Question: Residential Areas

What do you do if you end up in a residential area? Will police ticket you and does that add marks to your driving record?

What do you do if you end up in a residential area? Will police ticket you and does that add marks to your driving record?

On one of my first loads with Hummer, the address in the load information was wrong. They forgot to include the "West" in the street name, so when I put in the route, I ended up at the front door of a very amused and kind older lady. "oh hunny, you should have turned left, not right." on my part, I was lax in my pre planning, I could have caught it, by doing a Google earth view, but I didn't. She directed me for the proper path out, and then back around to the Pepsi DC. My FM asked if I hit anything. Nope. So he said good, here is your next load assignment.

As long as you can navigate out, not hitting anything, you are usually fine. If there are specific signs saying No Trucks, the first thing I would do is to call authorities, so they can help me get out of the situation safely. In those cases, I doubt they would issue a citation, although I am certain they would of you just tried to wing it, and things got worse.

You should not "end up" in a residential area. There are far too many tools at your disposal to avoid such a situation. Additionally you have your eyes and common sense. You can tell a residential area rather easily by being aware of your surroundings.

With that being said, if you do end up in a residential area(like I did in Washington DC of all places) then the likelyhood of being ticketed all depends on your attitude and what the cop had for breakfast. That is of course if you are caught.

I had a codriver once that had a ticket I'm Sandston VA on a narrow road posted no trucks.

I missed the entrance to a shipper and ended up on that same road, got turned around and on the way back to the shipper passed a cop... who waved at us. My codriver was in the passenger seat and asked me "does it hurt " me "does what hurt?" Him... the horse shoe you have in your axx....

It happens. Even if you preplan, sometimes you'll miss a turn, and end up in a residential area getting turned around.

Thats usually when the flop sweat comes out.

Don't hit anything, and go slow.

It may depend on the state or city guidelines, but I think in general, if the road isn't posted it's ok. However I wouldn't make a point of using them. Most will have signs that will say no through trucks, or local deliveries only. Whatever you do don't follow your GPS blindly. Western Express does this regularly at abroad near my companies warehouse. Instead of making the first right on Rumery Rd like you see in the picture, they take the second right onto Skillings. Which is residential and well posted for no trucks. But because it's technically the shorter route the GPS takes them that way. There's a telephone pole on that corner the city has to replace multiple times a year. Don't be that guy lol

It may depend on the state or city guidelines, but I think in general, if the road isn't posted it's ok. However I wouldn't make a point of using them. Most will have signs that will say no through trucks, or local deliveries only. Whatever you do don't follow your GPS blindly. Western Express does this regularly at abroad near my companies warehouse. Instead of making the first right on Rumery Rd like you see in the picture, they take the second right onto Skillings. Which is residential and well posted for no trucks. But because it's technically the shorter route the GPS takes them that way. There's a telephone pole on that corner the city has to replace multiple times a year. Don't be that guy lol

Wow THANK YOU

One of my first loads as a solo driver had me in that bind. The main interstate was flooded so I was detoured. Once in town, the GPS had me go straight and the next thing I know I'm in a neighborhood. A car comes up to me, and lights me up. "Sh*t, an unmarked cop car. The two female cops say "you're about to get yourself in a whole lotta mess, where are you trying to go?"

I explain what happened, and where I was trying to go. They ended up giving me an escort. No tickets no nothing. Then, when leaving the place, the GPS tried routing me back through the neighborhood again. The route actually crossed over (through an intersection with) the main street, through the neighborhood, then back onto the same main street.

After that, It was CEMENTED in my thick skull to never trust the GPS, even if it's the companie's QC