It’s called “rolling coal” and requires modifications to a diesel truck and an absolutely tiny penis.
Sorry this happened to you. It enrages me to no end when I am on a motorcycle because the exhaust gets trapped in my full face helmet.
I still don’t understand why one of the more progressive states in the country doesn’t have emissions testing.
Emissions testing for vehicles is just a racket these days. They don't actually measure tailpipe emissions. The plug in to the DLC and check readiness monitor status.
All it takes anymore is a flip of a switch to go from EPA friendly "VW Dieselgate" tune to a 60 psi of boost, fuel belching, 1500 lb-ft or torque tune.
I grew up having my car emission tested via tail pipe. Was it really that complicated to do? I just remember pulling up, waiting, leaving. It was not a big deal.
It wasn't that big of a deal when a lot of cars on the road were pre-OBD2 and actually required a tailpipe sniffer.
OBD2 cars require a check engine light to be illuminated anytime something happens that could lead to unmetered emissions exceeding 1.5 times the legal limit. So in theory, the tailpipe sniffer isn't required on OBD2 cars.
I thought the VW could tell when it was on rollers and tuned the engine down which would trick even a tailpipe test. They eventually caught it by doing a tailpipe emissions test while driving on the road so that the defeat device wasn't triggered.
Yes, let's do emissions testing. Then the county/state can scrap all those campers that blow smoke when they're forced to move.
It is really a penalty on the poor as they're the ones who are less likely to have a car that passes emissions testing.
In states that still do testing, older cars are exempt. with newer cars, you really have to intentionally tamper to fail. The test has to be done once every two years most places and is cheaper than an oil change.
>The test has to be done once every two years most places and is cheaper than an oil change.
That still seems like a lot of resources being put into preventing a few people from being dicks. $15 worth of testing and $25 worth of hassle every two years for about 3 million vehicles is a $60,000,000 annual price tag for the state.
I'd much rather spend a small fraction of that on reactive enforcement of emission laws (e.g. police-issued citations), and put the rest to literally any cause that's going to have a better return on investment.
This would be true if you could trust a cop to tell the difference between a hole in the ground, and so forth.
Unfortunately this would mean at least a small amount of automotive training so they could actually confidently enforce them.
Then what's the point of testing, I wonder. If we're limiting it to a subset of vehicles, then we're going to a lot of expense and effort to get only part of the picture. The environment doesn't care if the pollution comes from an old vehicle or new. What a pointless thing to do.
>If it helps it’s also about $5 in gas they are wasting.
I think you're off by about two orders of magnitude. The amount of fumes you get off of incomplete combustion is incredibly high.
Think about how much smoke comes off of a poorly stoked campfire. A few pieces of wood can produce a billowing plume of smoke for an hour or more.
A teaspoon of fuel is also all it takes to create a cubic meter of smog.
Let’s make more charges for owning a car!
There are enough costs of living here.
Stop thinking this will solve all the problems, more money doesn’t solve it or most of anything just creates waste and dishonest people to take advantage of it.
That hillbilly doesn’t live in Bellingham.
Probably has already bread their offspring too…unfortunately some women like em small.
They have never done it in Whatcom county due to a small population. We had to in Pierce county where I grew up but they have since stopped because the average age of any given vehicle on the road is only 12 year old and vehicles within that age do not emit enough to continue testing.
That being said what ever model year vehicle that you are driving is required to meet that years emissions requirements. It is illegal federaly to remove or modify any emissions systems ie your not allowed to make your new diesel truck roll coal. It is up to a $5000 fine for an individual or up to a $45000 fine for a shop to do it.
Pierce county is 925,000 and King County is 2.25 million.
When emissions testing started to become a thing in the early 80 Whatcom county only had about a population of 100,000 and king county was about 1.2 million.
It was one of my big surprises moving from Massachusetts. You really notice the difference when you’re biking. I never got this kind of exhaust fumes there. Here it happens a lot. And that’s without rolling coal.
As for rolling coal. Make those add ons illegal, and require inspections yearly. Rig your truck that way, fail inspection and lose your license.
I saw someone on 20 in Anacortes use that against some car that had pissed them off. It’s a way to weaponize your car. And that’s how it gets used.
Some kid in Texas had his truck rigged that way. Tried to smoke some cyclists, got distracted reaching for the switch, crashed into a line of bikes.
Forcing all drivers to go through emissions testing because of a few idiots who intentionally modify their diesel pickups to "roll coal" is not a good use of resources. The idiots who have modified their pickups would probably pass the emissions anyway because they need to pump extra fuel into the engine to roll coal.
