Roadeo

A roadeo is a competitive driving event for motor vehicle drivers in which drivers compete to pass through a variety of obstacles in the smallest amount of time.

The term "roadeo" was derived from the fact that a roadeo is essentially a "rodeo for cars" in that roadeos involve the handling of motor vehicles just as rodeos involve handling livestock. According to Louise M. Ackerman writing in American Speech, the word "roadeo" was probably first used in the 1950s, and its introduction was partially driven by the popularity of rodeos. Of course, roadeos are also held for a variety of other vehicles, such as buses (including transit buses and school buses) and trucks (especially semi-trailer trucks).

The first roadeos were mainly events for truck drivers. For example, the National Truck Roadeo (now the National Truck Driving Championships, also known as the National Truck Driving Championships Roadeo) was founded in 1937 by the American Trucking Associations for the purpose of publicly displaying the "incredible degree of safety, courtesy, and driving judgement [that drivers] had achieved".

Since the earliest roadeos, roadeo competitions have been started for a wide variety of commercially operated vehicles. In addition to transit and school buses, competitions are available for minivan drivers and paratransit bus drivers, to name only two of the classes of vehicles served. Even within truck roadeos, vehicles are usually divided by class, such as the International Bus Roadeo, which divides transit buses into 35- and 40-foot divisions, and various truck roadeos, which divide trucks by length and weight. One roadeo was held in Orlando, Florida for motorscooters and small motorcycles.

The obstacles that drivers have to navigate may vary among competitions, but usually measure drivers' abilities to negotiate narrow paths, tight turns, or both while under a time limit. At times, the clearance drivers are given by an obstacle are quite small; one obstacle that bus drivers have to navigate requires them to stop with their front bumpers less than six inches away from a traffic cone. Minimum speed requirements, besides the time limit usually imposed on a course as a whole, can also be used by obstacle course designers to increase the difficulty of an obstacle. The obstacles in a roadeo are usually meant to test drivers' ability to handle situations that would come up during usual day-to-day driving. Some transit bus roadeos include simulated bus stops, school bus roadeos tend to include simulated loading and unloading events, and most roadeos require drivers to navigate very tight spaces in their vehicles, such as those that would be encountered while driving an eighteen-wheeler.

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