Unfortunately, I was not able to video the Clover I encountered today – because I forgot to bring my video recorder with me. My bad, because this encounter was among the worst of the year so far.
I was coming up Bent Mountain – US. 221 in Virginia. It is about two miles or so of “s” turns ascending a steep grade and that’s why the one lane road opens up to two lanes at the bottom of the mountain, so that trucks and other slow-moving traffic can move over to the right lane so that everyone else can continue at normal speed rather than proceed at the pace of a loaded truck or RV struggling to maintain 27 MPH.
The event began with me behind a Subaru crossover. The Subaru was going much slower than the posted 55 MPH speed limit, which was maybe due to the driver being a timid or feeble one or perhaps the Soobie had some mechanical issue. Any of these are understandable reasons to drive slow. When the road opened up to two lanes, the driver of the Subaru began to hesitantly move right – at which point I began to accelerate to pass in the passing lane. At just that moment, the driver of the Subaru jerked his car back into the left lane, forcing me into the opposing lane to avoid the Clover’s Subaru running into me.
Lucky for me there was no traffic in the opposing lane and I was able to accelerate and get ahead of the Clover – who stayed in the left lane, blocking at least the five or six other vehicles I could see that got stuck behind the Clover (the right lane was full of slow-moving traffic, so both lanes were blocked).
What is wrong with these people?
I laid on the horn when the Clover began to wander back into the left lane as I was trying to pass the Clover. He knew, in other words, that he’d almost caused an accident; knew he was obstructing traffic. Perhaps beatings are in order. Something. The most galling part is there is never a cop around to see and do something about this sort of thing – actually dangerous things – because they are sitting somewhere else looking for “speeders” to ticket. We passed a state cop doing exactly that on the way down the mountain. The bastard was sitting in the entrance of a private business – a storage lot – probably without the owner’s knowledge, much less permission – and had positioned his $50,000 taxpayer-financed Ford Explorer just behind the storage lot’s sign, so as to be very hard to see until it was too late.
They say, these cops, that “speeding” is “unsafe” yet hide themselves like trap-door spiders so as to make sure to catch rather than deter them – because there’s no money for the state in deterrence. A visible cop causes people to slow down and if that’s what mattered, cops would make a point of being visible as it would result in more people slowing down. By hiding, they assure more people will “speed” and that means more tickets and more money, which is what it’s really all about.
So the cop was doing that rather than patrolling the road – looking for actually dangerous drivers like this recklessly incompetent Subaru Clover who literally tried to run me into the opposing lane of traffic because he got mad that I had the gall to pass him.
He might have been drunk. Actually drunk. as opposed to the kind of “drunks” who are discovered at Sobriety Checkpoints, where your actual driving doesn’t matter (and so neither does probable cause) but look out if the machine says you’ve had a beer. Of course, catching actually drunk drivers would mean having to go out and look for them and of course that involves work, so . . .
Meanwhile, I watched the Clover and his conga line receded in the rearview and marvelled at it all.
. . .
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Well, I reckon I’ll cut to the chase with all you Cop and Property tax Whiners & Bleaters!!
The 2025 Ron Paul …….awards for the Best Libertarian…”We don’t give a shit-astans”….
Goes to THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC……
Salient points…….
Cops DON’T WANT YOU TO BOTHER THEM…GOT IT…THEY ARE ON CARIBE TIME……
Sorry, got cut off due to over medication…..
What is this property tax crap? 0 up till 250 k then 1% yeah.
….
Gee whiz Einsteins, Smell the coffee!
Also rans….
Paraguay, for the Fly over state types….and
Indonesia for Kick ass Bali-esque scenery.. and a Caribe vibe….
Go check it out.
Subaru drivers up here have really bad reputations. They have one speed: Slow, day or night, rain or shine, snowy or sunny. Albeit, a lot of those Subaru’s disappear during the Summer, and the Harley’s and sports cars emerge for the season. Not a Subie driver up here knows where their gas pedal is (save for the WRX’s and STI’s, of course), and they are some of the very ones that you mention Eric. I do not care if they go slow. But when they lug along the highway in the left lane, and refuse to move over and let people pass? More than a few times I have given such drivers a dirty look when I pass them on the right. Some get a clue when they realize there is an autobahn passing them on the right, sometimes not.
RE: “But when they lug along the highway in the left lane”
Sure that. Don’t disagree.
HOW_FREAKING, evah: this business I see about busting The Chops of people who go slow otherwise, well, I ain’t seen a single instance of anyone pointing out How’s they are just trying to avoid The Porky-Ticket.
I drive slow all the time. “SPeed-Limit SLow”. On account of, The Bastard I can’t see hiding up the road. …And, I’m too cheap-ASS to break down and buy that Radar-DOhickie Eric advertises which I prolly should get, but haven’t yet, ’cause – Like most evrybody else _- …I’m bleeding expenses in an Empire of lies & Inflation..
Oh, crap. I just re-read my post. I swear up & down the line to you guys, I ain’t no infomercial.
Ha ha ha! I did not read your post that way, Helot. I do understand those trying to avoid a speeding ticket, or some other infraction (getting hut-hutted) by the LEO’s. Just get the hell out of the way already. That is what angers drivers more than anything else.
Morning, Helot!
I agree with all you’ve written and even did a video about it; about people driving slow to avoid having to pay. I get that. I don’t get not getting outv of the way, though. Especially when the slow driver is in the left/passing lane. That’s just obnoxious.
Ditto, Shadow!
I reiterate that it’s not the driving slow that’s the issue; it’s the obstructing those who want to go faster. Not many people out for a walk on a trail would refuse to step aside yield to others overtaking them, walking faster. Its common courtesy to do so. But on the road, it is common for peopkle to not do it – perhaps because they’re inside a car and not face to face with the people they’re onstructing.