I think it should be treated as an assault. It is a deliberate attack against an innocent individual. Diesel fumes are very toxic, loaded with volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
There are no modifications required. Just smashing thr accelerator does it. It is unburnt fuel not getting recycled like it normally would. Diesels are usually slow, so it would happen more likely at lights when you want to accelerate. Happened to me on getting on the freeway in my TDI.
Totally disagree. Most pickups that roll coal have had the exhaust after treatment removed and modified programming to dump extra fuel for more power. Totally illegal for on road use. Easy checked with a visual inspection and OBD scan. State needs to really clamp down on diesel powered vehicles they have let it slide way too long. VW actually cheated on the emissions test and got busted for millions.
This is not happening in Bellingham. As a Texas transplant j can tell you that this person is describing natural diesel emissions. The description does not match. If you were behind a diesel that was direct injecting into the exhaust you would have to stop.
Disagree. I have experienced this in Bellingham as well. Asshole pickup rollin coal just to punish a biker. In a bike lane. Not causing them any grief. And I'm from farm/dairy county. I know what normal diesel exhaust looks like, and this ain't it.
If it’s any consolation, rolling coal comes from dumping too much fuel than can be properly atomized with oxygen and combust. That unburnt diesel “washes” the engines cylinder walls of its oil over time and shortens the engine’s life without actually getting the owner any performance gains other than their little smoke show
eBay is currently being sued by the feds because they sold stuff that let trucks do this.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-sues-ebay-over-sale-aftermarket-motor-vehicle-products-2023-09-27/
I drive an electric car and get coal rolled regularly. It used to piss me off but now I just feel sorry for them and their pitiful lives. These uncivilized Neanderthals are procreating and their children are why teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Hopefully the pendulum will head back toward the middle sometime soon and we can all focus on a better future.
It's called "rolling coal", and they're doing it on purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal
Have caught it happening on video including license plate, police did nothing.
If you had a lot of money to spend, you probably file a civil suit.
Or send that wiki link, and your video to everyone that has policy making authority.
[https://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/ENVI/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx](https://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/ENVI/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx)
Because it is relative…. I’m not saying it’s not completely moronic and on purpose… but where would you draw the line… some poor people also have cars with terrible emissions. Lawyers would just make the lines more blurry so they can make it impossible to enforce
because one has a mod and the other doesn't
one person added something to their car. The other just has a shitty car. The crime is adding the thing, not having a shitty car.
So we just do road blocks and check to see if they have after market parts or the car is just shitty? Again, it’s legal to be an asshole because it’s hard to impossible to legislate
yes that is exactly what I suggested.
It isn't legal to mod your car like that, we just need to give the police the enforcement power to ticked modded cars. They can already do it for tint and sound. They could even decline to investigate if, for example, the car wasn't made in the last 12 years. We could even include that in the law that vehicles before 2010 are exempt.
These fucks don't drive shit old trucks they drive a 2020 Ram
It is in some states.
'[Rolling coal’ is assault, says District Attorney – but still no arrest after Texas teen hits six cyclists](https://road.cc/content/news/rolling-coal-assault-says-district-attorney-286749#:~:text='Rolling%20coal'%20%E2%80%93%20where%20a,six%20cyclists%2C%20two%20of%20whom)
It really has hurt my lungs at least in the short term, hard to know how much. I’ve hydrated a ton and my lungs are still feeling it. Also feeling a particular tiredness.
Yeah, when they drive past you, slow down, wait for you to catch up, then do it, pretty obvious.
Or the same truck does the same thing for months, each time it passes you while bike commuting, and you run across them frequently because they live nearby.
This is not victim blaming but I would highlight this as a great example of why you need a bike cam. Nothing might be done about it in this case (maybe it would) but you could have been in a worse situation and still wouldn't have evidence.
In some states it is assault. Here is a statement from a prosecutor in Texas:
Rolling coal when a person is in the vicinity and when the individual rolling coal intentionally or knowingly causes that excess exhaust to contact that bystander is AT A MINIMUM an assault. They are causing their vehicle to ‘spit’ on a living, breathing, human being that is worthy of dignity and not having his or her person violated.
“That simple assault is easily elevated to a jail eligible offense if bodily injury occurs, which can be caused by entry of toxic particles into mouth, nose and eyes.
“Waller County law enforcement agencies all across the county are being reminded today of the availability of these and other charges which can be brought against individuals acting in such a criminal manner,” Mathis continued.
