You have probably heard the saying – about how all it takes to ruin a gallon of ice cream is a spoonful of poo. Well, the same is true out on the road. All it takes is one passive-aggressive driver to ruin the drive for everyone else. Here’s a video of one such Clover – my term for people who are to driving what high fructose corn syrup and canola oil are to good health:
The Clover was driving around 40 MPH – on a road with a 55 MPH speed limit. In case you’re counting, that’s 15 MPH below the speed limit and also about 20 MPH below the speed most people are driving on this road. (Most speed limits being a kind of de facto minimum speed on most roads; almost everyone drives at least as fast – and usually a little faster – than whatever the speed limit is. This idea that a speed limit is something like the maximum speed an airplane can be flown without risking a catastrophic failure of the airframe is one of the great absurdities of modern times; it has underpinned a regime of cynical, abusive enforcement that has utterly corrupted traffic law.)
Now, it is one thing to drive below the speed limit. Not everyone is comfortable driving even that fast. Sometimes, the vehicle you’re driving – or the load you’re hauling – may dictate a lower speed than the speed limit. That is not the issue, with regard to Clovers.
A Clover is defined by using his car to effectively force all the drivers stuck behind him to drive slower than the speed limit. He sees the tail forming behind him; he has to see it. If he does not see it, then he ought not to be driving at all since a person who never looks in the rearview mirror is by definition an oblivious and so dangerous driver.
He sees – but does not care.
Let them wait while he takes their time.
He does what almost no one would do outside of a car – as for example in the aisle of a supermarket. Few people would just stand there – or shuffle along – knowing there were people trying to get by. Most – almost everyone – would step to the side to let people get by. But put some people in a car and they will do essentially the same thing, probably because they feel safe – from repercussions – inside their car. In a supermarket, a person who just stood there, willfully blocking others, would get pushed to the side in short order. No doubt, many of us who’ve found ourselves stuck behind a Clover think of doing the same thing; i.e., executing a PITT maneuver and leaving the Clover spinning out and out of the way.
We don’t do that, of course – because we’re not crazy. But we do get angry. Chiefly because it’s all so unnecessary. What is so hard about taking a moment to pull off onto the shoulder so that the conga line you’re dragging along can dissipate and get by you? That is the nut of the matter.
Not the slow driving.
. . .
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I am not a clover I drive pretty fast usually 10-20 MPH over the limit when there is little traffic or on an Interstate hiway………….BUT… I was driving in the mountains by Evergreen last week at night I came up to oncoming traffic in the opposite lane. Their “new” headlights blinded me as they crested a small rise in front of me …their llights INCREASED INTENSITY as the elevation changed relative to my car. A corner was coming up that I could now not see at all…had to slow down …just then the SUV behind me caught up to me and started to tailgate. As I got around that turn two more of the “modern headlight cars” came in the opposite direction blinding me again. Had to pull off the road. Just could not take it any more. Waited till the road was nice and empty, then carried on……NOT A CLOVER!!
Even worse is the school bus stopping every 100yds on country roads! Talk about a stack of cars behind!!!
We have that here as well. I do give our school bus driver credit though; They are very good at pulling off to the side of the road to let everyone pass.
We all have stories to tell about some idiot or another. The main aspect in my view is that a large number of people on the road just simply have no business with a drivers license or being behind the wheel of a car. It’s not all about slow either.
In my current town, a few years ago the mayor decreed that all city lights on main thoroughfares will be synchronized so that you can catch rolling greens. Behold it works. Congestion on these roads has pretty much gone away even during what we call rush hour.
If you happen to catch a red by turning onto the road, you can time yourself to get back in sync with the greens. Done properly you pretty much never have to stop I can frequently drive 8 miles from my home to the downtown area though 21 lights and never stop until I get there.
But there is always one idiot who ruins it with impatience. As I modulate my speed to cat ch the next light green there is typically some chucklehead who zips past hauling ass to the red light, then stops a few seconds before it changes. Of course now I have to slow down or stop until he gets going again, then haul ass to the next red and repeat. Without these retards I can cruise at comfortable 50-55 (speed limit 45) and catch ever light green.
The of course in Florida it is actually illegal to run a choo-choo train on the left lane on the interstates but the FHP rarely does anything. But what the frack is this left lane fetish in American these days? Just yesterday I saw some geezer in a Lexus come onto I-95 and the second the on-ramp ended, he heeled right over 4 lanes to the extreme left lane and basically parked there. It’s so common in Florida that I typically drive right lane only because it is the clearest and fastest lane. Until you run across the one guy in the right lane poking along, then you end up getting mad at the only guy on the road that is where he is supposed to be!
It’s maddening how unaware many of these “drivers” are, completely oblivious to what is happening around them.
I blame the government. (I blame them for everything bad with good reason)
This cow poke town still has not figured out synchronized traffic lights. I kid you not every last one of them is programmed opposite the lights before and after. No surprise there are a lot of red light running too.
