[prawn]

Just wanted to confirm those first three points. I keep a 25' converted bus in California for when we fly to the US for holidays. I really dislike holding people up, so will turn out whenever possible, but...

There isn't always advance signage, so you often see them at the last second and don't have time to check the quality of the approach, check if the person behind you has enough warning, etc.

They're always far poorer quality than the road itself, so you're aggressively decelerating a heavy vehicle in usually mountainous conditions, approaching a 4"+ drop into ragged pavement or gravel. I've hit some of those spots at speed and it's felt like the vehicle was going to fall apart.

And yes, often you're going slowly because you've just let a few cars past and reentered the road, just for another person to drive up behind you and start the whole game again.

It's very very rare to find signed turnouts that are good and long enough that it's trivial to pull off the road at a reasonable speed, let people through, and then continue on without just creating more problems.

I remember turnouts in NW Idaho or closer to Spokane maybe where the signage suggested you were meant to use the shoulders to let cars pass, but they were really narrow and I wasn't sure how exactly they were meant to be used? Anyone familiar with that area? If it's not wide enough to get fully out of the lane, wouldn't the passing car just overtake using the opposite lane anyway?

[kortilla]

The act of slowing down and pulling to the shoulder is a clear indicator that another car can pass you without having to go super fast like a normal overtake.

It takes far less oncoming traffic distance to pass someone going 20 in the shoulder than 50 in the regular lane.

You could achieve the same effect going 20 in the lane if you could clearly signal you intended to stay slow so the other person could pass.

[prawn]

Are you referencing that Idaho scenario? This generally assumes the shoulder is long enough, that the car behind you can see it and realise that's what's happening, that there is visibility, etc. From memory, in that Idaho (?) case while the visibility was good and it was generally a straight road, the shoulder was full of debris and unmaintained bushes. Also the shoulder is often a puncture risk.

Here in Australia, the road trains will often signal when it's safe for you to overtake them - they're seated higher with better visibility, have far better lights for night driving, etc. But I always hear that their employers/industry discourage them from doing this, I assume out of fear of liability.

I've driven x0k miles in the US and tried signalling like this when I can tell someone desperately wants to overtake me ("go now, it's clear ahead"), but almost no one understands the intention.

IMO, most RV/truck/etc drivers dislike holding up traffic as much as the traffic dislikes being held up!

[yencabulator]

> if you could clearly signal you intended to stay slow

That is achieved very easily by driving a 31,000 lbs vehicle.