A frustrated college student shares a video of a driver blowing a plume of exhaust smoke with the Reddit community.
The clip, posted to an anti-car subreddit, shows a large pickup truck emitting a large brownish cloud of exhaust over the road and pedestrians. The student shares that they have already reported the driver to their local smogspotter.
"I will also contact local authorities over suspected illegal exhaust modifications and see if this constitutes a violation of the Clear Air Act (1963)," they added.
Rolling coal is a bullying tactic used by diesel truck drivers. Psychology Today writes that it "entails a diesel truck spewing a thick plume of black smoke on unsuspecting cyclists, pedestrians, or other drivers."
Not only is this practice bad for the environment, but it's illegal, violating local laws as well as environmental regulations. In order to create this pollution, these vehicle owners must modify the exhaust of their trucks using a device that bypasses pollution controls. According to the Sierra Club, "A vehicle equipped with such a defeat device can produce 40 to 100 times the emissions of a standard vehicle."
Rolling coal is a tactic that is often aimed at perceived environmentalists, such as those who drive electric vehicles. One Cybertruck driver even had a rock thrown at them during a coal-rolling encounter.
The post inspired frustration and anger from other Redditors.
"These are people so enraged at the idea of other people attempting to make the world a better place, they consciously go out of their way to make it a worse one," wrote one commenter.
Another person said about their own experience, "Wish I got the plate of whoever coal rolled me; I did everything by the book, and there was an extra lane by me they chose to use for their convenience of coal rolling rather than getting past me."
Someone else added, "Pickup trucks will do this to me in my Prius sometimes."
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