Notice how the cops never, ever give tickets to Clovers like these who create real safety hazards.
If the cops really cared about Saaaaaaaafety, they’d be busting Clovers like these left and right. Why they don’t is beyond me.
Well-said, Bryce –
Part of the reason why probably has to do with the cops would have to patrol rather than hide by the side of the road with a radar gun. Another reason is probably just cultural/political. The Safety Cult regards “speeding” as the cardinal sin. Ergo, driving well below is “safe.”
Well, some people are just not very skilled drivers, or at least not as daring and confident as you. They may be having some mechanical issue(s) with their vehicle.
They may be lost, desperately. looking for the turn they fear missing . Or in bad health.
Not all of us old timers have been to the Bon Durant school.
That often described me, when I still had a car at all. I long ago lost count of all the road rage incidents I was on the wrong end of.
The stories I could tell. For instance, one followed me all the way to my home — miles out of his way — to confront and threaten me, with a gun.
As near as I could put it together he was mad about the way I had changed lanes somewhere sometime earlier that day.
Another time, at night on a lonesome back road, a tailgater with his high beams on refused to drive on even after I pulled over onto the shoulder of the road to let him by. Instead, he stopped parallel to me and harangued me profanely.
I do not drive to my home when I see drivers riding my tail like that. Especially given where I live, I am familiar with my neighbours. If there is ever so much a hint that the driver behind me is that malicious (such as with your case), I will drive right by the road I live on, and take them on a wild goose chase. I will even go so far as to turn around and head back into town, if need be. Those demons have no business knowing where I live. Simply because of what happened to you. I have heard stories like that before. I am glad you are still alive, because others have not been so lucky.
Hi Shadow,
Something similar happened to me many years ago on my way home from work; not sure what triggered the psycho but I drove past my house and on to front of the police station and leaned on the horn. A cop stuck his head out and the guy took off in a hurry, cop asked if I got the license plate but I was too busy making sure I didn’t get boxed in to look for it.
I agree, David –
And I tried to say just that in the article. Slow driving isn’t the issue; as you say, there are many valid reasons for driving below the speed limit. But there is no valid reason for not using your rearview mirror and – when you see you are growing a tail – to make an effort to let the cars stacking up behind you pass, as by pulling off onto the shoulder or a side road. This is common courtesy – and it’s also good sense, as it diffuses road rage.
No cars were stacking up behind me in either of those cases, or in any other incident I can recall. It was always just one driver, usually a guy. In two cases it was a female.
FBI seeks real-time access to nationwide network of license plate readers:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/fbi-seeks-us-wide-access-to-license-plate-cameras-wants-data-in-near-real-time/
In Troy, New York, the mayor resorted to desperate measures to keep the Flock spycams on:
‘Last month, Mayor Carmella Mantello, flanked by officers in blue, accused the city council of “defunding” the police and declared a state of emergency to keep the cameras running, a designation usually reserved for floods and blizzards.
“I will not put our city in jeopardy and take these cameras away,” she said.’ — WaPo
https://archive.ph/cIYr5#selection-507.0-513.76
That the FBI is upping the ante shows that the surveillance state takes its Flock spycams very seriously. Meanwhile, grassroots opposition is rising. Flock Out!
“…no back door into Flock”. What kind of moron is going to believe that? Ironically, I stumbled upon a website that sells license plate covers, that reflect and make it impossible for a Flock camera to read your license plate. For every Big Brother technology, there will something that comes behind it to thwart it.
There are also sprays. What amuses me is how suddenly all the states in my area are “offering” the white on black high contrast plates. I’m sure it’s a coincidence that these high contrast plates are more machine readable.
Might be time to buy a paintball gun to Flock up those cameras.
I wonder how much of a push back would occur in the form of fines or other harassment if everyone started using a plate cover or plate flipper such as these: https://www.510autogroup.com/
Anon
Already starting to make the sprays and plate covers illegal.
I get the guys going 10-15 under on a 55 every other day or so but I know the straightaways and get around them, double yellow be damned. l think the guys that ride my bumper when I’m going 5-7 over are far more dangerous. With them, I actually force them out of my mind and endeavor not to alter my speed – reminding myself that it will hurt them more.
I’ve never understood the mentality of riding someone’s bumper when you’re already going faster than the posted speed limit. Are they so confident in their brakes that they think they can’t have an accident? Do they think they can always intimidate the other driver into speeding up (mind you, I’m not talking about driving in the left lane). Were they taught to drive close to the other car in front of them, or are they just jerks? The world may never know.
I cannot tell you how many times I have had someone ride my ass, but then refuses to pass me, and when said driver has every opportunity to pass me. Just recently, I had a vehicle riding my bumper. I came upon a slower vehicle and when I had the opportunity, passed them. Yep, that car then bumper hugged the vehicle I had passed; Refusing to pass them, and refusing to back off and give the guy some space. What is up with that anyway?
