I’ve always been kind of fascinated by people who turn their cars into rolling platforms to proclaim one specific pet belief of theirs. It’s such an all-encompassing commitment; wherever you go, you’re broadcasting this one belief of yours, and cars are such extensions of our own self-image and personalities, it’s easy for everyone to assume that whatever it is your car is shouting about must be the biggest thing in your life. At least, that’s the impression I get when I see cars like these. And I’m definitely getting the impression that whoever drives the car in that picture up there won’t ever shut up about how important they think speed limits are.
I remember when I was a kid in the ’80s seeing this black Ford Escort GT absolutely slathered with stickers and a custom license plate, all of them crusading against the idea of anal intercourse. I wrote about that years ago at the Old Site, even. This car is giving me very similar vibes, a related sort of wild-eyed single-mindedness to a cause, only this time it’s the much more socially acceptable subject of speeding, even though, as the stickers tell me, one mile per hour over the limit.
Where does one even get so many bumper stickers that crusade against speeding? Are they custom made? Or is this a sub-genre of automotive scold culture I haven’t been so aware of, one large enough to support an ecosystem of bumper sticker options? Maybe? Anyway, I saw this first in this tweet, so, here, you may as well see for yourself:
I wonder how this person feels about speed limits. pic.twitter.com/0nVztc8Cu3
— CEO of Antifa (@CrazyWeeMonkey) May 8, 2025
I have so many questions. How did this person get like this? I mean, there absolutely could be a tragic backstory, where someone they love could have been hurt or killed by a speeding driver, and if that’s the case, then I suppose I’ll feel terrible. Because on some level, they’re not wrong; there is a reason we have speed limits, and, generally, we should probably abide by them.
That said, calling out one mile over? That’s ridiculous. Most speedometers aren’t even really accurate to a single mile anyway. Within five or so is fine. And there absolutely are times when someone going slower than the overall flow of traffic can cause plenty of dangerous situations; speed isn’t always the bad guy, here. Like anything on Earth, you can’t really expect everything to be so clear-cut.
And isn’t having a car covered in smallish text something of a hazard unto itself? This level of bumperstickery begs people to read it, and if they’re reading it, they’re getting close and not paying as much attention to the road, all of which feels a lot more dangerous than going, say, 41 in a 35 or something.
Also, let’s talk about the choice of car, a Chevy Bolt EUV. Most EVs are inherently pretty quick, and the Bolt is no exception. It’ll go from parked to 60 mph in 6.8 seconds, and its top speed is electronically limited to 93 mph, enough to get nailed for speeding anywhere in America. Why isn’t this person driving something with a lot less power? That Bolt makes about 200 hp; my daily driver makes 52 hp, and there’s plenty of places I simply can’t speed, though it sure is fun to try.
Do they use cruise control all the time, just to be certain? Like, are they setting the cruise at 35, then resetting it to 25 the second they see the school zone signs, then back to 35 and up to 45 or whatever, in a constant flow of setting and resetting? Or do they just have an incredibly well-trained foot and an eagle eye on that speedo?
Then there’s all of the non-driving related associations this display evokes. Does anyone think whoever drives this car is someone they want to spend any time with? And I don’t just mean you asked them to drive you to the airport and you’re running a little late sort of time – I mean, does anyone get the impression that this person might be a tad unbearable to be around?
That could be wildly unfair of me, but I’m thinking it, and I swore a solemn oath on a freshly-made corned beef reuben to share my thoughts with all of you. And I want to know what you think – does this besticker’d car make any of you sort of uncomfortable, too? Is it just me?
Let’s discuss.
Somewhat related, drove round trip Pittsburgh to Louisville KY this week for a professional conference. How many lanes is the correct number for an interstate? My vote is 3. The right hand truck lane is a godsend, particularly in hilly terrain. Two often works well when it is flat and traffic can spread out a bit. Four or more is chaos as our fellow citizens often have zero lane discipline.
No issues if they stay in the rightmost lane and let faster traffic go. Sounds like they don’t from reading some of the comments here. In which case they really should go become a law enforcement officer so they can actually do something about speeding. Instead of causing accidents and road rage camping in the left lane. Which is illegal in my state. Bonus points if they have a dashcam and incriminate themselves left lane camping.
Have friend who is left lane camper I refuse to ride with at this point. If everyone is passing you on the right, YOU are the problem.
Exactly.