I’ve dealt with that type way too often here; they’re slow as shit, but Godforbid you pass them, they suddenly light up and chase you to the gates of hell because ya didn’t respek their authoritah, even though they’re not AGW’s.
I still blame the Jab, a lot of people’s driving has gone to shit since the spike proteins infected their brains
Drunk? Meth? Pot?
I’m going to guess the guy was just a prick. What he did doesn’t ring to me as the actions of a substance-addled driver, but a person of rotten temperament. I really don’t understand it. I’ve had road-rage with the best of ’em, but though I sometimes may seethe with anger, I typically do my best to not get in anyone’s way and be as courteous as possible.
Some people have just the opposite idea. They delight in interfering with the lives and travels of others. And these bastards are the type that seem invariably to ascend to positions of power.
When I was young I was stuck constantly behind these HUGE RVs going slow up mountain passes, I envisioned my car having roof mounted F-15 missiles so I could blow them away.
When I was young (and dumb) I drove very fast – then I got married and had kids, my perspective changed, I slowed down, as I value children, pets, turtles, beavers, muskrats, deer and all the other critters being run over by these god damn 2 ton cars which are out of whack with natural world speeds and rhythms.
At middle age I quit paying car insurance and faked it. I now drive far more careful without insurance, as I, will have to pay for the damage. I make damn sure I don’t make a mistake and one thing I do is slow down and quit taking driving risks, like passing on double yellow lines around blind corners (which I used to do). The fact is cars are damn dangerous for every living thing within 50′ of a road, including you.
Now think of a bicycle, lightweight, doesn’t go that fast, you would have to try hard to kill yourself on a bicycle (assuming no cars of course).
As I matured, I also realized that roads are nothing by highways of carnage. Millions if not billions of living things are being crushed by tires and bumpers each year. If you look up how many deer are killed on roads in Amerika, the number is staggering, and if I multiply that by my age I hang my head in despair, because until we left the horse and buggy age, almost no deer or raccoons were killed, because the horse was going at a natural speed. As I aged and matured I now realize our Amerikan way life is a form of hell. Everything has to break neck speeds so we can keep up with our debt payments. We claim to be free yet are the most enslaved nation on earth!
Perhaps with new technology, cars come with braking radar to lower the carnage. But I hate tech and I am a proud neo-Luddite:
“Neo-Luddite refers to a person or group that opposes many forms of modern technology, advocating for a return to simpler, more primitive ways of living. This philosophy is rooted in concerns about the negative impacts of technology on society, the environment, and individual well-being.”
Can technology save us? I think every new invention creates new problems, and tech will be are undoing, especially robots and Ai. Why would I want my car to spy on me, or use my driving data so government goons could ambush me? (I do not view Elon Musk as my savior, he is creating tech to enslave us. His recent kowtowing to Israel, he went to Israel to kiss Rabbinic ass with Ben Shapiro, the murderous Jew apologist, is all I need to know about him.) When I read how the USGov used cell phone data to target resistance fighters, I decided never to own one. Can you imagine the hell we live in, where assholes like Chimp used a phone to whack you with a hellfire missile?
Eric does a good job bringing to attention the dangers of all this new technology, which will surely be used to subjugate, corral, intimidate, and control us. I hate it all. The Amish have the right idea, we are going to kill ourselves off while they go on. The firewood gettin’ truck I like is a Dodge WM300, all newer trucks suck IMO. If I wrote a book I would argue for simple living, and push the idea of chop wood carry water, native bliss for simple living. Clovers are obviously Eric’s personal hell, why not move to the wide open west and avoid traffic congestion altogether? Eric should move to Montana, no speed limit at all.
Not true, I received a speeding ticket while traveling through Montana heading north to Great Falls.
I was cited for 85 mph in an 80 mph speed zone on I-25.
Cost me 20 dollars. The year was 1999 in July.
Although, I-90 was a free-for-all, I was at 90 mph, a truck was passing at probably 99 mph. You slow down big time.
I-94, not I-90.
Looks like they reinstated it.
https://www.studycountry.com/wiki/why-does-montana-have-no-speed-limit
“Is there really no speed limit in Montana?
In 1995, when Congress removed the 55 mph speed limit, Montana took away its speed limit and went without once again, the Missoulian reported. But it was reinstated in 1999 after a state supreme court ruling, but set at a maximum of 75 mph. “
Ganja got em? That’s messed up but common now, you’re trying to safely get past them and they do a stupid unexpected move. On the scooter makes me hyper vigilant.
Re cops as a deterrent years ago here in WA they would park a patrol car in the freeway median with a mannequin wearing a trooper uniform and the smokie hat. Like you say – when they were in deterrent for safety mode vs revenue mode.
On the subject of cops using private drives of businesses for speed traps. Yes, they don’t ask, and often the business owner doesn’t know until someone complains about it.
That happened with a friend of mine. In spite of cops using his drive for speed traps, they couldn’t manage to stop the constant vandalism of his property. He solved both problems by installing gates on this drives which made it impossible to use it as a speed trap. Stopped most of the vandalism too, as there is no nearby parking. I guess most vandals don’t like to walk much….. When asked about the gates, he publicly said it was to stop trespassers and vandalism. So he didn’t have to lie.
My old mechanic’s shop was in a school zone on a corner where “police “ would set up shop. Operation drive business away, he called it. He would eventually walk out to inquire if they needed assistance. As he was running a business of vehicle repair. They would move on to the next stake out.
What state issued the plates on the Soobie?
About a decade ago, I worked with a guy here in Texas who was a victim of the Texas ADHD industrial complex, and he was very aggressive driving his Crosstrek to the point that he totaled the vehicle.
I think he drives a device now, however.
The Adderall messes with people.