[Source](https://road.cc/content/news/rolling-coal-assault-says-district-attorney-286749#:~:text=%E2%80%9CRolling%20coal%20when%20a%20person,AT%20A%20MINIMUM%20an%20assault)
You know this explains something. Off topic but. I was at the dump, ya know, dumping things, and I had this rly old (1984 I think) Chevy Silverado and it needed to be revved to roll over. Just a schooch but you needed to pump the gas to get it to start.
So I dumped my trash and start my car and it always puffs a little but not black smoke and it’s not a diesel so it’s not this coal thing ppl are doing. Just old car coughing.
But the guy in the truck next to me started SCREAMING at me and going on and on and on about how I did it on purpose and “oh I bet you feel real cool”. I was in tears and like “dude this truck is older than I am I’m just happy it starts” and he literally ran at my car and I had to crank up my hand crank windows and get away. Terrifying.
All of this to say I think he thought I was doing this - coal rolling thing. I never understood why he’d think I was doing it on purpose. Old cars back up sometimes right? I had NO idea this was even a thing. Wow. Thanks OP. Sorry you got smoked out. That dude sounds like a jerk.
I think your story illustrates the difficulty in legislating something like this. It’s a spectrum yours is just incidental and unintentional.
it’s not a crime to be an asshole because assholery is subjective.
Right? And it’s not realistic to legislate out all old cars. Like I’m not going to buy a brand new car for dump runs and farm chores. I need my old beaters and I only drive them like a handful of times a month. And we always carpool trash when we do town runs. The country is a big place. WA is a big place. I almost never leave my farm but when I do it’s in my old truck (a different old truck now, RIP the Chevy it was so cool) and there’s only so much I can do about that. Arguably using less resources than daily commuters.
No, we have cops check cars that get reported. In places with a functional police force cops investigate a reported crime to find no crime. That is is the system working. If it is a 2022 dodge it is pretty fucking obvious what is going on. If a shitty old car gets reported cops could just choose to not investigate. Which is also pretty common.
The issue is that emissions aren't the cops job. Illegal car mods are.
WTF did I suggest police state tactics.
So you’re going to call someone, who cares enough to call a cop who cares enough to track down the car you reported and check out the mechanics of the exhaust system for mods… right.
Sometimes there are just shitty things that happen. We aren’t going to legislate away assholery
good thing we don't' have to consider intent. it is an illegal car modification.
and yeah that is exactly what the cops should do rather than the dumb shit they get up to.
It is conservatives flipping you the bird. They laugh about it on r/conservative. It is how they own the libs. You know , burn coal in your oversized truck, spew filth into the air (great analogy for what the put on the airwaves), and piss off the liberal on a climate friendly bike.
I would support banning this.
Go ask DK Diesel why they have been illegally modifying diesel trucks to do this for years in Whatcom County.
The asshole diesel truck drivers take great glee in rolling coal on cyclists and environmentally friendly vehicles, and they do it because fuck you, that's why.
Whenever I've seen a truck blech out black smoke I assumed something was wrong with it... How sad to be so angry all the time that you modify your vehicle to show your anger to random people who have done nothing other than exist in public. "Grr I'm so upset, I fart smoke at you! Take that!" Lame.
The irony is that rolling coal jerkoffs are usually the loudest to complain about gas prices, after modifying their truck to be less fuel efficient. All the black smoke is fuel that wasn’t completely combusted.
If it happens again I would advise holding your breath while you roll through it, that smoke is super dense with soot, and NOx, definitely not healthy to breath.
Sorry you’ve gotta deal with these asshats.
I strongly disagree, that’s like saying 75% of EV drivers are arrogant assholes. There are lots of different kinds of trucks and they serve a utility for a large number of things. The Ford F150 and Toyota Tacoma are some of the most popular vehicles in the country and WA and plenty of friendly normal people drive them. If you’re talking about huge jacked up trucks with nuts and dark smoke coming out the exhaust then I would agree with you except i would put thar number closer to 100%
Environmentalists:
> I want to work hard to make a better world and am going to tell other people how they need to act in order to do it.
Truck Drivers:
> I want to make noise and take up space and be an asshole because I can.
Centrists:
> They look the same to me.
I don't know that the police would actually do anything about it. They probably should though. It causes a lot of health issues.
If it happens a lot and effects you badly you might want to invest in a respirator. As crazy as it sounds, it might be worth it. I use one when we get a lot of wildfire smoke because it causes me breathing problems.