If I see someone like this I’m away from them as soon as I can possibly legally make that happen, even if I change my course slightly. There seem to be a lot of people who are similar in thinking, but they’re incognito (sans bumper stickers) until someone doing 4mph over the limit gets too close to them, or heaven forbid they attempt go around the slower driver in the instance that it’s acceptable to do so.
Someone please award this person a trip to Germany to drive on the Autobahn. I’d love to see how they handle it.
Huh, weird. I’ve actually seen this yahoo on southbound I-5 in the morning. As you might expect, he was camping the left lane doing exactly the speed limit with no other traffic around, sometimes a mph or two under. The driver is exactly who you would expect them to be (think Tobias Funke, and you’re not far off).
I passed him on the right about 10mph faster.
Was he wearing an anti COVID mask while all alone in his car?
Some manufacturers even set their speedos high on purpose because there are regulations that say they can’t be low. Looking at you, BMW.
Karen spotted… Target Locked… Fire Anti-Woke missile bank 1.
My brother in Christ, as soon as you drop ‘woke’ you look foolish. I’m what I imagine you’d call woke, and I’m a lead footed jackass.
Fair enough
I wish that there were minimum speed limit signs. I would post all kinds of stickers about it on my car.
There are, in many places. Certainly not as common, though.
All that’s missing is the “Life is in the Left Lane” sticker.
As for this question ‘Do they use cruise control all the time, just to be certain?”, GM’s have a speed limit warning you can enable. I disabled mine.
If such an automobile were to get in front of me and I need to pass them, I’ll blow the fog horn mounted to the front bumper of my LS-swapped 1983 Renault Le Car.
Back in the lowrider days we used to put train whistles on trucks with air suspensions. That was a lot of fun.
I really hope you are not making this up!
What, you thought that little French rattle box under the bonnet was going to last for 42 years? It’s still rocking the 13″ OEM steelies at the corners.
Please tell me this individual Bolt EUV owner also strictly adheres to “Keep right except to pass” “slower traffic keep right” and “left lane for passing only” laws. However “the closer you get, the slower I drive” at least suggests otherwise. Signed, another Bolt EUV driver who’s not so uppity and doesn’t take life so damned seriously
When a couple people on the road are tailgating you, it’s their fault. When EVERYONE is tailgating you, maybe it’s time to reflect.
No no no, more stickers instead.
Yep the left lane is for overtaking, which makes the camping in the left at the speed limit that this person supports illegal unless all the other traffic is below limit, He should actually read the traffic laws.
Welcome to Washington. There’ll be 5 cars camped in the left lane on I5, going exactly the speed limit nose to tail. When you pass them all on the right, they’ll all get pissy about it.
not surprised by this.
If they are seriously doing that they deserve to get passed on the right, and they deserve to get their panties in a bunch over it
Too many highways have become drive left, pass right instead of drive right, pass left.
Yep, that’s how it is in my neck of the woods. Left lane campers, middle lane trucks, right lane is clear!
if youre passing on the right in traffic, you’re an ass and making it harder for people in the left to get over
Not after I’ve followed that conga line for 15 minutes and nobody’s making a move. I’m coming around on the right and I’ll be gone, thanks.
There’s nothing worse than being stuck behind a conga leader while people keep passing on the right
at least they usually get stuck behind the next conga leader.
really,most of the time I will drop it 5 mph and let he jagoffs travel together and Ill find a nice gap to cruise in.
the 2 minutes you save going slightly faster than traffic really arent worth the headache
Except that I don’t live in Washington. I’m usually heading for some place far enough away that adding another 5 or 10mph for the whole day is going to shorten my time on the road by a decent amount.
Campers closer to home? I can manage. But if I’m trying to go somewhere and have a 5 or 600 mile day planned? I’m going around them.
And I agree with you about aggressive right lane passers preventing left lane blockers from getting out of the way. It doesn’t help.
Im sure you can use that “decent amount of time” to make some comments on a car blog.
stop pretending that you’re so busy that added risk is actually adding any value to your life.
all the time you spend angry about people not going as fast as you is literally shaving seconds off of your life expectancy.
take a chill pill and slow the fuck down
That escalated quickly. Enjoy your day.
I bet they are the president of their HOA.
He’s two comments up from this one, if you expand that thread.
weird
I bet they are fun to talk to at parties.
The worst thing about those drivers is they hog the left lanes, especially on the four-lane highways. We couldn’t simply pass them on the right due to the slower lorries or vehicles merging into the highways. They don’t give a fuck about whether they cause the traffic jam behind them.
