Q: I’ve seen diesel pickups spewing out black smoke on command, or “rolling coal”. It seems like sometimes they do it intentionally to irritate other drivers or cyclists. It that legal?
A: Up until “rolling coal” was explained to me, I just thought the black smoke coming from diesel pickups was a result of a lack of maintenance on the part of the owner. Apparently I underestimated the will of some drivers in their efforts to be pointlessly annoying. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, “rolling coal” happens when a driver of a diesel truck intentionally belches out a giant cloud of black smoke.
In the right setting, rolling coal makes sense. Go to a tractor pull or truck pull and you’ll see plumes of smoke as drivers pump more fuel into their engines to squeeze every last bit of power they can get from their machine. Modifying the fuel system is part of the competitive strategy of the event.
It quits making sense when a pickup owner spends money on his (this is definitely a male-dominated activity) truck for the sole purpose of making a cloud of black smoke without getting any performance gains. It goes from senseless to obnoxious when he does it to smoke out other road users. Going back a couple sentences, yep, you read that right. Rolling coal isn’t achieved by just stomping on the gas pedal. It requires modifying the vehicle (read spending time and money) to trick the engine into thinking it needs more fuel.
I haven’t experienced any episodes of rolling coal, but I’ve talked to people who have. They tend to be cyclists or Prius drivers. According to them (and much of the internet supports their claims) these coal rollers target cyclists, drivers of hybrid cars, pedestrians, and anyone else they think doesn’t belong on the road. Yeah, it’s a jerk move. But before you get too riled up about it, keep in mind that this is a tiny segment of the driving population. It’s even a tiny segment of the diesel truck driving population. In fact, if you were to go to most any diesel truck online forum, you’d see truck owners mocking the few drivers who engage in rolling coal on public roads. On one site, the first two comments directed toward an aspiring coal roller read, “Rolling coal is stupid,” and “You won’t make any friends and you won’t impress the ladies either.”
I’d almost be willing to tolerate rolling coal as just another dumb prank by an immature driver if it weren’t for the safety aspect. Some people who have been on the stinky end of the tailpipe have described clouds of smoke so dark they couldn’t see for a few seconds. We know seconds matter when driving, and that’s what turns rolling coal from an obnoxious joke to a real hazard.
If you’re a coal roller, you might argue that if we’re honest almost all of us have to admit that at some point in our driving history we’ve done something (or some things) that we’re not proud of. But there’s a difference; spontaneously responding to an unexpected driving situation in a way that we hope our mother never sees or hears is not the same thing as planning in advance, and investing money in, a way to annoy and potentially harm other road users. Modifying a vehicle so that it can envelop a Prius in black smoke is a premeditated act. This is why I don’t think rolling coal will be come, as the New York Times proclaimed, “a new menace on America’s roads.” Maybe I have too much faith in humanity, but I believe that only a tiny segment of society is willing to waste their time and money to plan in advance to be jerks. Most of us aspire to more.
At this point I think I’ve made it abundantly clear that rolling coal is obnoxious and potentially unsafe, but is it legal? A few states have laws that specifically prohibit the action, but Washington is not one of those states. That doesn’t mean it’s legal. Or more accurately, the modifications that allow a person to create a giant cloud of smoke are not legal. The Environmental Protection Agency rules prohibit modifying or bypassing any emission controls on a vehicle. In addition, Washington has some emissions-related laws, and depending on the county you live in and the age of your vehicle, you may have to pass an emissions test to get your registration renewed.
I don’t expect that local law enforcement agencies will expend much of their resources investigating emissions violations, but modifying a vehicle in order to roll coal is not legal. Beyond the legality though, this is one of those things that, even if it’s not that big a deal in the whole scheme of things, speaks to a person’s character. We all have done things we’ve looked back on and said to ourselves, “How could I have been such a jerk?” What we don’t want to be is the person who looks forward and says, “How can I be more of a jerk?”
Why do I seem to encounter way more than my share of this “tiny segment of society” and drivers. Is it because I average 8,000 + miles per year on my bike? Is it because I am an assertive rider? Is it because I have terrible luck?
Rolling Coal as a road safety hazard goes well beyond a few vital seconds of impaired visibility…which is bad enough. We all know the serious health hazard posed by breathing diesel fumes. Due to the very small, microscopic size of the particulates, they are particularly (pun intended) injurious to lung health. Their very tiny size allows them to easily skirt or get past our upper respiratory tract defenses (cilia) and lodge way down deep into the aveolar sacs where they can never get back out. Obstructive lung disease and cancer are just two of the results.
So, Rolling Coal not only increases and concentrates the toxicity of particulate diesel exhaust fumes but when it is meted out against cyclists, we are always breathing much more rapidly and deeper than any other road users. To add more injury to injury (we’re way beyond insult), Rolling Coal morons are especially fond of doing their thing on cyclists during steep climbs. Even faster and deeper breathing going on then for the cyclist.
It must be said here that it doesn’t take an special idiot spending extra money and resources to modify his diesel engine for Rolling Coal to spew toxic fumes all over our roads, environment and the most vulnerable road users going. Just ask any cyclist that has any awareness of their lung health. Why do you think diesel school buses are being retired as fast as feasible? Concern for our children’s exposure to crappy diesel fumes. Non-modified, factory equipped diesel engines spew plenty of deadly particulate fumes in their exhaust ALL THE TIME. More so during those rabbit starts and uphill climbs.
Someday we will look back and wonder how in the world we could be so stupid to develop such bad technologies. That goes for ALL fossil fuel burning, for whatever purpose.
trying to get ‘coal-rollers’ to stop is like trying to get some politicians to listen to everyone, whether they agree or disagree with the subject. people (coal-rollers) that just HAVE to push their opinion on EVERYBODY, are a pain in the neck along side being a pan in the lungs, throat, mouth yadda yadda yadda. rollers must be awfully insecure if they feel the only way they can be of any significance is to envelope cycllists, EV drivers, runners, dog-walkers or anyone not in a diesel driven vehicle, in a lethal cloud of noxious black fuel smoke. singling out EV or hybrid drivers, or cyclists for trying to exercise, or save money or, god forbid, SAVE THE AIR QUALITY, is fundamentally stupid, unkind, disrespectful, so hubris-filled and illegal in some places. why only some places? because there are too many laws on the books already? yeah, there are but when people start doing injurious actions to other people, they gotta be stopped. if they’re too dumb to stop themselves, then, well, what? respect for other people just isn’t what it was once. it makes me wonder why i tried to instill it in my kids. but then i remember. allowing other people their own opinion, and simply agreeing to disagree and just walking away doesn’t seem to be an option anymore. oh, must be that the coal-rollers are the only ones whose opinion matters. geez people, when are you gonna get it through your head that…WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER. we, as a group, not as individuals, are who can or can’t keep this tiny ball of mud and rock and water and and and, hurtling through space WITH humanity on board. the term ‘let’s do better’ or ‘we can do better’ may be trite but in this case, it’ll do. sigh
what heavy metals or dioxins are in diesel exhaust?