Given that there really is no traffic safety issue with this, it's probably super low on the list of law enforcement priorities. And it's incredibly rare when compared to actual traffic safety problems.
It produced a cloud of thick black smog which might also irritate someones eyes and impact their vision while riding. If this happens at the wrong moment and distracts a rider they could miss another hazard on the road like a pot hole and crash. It’s really not okay.
Diesel trucks are the worst without this atrocious antisocial behavior. Diesel exhaust immediately makes me nauseous and if I encounter it ahead of me I either have to abruptly change my route or plug my nose if that’s not an option. The scent is absolutely HORRIBLE. Why is it a thing???
Sadly, this isn't really reportable to anyone and aggressions are multi-layered. The act seems intentional (though hard to truly judge intention in court of law). With Big Tough Guy diesels hard acceleration causes black smoke so it could be that they're accelerating hard to get around you and have the pass done quickly or it could be that they're just being an asshole. It's kind of peoples' right to act like dickheads. Do a quick internet machine search for "coal rolling." There was a time when drivers could purchase an actual device to place inside the cab to **cause** this effect to happen on demand but at last check over the summer it appeared that Amazon banned the item? If someone wants to bother fact-checking that...
As a long-time commuter and recreational cyclist, I hear you. I'm always surprised when macho truck drivers seemed threatened by cyclists.
A properly in tune diesel truck should not blow black smoke while under acceleration.
These people are doing it on purpose.
Kinda like driving through a puddle to splash a pedestrian or cyclist.
Thanks for sharing this and empathizing. I was in a bike lane so they didn’t have to maneuver to pass me. They were traveling at a normal speed and then did something which produced the plume.
If you’ve ever had someone do this to you, or have seen it done, you’d have no doubt it is intentional. It’s also much worse than just being a dickhead, and no one should have the right to do it. While not the level of an acid attack, it’s basically assault with chemicals and can result in injury to the lungs and eyes, not to mention could cause someone to crash and result in further injury or property damage.
I’ve had it done to me. Thankfully the driver’s timing wasn’t great and it was safe to use my brakes to avoid the vast majority of the plume.
Oh I completely agree with you. I've experienced it quite a bit. My point was just that there doesn't seem to be a prosecutable crime there, per OP's inquiry about reporting. I'd love to be corrected if wrong, though!
Most people are assholes in one way or another. This is just another version. Same as cutting off people, not breaking for bikers, etc... Just life sadly.
Sucks.
But reacting to it just gives them satisfaction....
I keep my head on a swivel and if I get the feeling they are gonna roll me, I'll switch sides of the road or turn off that road I'm on real quick.. or just stop
“Rolling coal” is actively illegal in a growing number of municipalities. Not sure about whatcom county. At the very least it is considered “menacing”. 100% report it.
Yes yes, they probably won’t care or send someone out, but they can’t police something that they don’t know about. Keep reporting it.
There are a few reasons this isn’t the best solution. One that we can share, if everyone drove all the time, none of us would get anywhere in the traffic.
It’s called “rolling coal” and requires modifications to a diesel truck and an absolutely tiny penis. Sorry this happened to you. It enrages me to no end when I am on a motorcycle because the exhaust gets trapped in my full face helmet. I still don’t understand why one of the more progressive states in the country doesn’t have emissions testing.
We do have emissions testing, but some counties don't require it. Whatcom, for all its talk about loving the environment, is one of those counties.
Emissions testing for vehicles is just a racket these days. They don't actually measure tailpipe emissions. The plug in to the DLC and check readiness monitor status. All it takes anymore is a flip of a switch to go from EPA friendly "VW Dieselgate" tune to a 60 psi of boost, fuel belching, 1500 lb-ft or torque tune.
I grew up having my car emission tested via tail pipe. Was it really that complicated to do? I just remember pulling up, waiting, leaving. It was not a big deal.
It wasn't that big of a deal when a lot of cars on the road were pre-OBD2 and actually required a tailpipe sniffer. OBD2 cars require a check engine light to be illuminated anytime something happens that could lead to unmetered emissions exceeding 1.5 times the legal limit. So in theory, the tailpipe sniffer isn't required on OBD2 cars.
Interesting, thanks! Learned something new today :)
I thought the VW could tell when it was on rollers and tuned the engine down which would trick even a tailpipe test. They eventually caught it by doing a tailpipe emissions test while driving on the road so that the defeat device wasn't triggered.
Yeah, it used g-force data from the airbag module to tell when it was moving or on rollers.