Those left-lane bandits clogged up the traffic on four-lane I-25 between Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Denver about twenty years ago. This led to numerous accidents due to the road rage incidents and foolish manoeuvres. Police wanted to ticket those bandits for “obscuring” the traffic flow but couldn’t.
Colorado legislature passed the law, mandating the traffic to stay on the right except to pass. Eventually, the I-25 between Castle Rock and Denver was widened to six lanes and in some stretches eight lanes. That didn’t seem to alleviate the issue because many of them would “camp” in the middle lanes, causing the same problem.
From my experience driving out west where wide highways are more common, it seems the issue of drivers who get on the highway (usually going 5-10 under) and FUCKING FLY over to the middle lane is much worse than our mostly 3 lane highways up here in the NE. I think because they see a 5 lane highway and think “oh, sweet, 3 middle lanes”.
I see the same shit in Germany as well, causing lot of traffic to pile up on the left lanes, which are designated for the vehicles going much faster.
This. People who enter a 55 mph road with three lanes in their direction, and traffic moving at 60-65. They enter at 35-40 and immediately bludgeon their way into the middle lane at 45, forcing others into multiple avoidance maneuvers in order to prevent vehicle carnage.
I would argue that going the exact speed limit on some roads is actually more dangerous than exceeding the speed limit, IF all traffic on that road is going much faster. Some highways around here have 55mph speed limits but 95% of cars are going 65-70+. If you’re going 55 everyone is jockeying to get around you, creating a more dangerous situation than if you just kept pace with traffic.
That’s all the highways from Illinois into Wisconsin, you better hit the brakes when you cross the border north and speed up when you hit the border headed back south
Exactly. Haul ass when you get south of that border, but going north keep it reasonable until you get to Milwaukee, then haul ass again LOL.
You just know this person is on their neighborhoods HOA board
And I’m sure they totally don’t (illegally) camp in the left lane either to “police” people who are speeding.
They probably “draft” behind semis for miles and jump out in front of people who want to make a safe and quick pass
“1 mph over is illegal and dangerous” sends a strong message in favor of boot as one’s favorite appetizer. Yes, certainly 44 mph is perfectly safe, while 46 is basically Russian roullette..because someone in authority decreed it so.
Maybe I’ve been watching too much Andor, but I’m getting major Cyril vibes.
I do not want to meet this person.
A German received a very curious notice from the Italian authorities about speeding in Italy. He was to pay €106 for going 0.22 km/h over the limit (after applying the “tolerance speed”).
Yes, 0.22 km/h!
That idiosyncrasy was widely reported in Germany, including this auto motor und sport article.
Am I reading this right? Germans accusing Italians of being uptight and overly rule-bound? Germans?
Click on red “auto motor und sport article” and run Google Translate.
I see, the overall sense of the article is more comparing the details of the German beuracracy to the Italian one.
Anyone else think of the dad in Revenge of the Nerds with the ol’ cruise control set on 45?
My partner’s ex-father-in-law was this person. Dude would not exceed the speed by even 1 mph. Not even to pass. Not even to get his pregnant wife to the hospital. A law is a law is a law.
He worked in commercial insurance and had all this data about speeding and accidents.
Sounds like a blast at parties.
I think I’d rather have this person driving through my local residential neightborhoods and school zones than the people with the “Back the Blue” stickers going 55 in a 30.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
For me, the idiot is the person who needs to leave two car lengths between them and the car in front of them at a stop light. The maniac is the person going twice as fast as everyone else in regular street traffic, zipping around everyone without signalling and cutting people off.
I do that because I can start rolling before the car in front of me is even moving. you can deal with the space I leave, it isn’t slowing you down because you’re 20 feet further back.
yes, I can see you screaming at me as you creep forward while we still have 20 seconds left before the light changes.
I often leave you behind because you have to wit for me to move to start moving
That’s not me, but thanks for the reply.
I believe you were the one who said “For me, the idiot is the person who needs to leave two car lengths between them and the car in front of them at a stop light”
more cars in less space has never sped up traffic
I feel this is rude to people at the back of the line, especially if they need to get in a turn lane at the light, and could if it was just 1 car length shorter but instead have to wait an extra light charge.
Then they should have left 10 seconds earlier and beaten me to the light.
it wouldn’t make any difference if there were another car there
the amount of times I see people swerve into oncoming traffic to get to a turn lane just so they can sit in line is a lot more than the people Ive held up because I don’t act like Im parking at a fair at a red light.