Ditto, Shadow –
I think the reason why is a combination of fear and incompetence. Fear – of “speeding” (to pass). Combined with ineptitude to execute the pass. It comes of decades now of people being taught that it is “aggressive” and “unsafe” to floor the gas pedal and get around a slow-poke.
Usually female, seen it many times.
I have seen plenty of soy boys going just as slow, and who are just as inconsiderate. In this neck of the woods, you can count on a Subaru driver to be one of the worst kind of drivers. I do not mind if one drives slow. It is the sheer and utter lack of courtesy, combine with tunnel vision that is the problem.
Absolutely, Shadow!
And you’re rigth about Subarus. I do not know why, exactly. But they do seem to like life in the slow lane.
lol – you all are stuck behind Yukon Jack hypermiling his way into town
About one trip out of five, someone drives 40 to 45 mph on the two-lane, no-shoulder mountain highway to the nearest bigger town. It happened earlier this week.
I watched the clover’s brake lights illuminate approaching each curve, to cautiously slow from 45 mph to 40 mph on the posted 55 mph road. What is going through this person’s head, I wondered.
Some may not understand that on a road posted for a given speed, the turns are built at a radius which can be navigated at that speed, unless caution-signed otherwise. On a blind curve, road engineers are not going to sabotage you by suddenly tightening the turn. Thus, there’s no need to brake in anticipation of a nasty surprise lurking just out of sight.
But then, some folks are flatlanders, who find mountain roads intrinsically scary and dangerous. As a kid, I’d catch my breath on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, which has some rather exposed curves with large drops below them. Nevertheless, if negotiated at the design speed, these curves don’t require precautionary braking.
My timid wife “Now dear, we’re not in a rush, it’s OK.”
ME: “No it’s not ‘OK’ – this moron is screwing up traffic flow and wasting everyone’s time, I didn’t grant him permission to waste my time.”
In town it’s the idiots on cell phones. Light turns green, first car heads out but Cell Phone Sally sits, and sits – Sparkey lays on the horn wife cringes. I will have to watch the horn use as our area gets more “vibrant” as the horn = risk getting shot.
The ag community 36 miles south NEVER honk NEVER stare or wave hands. Daughter via business contacts knows several folks in our local sheriffs orbit they won’t visit / shop / dine out in that area it’s that bad. Gangs run rampant there thanks to WA sanctuary and restorative justice idiocy.
Spot on.
Sad thing is that’s the country they will impose on all of us if they have their way. And it’s looking like there aren’t enough people willing to oppose it. A couple states, maybe, but mostly it’s community-by-community.
Ever since they “bike laned” my favorite route to the office, every day a new retard slows traffic with no (legal) way around them. Although I have been known to allegedly pass in the bike lane and the center turn lane to get around these fools. I’ve seen others do it too.
Stupid bike lanes with nary a bike in sight! It’s government’s chief obligation to impede. It’s a free man’s obligation to break through constraints.
“ … and the center turn lane “
Ditto. The breaking point is the 22 in a 35 cellphoner.
Or DWO (old or oriental or both). Me at age 71 screaming “get back in the retirement home where you belong!”
RE: bike lanes, I’ll head over into that space to claim my free right on red light.
“Why yes officer I DO in fact, own the whole road.”
Yeah, the bicyclists aren’t paying for the roads, those lanes are simply an act by the anti car nuts to screw up traffic. I’ve never understood the idiocy against bicycles running on sidewalks- they are suited to it and the few pedestrians can get along with them.
Bike lanes are even dumber in the upper midwest where the weather makes bicycling very unlikely for 4-6 months of the year. Though I have seen guys riding on studded tires in snow and ice- impressive but not for me.
“ Yeah, the bicyclists aren’t paying for the roads.”
One would think that as a mayor you might know a thing or two about how roads are funded. The majority of road funding comes out of the general fund or bonds. Roads are not funded only by taxes assessed to vehicle owners, especially at a local level.
As usual – you’ve proven how little you actually know and how little respect you have for other road users.
Via Gas taxes and license fees, car drivers subsidize everybody else who use the roads, (commercial truckers, bicyclists, etc,). Bonding and the general fund obfuscate that reality.
Though roads are one of the original justifications for government. Roads are a military and commercial public good. I’ve read so many paeans for libertarian private roads, but the human nature reality is that private roads are a prescription for rent seeking grift.
Your tauntage is weak and lacking little sis.
Well Bobby Boy, you’ll love this one! Here’s how the bicycle grifters getter done in WA: $200 MILLION for a foot/bicycle bridge across the freeway. Yes, million, with an M.
https://mynorthwest.com/mynorthwest-politics/bellevue-bridge/4240573
PS: Bicycles do not belong on roads, period.
Yes. Neither do motorcycles, until they repeal the seatbelt laws. If I can be surrounded by metal and not be safe enough to not wear a seatbelt, then someone riding in the open air should not be safe enough either.