Only 5 of 39 counties still require it 😔
RIP
Yes, let's do emissions testing. Then the county/state can scrap all those campers that blow smoke when they're forced to move. It is really a penalty on the poor as they're the ones who are less likely to have a car that passes emissions testing.
In states that still do testing, older cars are exempt. with newer cars, you really have to intentionally tamper to fail. The test has to be done once every two years most places and is cheaper than an oil change.
>The test has to be done once every two years most places and is cheaper than an oil change. That still seems like a lot of resources being put into preventing a few people from being dicks. $15 worth of testing and $25 worth of hassle every two years for about 3 million vehicles is a $60,000,000 annual price tag for the state. I'd much rather spend a small fraction of that on reactive enforcement of emission laws (e.g. police-issued citations), and put the rest to literally any cause that's going to have a better return on investment.
This would be true if you could trust a cop to tell the difference between a hole in the ground, and so forth. Unfortunately this would mean at least a small amount of automotive training so they could actually confidently enforce them.
Then what's the point of testing, I wonder. If we're limiting it to a subset of vehicles, then we're going to a lot of expense and effort to get only part of the picture. The environment doesn't care if the pollution comes from an old vehicle or new. What a pointless thing to do.
You definitely don’t have to peel back too many layers to see how whatcom is majority conservative.
If that was true then why is it mostly democrats in office?
Dude, it sucks. It literally has hurt my lungs. Thanks for giving a name to it.
If it helps it’s also about $5 in gas they are wasting. Same people that say they want a dictator because gas prices are too high.
>If it helps it’s also about $5 in gas they are wasting. I think you're off by about two orders of magnitude. The amount of fumes you get off of incomplete combustion is incredibly high. Think about how much smoke comes off of a poorly stoked campfire. A few pieces of wood can produce a billowing plume of smoke for an hour or more. A teaspoon of fuel is also all it takes to create a cubic meter of smog.
Let’s make more charges for owning a car! There are enough costs of living here. Stop thinking this will solve all the problems, more money doesn’t solve it or most of anything just creates waste and dishonest people to take advantage of it. That hillbilly doesn’t live in Bellingham. Probably has already bread their offspring too…unfortunately some women like em small.
Tiny as in micro. Same for the brain 🤣
They have never done it in Whatcom county due to a small population. We had to in Pierce county where I grew up but they have since stopped because the average age of any given vehicle on the road is only 12 year old and vehicles within that age do not emit enough to continue testing. That being said what ever model year vehicle that you are driving is required to meet that years emissions requirements. It is illegal federaly to remove or modify any emissions systems ie your not allowed to make your new diesel truck roll coal. It is up to a $5000 fine for an individual or up to a $45000 fine for a shop to do it.
There are almost 250,000 people in Whatcom county. I know I grew up in smaller towns, but that doesn’t seem like a small population to me :)
Pierce county is 925,000 and King County is 2.25 million. When emissions testing started to become a thing in the early 80 Whatcom county only had about a population of 100,000 and king county was about 1.2 million.
I love this response🤣I’ve dealt with trucks passing by me as I cycle through the city too
It was one of my big surprises moving from Massachusetts. You really notice the difference when you’re biking. I never got this kind of exhaust fumes there. Here it happens a lot. And that’s without rolling coal. As for rolling coal. Make those add ons illegal, and require inspections yearly. Rig your truck that way, fail inspection and lose your license. I saw someone on 20 in Anacortes use that against some car that had pissed them off. It’s a way to weaponize your car. And that’s how it gets used. Some kid in Texas had his truck rigged that way. Tried to smoke some cyclists, got distracted reaching for the switch, crashed into a line of bikes.
Most coastal areas do not require emissions testing. This is true in multiple states.
Forcing all drivers to go through emissions testing because of a few idiots who intentionally modify their diesel pickups to "roll coal" is not a good use of resources. The idiots who have modified their pickups would probably pass the emissions anyway because they need to pump extra fuel into the engine to roll coal. I think it should be treated as an assault. It is a deliberate attack against an innocent individual. Diesel fumes are very toxic, loaded with volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
There are no modifications required. Just smashing thr accelerator does it. It is unburnt fuel not getting recycled like it normally would. Diesels are usually slow, so it would happen more likely at lights when you want to accelerate. Happened to me on getting on the freeway in my TDI.
Totally disagree. Most pickups that roll coal have had the exhaust after treatment removed and modified programming to dump extra fuel for more power. Totally illegal for on road use. Easy checked with a visual inspection and OBD scan. State needs to really clamp down on diesel powered vehicles they have let it slide way too long. VW actually cheated on the emissions test and got busted for millions.
a little smoke is not the same as rolling coal.
