common, meaning when a car, typically a truck, turns right and hits a bicycle. Lots of people are killed from this every year. One theory is that it is primarily foreign truck drivers who are not accustomed to the high number of cyclists in Copenhagen. When I initially saw the title, I was expecting it to be a mistake and actually say "Why UPS Trucks Don…
We call this a 'right hook' in the US.
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#19I just wondered, if the parts of the trucks (specially wheels and steering parts) have uneven wear (off?) by this practice. Apart from that, sounds like a good engineering/optimization result. PS: But there is a solution to that problem, as I see the other posts around .... just bring the trucks with uneven wear to the UK after a while ...
a standard tire rotation should handle most of the asymmetric wear on the tire. I'm not sure about the steering system.
Re: Why UPS Trucks Rarely Turn Left
#20Amount of fuel saved is actually negligible. With a fleet of 100,000 trucks, it comes out to be less than 1 gallon per truck per year in savings.
They said they saved 10 million gallons of gas, that's 100 gallons per truck which is $30 million with 3 dollar gas. I think you did your math wrong.