My big pet peeve about RVs is when they're in the mountains on 2 lane roads and insist on driving with a foot of their RV over the centerline when going around blind curves.
I used to live in a small tourist town, and people died on a regular basis because of RVs doing that. You could spot the local drivers because they're the ones hugging the fog line when going around a bend.
I don't think people insist on it, it's just very technically challenging to drive any larger vehicle precisely. A Semi, a dump-truck, probably anything with air brakes, these have more stringent licenses and testing. You have to learn to drive them. You can go out today and buy a 3500 diesel truck that can tow 30,000 lbs, weighs close to 10,000 lbs on its own, a crew cab with a long bed coupled to a massive RV that is 45 feet long with triple axles, and the only thing you need to drive that is to have passed a driving test when you were 16 in your mom's Honda Civic.
Many RVs are 8.5 feet wide. Common highway lanes are 10 feet wide. There are curvy highways like route 1 that I swear are only 9' wide. I worry more about line selection and holding my rig inside the yellows than I worry about line selection when I'm racing my motorcycle. It's challenging for me and I drive things as a sport. I'm not covering for someone who went over the yellows, that's unforgivable, but I wanted to add some context for you.
Oh, I really do understand. When I lived in that town, I also had an RV and drove it on those same roads. It is challenging. What I (and most of the locals) would do, though, was to go very slowly around those bends. That takes a lot of the danger out of it.
In fact, there are advisory speed signs for those curves that are accurate -- if people followed them, there would rarely be an issue. Part of the problem, I think, is that if you're driving a car, those advisory speeds are far too slow (15-20 MPH on a 50 MPH road), but if you're driving an RV or big rig, those advisory speeds are critical. I think most non-pro drivers are used to driving cars and have trained themselves to ignore those signs.
I honestly think that people should have special training to be allowed to drive RVs, or at least the larger RVs. Something like a motorcycle tag.
> Common highway lanes are 10 feet wide.
These roads are also narrower than modern ones (they are some of the earliest "highways" built in the state). When I drove an RV on them, I tended to white-knuckle it. They're rather nervous-making.
I think that RV drivers are the least of the problems in mountainous areas. I find the big dualie drivers towing boats blasting by me at 10 over the speed limit on a rainy night the type of issue. They may know the roads (if they're local), but they don't know the weather and the wildlife. A tree could be down, or a deer in the road. But they sure love to ride my ass when I'm going a hair below the speed limit.
Most drivers think they're above average at minimum in their driving skill; most could use to take both a basic math course and a driver's safety class.
I used to live in a small tourist town, and people died on a regular basis because of RVs doing that. You could spot the local drivers because they're the ones hugging the fog line when going around a bend.