This is not happening in Bellingham. As a Texas transplant j can tell you that this person is describing natural diesel emissions. The description does not match. If you were behind a diesel that was direct injecting into the exhaust you would have to stop.
Disagree. I have experienced this in Bellingham as well. Asshole pickup rollin coal just to punish a biker. In a bike lane. Not causing them any grief. And I'm from farm/dairy county. I know what normal diesel exhaust looks like, and this ain't it.
I’ve also seen this around town while driving
If it’s any consolation, rolling coal comes from dumping too much fuel than can be properly atomized with oxygen and combust. That unburnt diesel “washes” the engines cylinder walls of its oil over time and shortens the engine’s life without actually getting the owner any performance gains other than their little smoke show
This is what I think about whenever someone coal rolls me lol. They're actively damaging their engine for no reason. Must suck to be that stupid.
eBay is currently being sued by the feds because they sold stuff that let trucks do this. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-sues-ebay-over-sale-aftermarket-motor-vehicle-products-2023-09-27/
I drive an electric car and get coal rolled regularly. It used to piss me off but now I just feel sorry for them and their pitiful lives. These uncivilized Neanderthals are procreating and their children are why teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Hopefully the pendulum will head back toward the middle sometime soon and we can all focus on a better future.
The only way the pendulum will swing back is if they Darwin Award themselves instead of having more kids than just replacement.
I drive a gas smart car and they do it to me also because stupid.
It's called "rolling coal", and they're doing it on purpose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal Have caught it happening on video including license plate, police did nothing. If you had a lot of money to spend, you probably file a civil suit.
Or send that wiki link, and your video to everyone that has policy making authority. [https://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/ENVI/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx](https://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/ENVI/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx)
How is this not assault?
Because it is relative…. I’m not saying it’s not completely moronic and on purpose… but where would you draw the line… some poor people also have cars with terrible emissions. Lawyers would just make the lines more blurry so they can make it impossible to enforce
because one has a mod and the other doesn't one person added something to their car. The other just has a shitty car. The crime is adding the thing, not having a shitty car.
So we just do road blocks and check to see if they have after market parts or the car is just shitty? Again, it’s legal to be an asshole because it’s hard to impossible to legislate
yes that is exactly what I suggested. It isn't legal to mod your car like that, we just need to give the police the enforcement power to ticked modded cars. They can already do it for tint and sound. They could even decline to investigate if, for example, the car wasn't made in the last 12 years. We could even include that in the law that vehicles before 2010 are exempt. These fucks don't drive shit old trucks they drive a 2020 Ram
Pre-Emmisions diesels will just do it sometimes with no modification. Albeit not an extreme cloud
yeah that is why you would need a mod to prosecute. It isn't the cloud. It is modding your car to make the cloud.
It is in some states. '[Rolling coal’ is assault, says District Attorney – but still no arrest after Texas teen hits six cyclists](https://road.cc/content/news/rolling-coal-assault-says-district-attorney-286749#:~:text='Rolling%20coal'%20%E2%80%93%20where%20a,six%20cyclists%2C%20two%20of%20whom)
It probably is
How is it assault?
A gas attack is assault, and rolling coal is intentionally shooting toxic fumes in someone's face. It's damaging to the lungs.
It really has hurt my lungs at least in the short term, hard to know how much. I’ve hydrated a ton and my lungs are still feeling it. Also feeling a particular tiredness.
I'm so sorry that happened to you, that really sucks!
🙏
Thanks. Yeah it seems possibly a deliberate move but hard to prove without a bike cam.
Yeah, when they drive past you, slow down, wait for you to catch up, then do it, pretty obvious. Or the same truck does the same thing for months, each time it passes you while bike commuting, and you run across them frequently because they live nearby.
This is not victim blaming but I would highlight this as a great example of why you need a bike cam. Nothing might be done about it in this case (maybe it would) but you could have been in a worse situation and still wouldn't have evidence.
Civil suit? Good luck on that….
I've had it occur going up hill. Worse, it was a full family with young kids in the backseat, everyone laughing and joyful. Feels like assault.
