Here’s a Clover who created a quarter-mile Conga line of cars . . . because the Clover would not pass a garbage scow. She (I eventually got a look) was either too timid – or too virtuous. The virtue she signaled being saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety. Really, mindless obedience.
Also, indifference. To other people – the ones delayed because of her virtue signaling.
One can’t cross over the double yellow! It’s illegal! It’s unsafe! Even though it is legal – if necessary to get around a vehicle stopped in the travel lane. Even if it is safe – because you can see there’s no traffic coming in the opposing lane.
Provided you make the effort to look.
But because this Clover wouldn’t even look – much less attempt – a pass, everyone else behind her had to wait. Because they couldn’t see around her car and the garbage scow. Maybe the second or third car in the Conga could have; but once the line extended to a dozen or more cars, forget it. No way a safe pass is possible unless you’re driving a very fast car or have plenty of room.
One Clover ruins everything. Just like a fleck of poo in a gallon of ice cream.
. . .
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Looks like there’s plenty of room for the garbage truck to pull into the emergency lane and allow folks to pass. He/She was probably laughing their ass off. People today get off on screwing others over.
Summer weekend drivers are the worst. I mean “randomly slowing down to 25 in a 45” worst. It’s really hard for someone with an engine to be anywhere near as annoying as cyclists, but somehow several people managed on Saturday.
Unreal! Passing is one of the all time great things about driving. My personal best (so far) was a nine car pass on my way to the beach. I’m 60 and still do it every chance I get and the thrill is just the same.
I don’t pass on two lanes roads much any more. The reason is that I’ve had people go into full rage mode because I passed them. Doesn’t matter they were doing 15 under and it was passing zone. Once I pass them 30 over to catch up to me is perfectly fine. I really don’t want to deal with it any longer. So I have to have a very good assessment of the situation before I pass.
Hi Brent,
Yes, but you can have fun with these freaks… if you can lead them down a winding road. Especially the first deep curve, without touching your brakes. Watch the fun in the rearview as the Clover almost loses control of his car trying to follow yours.
Then they back off.
Likewise. Not many driving experiences please me more than to get around a prick that tried to keep me from passing them, and having them run up my ass, until we come to the first significant curve. Even if they had the skill to take such a curve at speed, which they don’t, not many cars on the road can match a Miata’s limits doing so.
Morning, JWK!
The thing is – I think – good drivers don’t freak out when passed; why would anyone not afflicted by some kind of psychosis object? When I am not driving a press car I drive my almost 20-year-old truck, which isn’t fast and which I treat gently because I want it to last. When I see someone coming up behind me who is going faster, I try to facilitate the pass, by easing over to the right and even braking to slow when they begin their pass, so as to help them get around me faster.
It takes a real asshole – I usually try not to cuss but sometimes, a cuss word is the right word – to drive well below the speed limit, then speed up when someone tries to pass them.
These people deserve to lose teeth.
Indeed, no matter how I try, I cannot for the life of me determine why any sane person would take offense at being passed. Perhaps that sane part is the answer. Nevertheless, there are such lunatics, in abundance.
Hi JWK,
I think it’s just that – they’re pathological. Like the Diapered. It’s not enough for them to live; you must live as they say. The become enraged when you drive faster than they drive. Irrespective of the law, even – as evidenced by the fact that they will often “speed” extremely in order to try to catch up to you and ride your bumper after you passed them (because they were driving below the speed limit). As evidenced by the fact that the Diapered – who, being Diapered, are ostensibly “safe” now – insist you and I Diaper, too.
A corrolary to that is when some tailgating clover is hustling you down the surface street. You enter the highway, romp on the gas just a tad and suddenly, they’re a spec in your rearview. I don’t understand why they tailgate you and thn lose nerve on the freeway, a place where it is safe to drive fast.
Then there are the Tesla Clovers. One couldn’t make this up:
We now know that Tesla’s Autopilot was to blame – yet again – for another near-fatal accident that took place last December. A Massachusetts State Police trooper had just pulled over a vehicle on the side of Route 24 in West Bridgewater when the trooper’s vehicle was slammed into by the Tesla.
The driver who was pulled over, Maria Smith, said: “It just happened so quick. Before I knew it, my car was flying forward. I looked behind me, and my whole back windshield was blown out. There was glass in my hair.”
A man “driving” the Tesla had slammed into the State Police cruiser that, in turn, wound up slamming into the stopped SUV. Nicholas Ciarlone, the driver is now facing a negligent driving charge, according to NBC 10.
Court documents shows that when a trooper responded to the scene to help, Ciarlone said that he “must not have been paying attention.” The driver said that he had put the car in Autopilot because he was checking on his dog in the back seat.
Smith said: “I thought that was terrifying. To think the sensors are not equipped enough to pick up a police car with its sirens and lights on the highway.”
Nationally-recognized auto safety watchdog Sean Kane said he believes Tesla is testing out Autopilot in real time on public roadways.
“We are all involved in a clinical trial that we didn’t sign up for,” Kane said.
https://www.nbcboston.com/investigations/police-tesla-that-hit-mass-state-troopers-vehicle-was-in-autopilot/2151164/
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Tesla, comrades: when you just can’t live (literally) with that indescribable “glass in your hair” feeling.
Better call Saul … because Elon can’t hear you.
I love the way the Tesla owners claim that they are in some clinical trial that they “didn’t sign up for.” Sure they did. They bought the damned car didn’t they? Come on.
Yup, just like you pay for the privilege of doing a Beta test for Bill Gates on the latest Windows program on your new computer.