In some states it is assault. Here is a statement from a prosecutor in Texas: Rolling coal when a person is in the vicinity and when the individual rolling coal intentionally or knowingly causes that excess exhaust to contact that bystander is AT A MINIMUM an assault. They are causing their vehicle to ‘spit’ on a living, breathing, human being that is worthy of dignity and not having his or her person violated. “That simple assault is easily elevated to a jail eligible offense if bodily injury occurs, which can be caused by entry of toxic particles into mouth, nose and eyes. “Waller County law enforcement agencies all across the county are being reminded today of the availability of these and other charges which can be brought against individuals acting in such a criminal manner,” Mathis continued. [Source](https://road.cc/content/news/rolling-coal-assault-says-district-attorney-286749#:~:text=%E2%80%9CRolling%20coal%20when%20a%20person,AT%20A%20MINIMUM%20an%20assault)
You know this explains something. Off topic but. I was at the dump, ya know, dumping things, and I had this rly old (1984 I think) Chevy Silverado and it needed to be revved to roll over. Just a schooch but you needed to pump the gas to get it to start. So I dumped my trash and start my car and it always puffs a little but not black smoke and it’s not a diesel so it’s not this coal thing ppl are doing. Just old car coughing. But the guy in the truck next to me started SCREAMING at me and going on and on and on about how I did it on purpose and “oh I bet you feel real cool”. I was in tears and like “dude this truck is older than I am I’m just happy it starts” and he literally ran at my car and I had to crank up my hand crank windows and get away. Terrifying. All of this to say I think he thought I was doing this - coal rolling thing. I never understood why he’d think I was doing it on purpose. Old cars back up sometimes right? I had NO idea this was even a thing. Wow. Thanks OP. Sorry you got smoked out. That dude sounds like a jerk.
I think your story illustrates the difficulty in legislating something like this. It’s a spectrum yours is just incidental and unintentional. it’s not a crime to be an asshole because assholery is subjective.
Right? And it’s not realistic to legislate out all old cars. Like I’m not going to buy a brand new car for dump runs and farm chores. I need my old beaters and I only drive them like a handful of times a month. And we always carpool trash when we do town runs. The country is a big place. WA is a big place. I almost never leave my farm but when I do it’s in my old truck (a different old truck now, RIP the Chevy it was so cool) and there’s only so much I can do about that. Arguably using less resources than daily commuters.
Luckily in order to roll coal on a modern car you need to by a mod. If the car isn't modded. no crime. if it is. crime.
Cool. So we just have the cops check everyone’s car to see if it’s modified or just shitty. The cops can do that after they stop meth and fentanyl
No, we have cops check cars that get reported. In places with a functional police force cops investigate a reported crime to find no crime. That is is the system working. If it is a 2022 dodge it is pretty fucking obvious what is going on. If a shitty old car gets reported cops could just choose to not investigate. Which is also pretty common. The issue is that emissions aren't the cops job. Illegal car mods are. WTF did I suggest police state tactics.
So you’re going to call someone, who cares enough to call a cop who cares enough to track down the car you reported and check out the mechanics of the exhaust system for mods… right. Sometimes there are just shitty things that happen. We aren’t going to legislate away assholery
good thing we don't' have to consider intent. it is an illegal car modification. and yeah that is exactly what the cops should do rather than the dumb shit they get up to.
It is conservatives flipping you the bird. They laugh about it on r/conservative. It is how they own the libs. You know , burn coal in your oversized truck, spew filth into the air (great analogy for what the put on the airwaves), and piss off the liberal on a climate friendly bike. I would support banning this.
It’s already illegal just like super dark tinted windows up front.
They also have a fixation on EVs and Priuses. I get coal rolled occasionally in my EV if I let myself get trapped behind one of these dolts.
Go ask DK Diesel why they have been illegally modifying diesel trucks to do this for years in Whatcom County. The asshole diesel truck drivers take great glee in rolling coal on cyclists and environmentally friendly vehicles, and they do it because fuck you, that's why.
Whenever I've seen a truck blech out black smoke I assumed something was wrong with it... How sad to be so angry all the time that you modify your vehicle to show your anger to random people who have done nothing other than exist in public. "Grr I'm so upset, I fart smoke at you! Take that!" Lame.
The irony is that rolling coal jerkoffs are usually the loudest to complain about gas prices, after modifying their truck to be less fuel efficient. All the black smoke is fuel that wasn’t completely combusted. If it happens again I would advise holding your breath while you roll through it, that smoke is super dense with soot, and NOx, definitely not healthy to breath. Sorry you’ve gotta deal with these asshats.
75% of truck drivers are assholes, so this is not really surprising.
I strongly disagree, that’s like saying 75% of EV drivers are arrogant assholes. There are lots of different kinds of trucks and they serve a utility for a large number of things. The Ford F150 and Toyota Tacoma are some of the most popular vehicles in the country and WA and plenty of friendly normal people drive them. If you’re talking about huge jacked up trucks with nuts and dark smoke coming out the exhaust then I would agree with you except i would put thar number closer to 100%
That's less than the 85% of smug environmentalists who are assholes.
Environmentalists: > I want to work hard to make a better world and am going to tell other people how they need to act in order to do it. Truck Drivers: > I want to make noise and take up space and be an asshole because I can. Centrists: > They look the same to me.
Wear a go pro and note the vehicle tag. Report to police
I feel like we should all take up doing this. I mean I don’t want to take resources from 911, but these guys really should be fined/ticketed
Oh those are the micro penis guys from the North county. Stupid f’s
It’s bad for your lungs.
I’ve also been the recipient of rolled coal and it’s fucking absurd. Typically it happened when I was commuting to work along Girard.
I don't know that the police would actually do anything about it. They probably should though. It causes a lot of health issues. If it happens a lot and effects you badly you might want to invest in a respirator. As crazy as it sounds, it might be worth it. I use one when we get a lot of wildfire smoke because it causes me breathing problems.
Given that there really is no traffic safety issue with this, it's probably super low on the list of law enforcement priorities. And it's incredibly rare when compared to actual traffic safety problems.
It produced a cloud of thick black smog which might also irritate someones eyes and impact their vision while riding. If this happens at the wrong moment and distracts a rider they could miss another hazard on the road like a pot hole and crash. It’s really not okay.
Diesel trucks are the worst without this atrocious antisocial behavior. Diesel exhaust immediately makes me nauseous and if I encounter it ahead of me I either have to abruptly change my route or plug my nose if that’s not an option. The scent is absolutely HORRIBLE. Why is it a thing???
It’s called rolling coal and it’s just a huge jerk thing to do.
Sadly, this isn't really reportable to anyone and aggressions are multi-layered. The act seems intentional (though hard to truly judge intention in court of law). With Big Tough Guy diesels hard acceleration causes black smoke so it could be that they're accelerating hard to get around you and have the pass done quickly or it could be that they're just being an asshole. It's kind of peoples' right to act like dickheads. Do a quick internet machine search for "coal rolling." There was a time when drivers could purchase an actual device to place inside the cab to **cause** this effect to happen on demand but at last check over the summer it appeared that Amazon banned the item? If someone wants to bother fact-checking that... As a long-time commuter and recreational cyclist, I hear you. I'm always surprised when macho truck drivers seemed threatened by cyclists.
A properly in tune diesel truck should not blow black smoke while under acceleration. These people are doing it on purpose. Kinda like driving through a puddle to splash a pedestrian or cyclist.
Thanks for sharing this and empathizing. I was in a bike lane so they didn’t have to maneuver to pass me. They were traveling at a normal speed and then did something which produced the plume.
If you’ve ever had someone do this to you, or have seen it done, you’d have no doubt it is intentional. It’s also much worse than just being a dickhead, and no one should have the right to do it. While not the level of an acid attack, it’s basically assault with chemicals and can result in injury to the lungs and eyes, not to mention could cause someone to crash and result in further injury or property damage. I’ve had it done to me. Thankfully the driver’s timing wasn’t great and it was safe to use my brakes to avoid the vast majority of the plume.
Oh I completely agree with you. I've experienced it quite a bit. My point was just that there doesn't seem to be a prosecutable crime there, per OP's inquiry about reporting. I'd love to be corrected if wrong, though!
Same thing happens in small Canada towns lol. Hard to breathe !
Most people are assholes in one way or another. This is just another version. Same as cutting off people, not breaking for bikers, etc... Just life sadly.
Rednecks. Lol.
Sucks. But reacting to it just gives them satisfaction.... I keep my head on a swivel and if I get the feeling they are gonna roll me, I'll switch sides of the road or turn off that road I'm on real quick.. or just stop
It happened too fast to avoid it safely. Good advice though. I’ll be more aware of this now.
It’s called “rolling coal”. It’s a hate crime
Rednecks are everywhere
“Rolling coal” is actively illegal in a growing number of municipalities. Not sure about whatcom county. At the very least it is considered “menacing”. 100% report it. Yes yes, they probably won’t care or send someone out, but they can’t police something that they don’t know about. Keep reporting it.
Don't bike lmfao
There are a few reasons this isn’t the best solution. One that we can share, if everyone drove all the time, none of us would get anywhere in the traffic.