If the turn lane gets the light first, then they wouldn’t have been sitting in line, they’d have been happily on their way.
and when there are more cars in the lane than can get through while its green, they still end up waiting
safe following distance is more imposrant than some jagoff waiting 20 seconds for their turn
Safe distance is able to see their rear tires, which I totally agree with, not sitting as tight as possible. Timbale’s comment was 2 car lengths, which your reply gave the impression you practiced, which unless you’re in a big rig, is kind of excessive.
And what light is 20 seconds? Where I am they can be several minutes at the bigger intersections.
I assumed they were being facetious in their description of distance.
obviously, if there’s a car behind me trying to get to an open turn lane and I left a little room, Ill scoot up to let them past
half the time, its a big ass SUV that thinks they need an extra 7 feet of room on all sides and they sit there pissy with plenty of space to rush to sit in the turn lane
Oh I’ve definitely seen people leaving way more than a car length, between cars, before the light itself so it won’t trigger, some people got personal space cranked to maximum.
eh, Id rather have someone leave extra space than blind me by parking an inch off my bumper at a light
I give people a couple seconds if they don’t move when it turns green, and they get the horn if I can tell they’re just sitting on their phone
I wasn’t, but I can see you really want to embrace the first three letters of the word ‘assume’.
I’m sure you get out and measure two full car lengths with a tape measure while sitting behind them at a light instead of exaggerating to make a stupid argument
If you frequently drive in areas where there are lots of 1-lane each direction roads that open up with L/R turn lanes at stop lights, and you don’t pull up all the way, you’re a jerk. You’re even bad for the environment – people that could have avoided another light cycle of idling are stuck killing the planet in the turn lane they couldn’t get to earlier because you wanted a rolling start.
thats just not true. Me parking on someone’s bumper doesn’t help anyone.
half the time people impatently drive around to the turn lane and then end up sitting there for 3 lights anyway until they get their turn to run through a red
Im quite common with that tactic in Chicago, and if there was another car in front of me they wouldn’t get to turn any earlier anyway
…blocking people from turning out of nearby driveways, keeping people from getting into turning lanes so they can turn this light and not the next one, pushing the stopped traffic back far enough to block nearby intersections when they think of course there’s room for them on the other side, but no, some guy decides all of that is his room. Yeah. Bothersome.
Yup, they’re in the category of selfish, discourteous drivers.
no, Ive just been rear ended twice now and don’t want to end up in someone else’s bumper when it happens again because someone thinks they need to park on my ass at a light in case someone back in the line needs to turn
this isnt as big of an issue as you’re pretending it is.
I stop when I san still see the tires in front of me.
if they decide to not move, I can get around them and keep moving.
Years ago I flew to Belgium and was picked up by a Taxi to drive me to a nearby town. Non-turbo diesel Volvo, pretty under-powered, but the driver had his foot on the floor the whole time. Nearly hit 100 (160kph). I was a little concerned.
I haven’t personally driven in Rome, but I’ve been in a few taxis. From what I can gather, the speed limit in the city center is “as fast as this Fiat will go between stoplights”
man, this makes me miss peak covid when I was “essential” and driving on totally empty roads.
I could get the perfect amount of acceleration and coast the rest of the way to a stop sign without any other cars to factor in.
your speed in the city largely depends on how many cars are in front of you are going and if some amazon driver is parked in the middle of the damn road
When on a Mediterranean cruise w/ wife, son & daughter-in-law, we landed in Greece. We could have signed on to a cruise sponsored tour of the Olympic stadium, but we hailed a taxi at the dock and offered him 100€ to take us there (about half the cost of the official sponsored tour). It was a Diesel Skoda, I believe. I knew we offer him too much when he hammered it to 100mph on the 2 lanes too and from. He dropped us at the entrance and picked us up at the exit of the gift shop. It was worth it if not a little breathtaking.
I just had a thought though…
What if this person actually speeds everywhere? Like a lot, and habitually. That would be kind of hilarious. What if it’s a joke?
Like how my 76yo dad puts a “Student Driver” decal on the back of his VW R32 while he hoons around town. He thinks the combination of the sticker, the gray hair, and the fact that normal people just see a 2-door Golf, has kept him out of a lot of tickets.
I think I love your dad …
Like the known drug addict wearing a D.A.R.E. shirt to school
The DARE kids in my HS were some of the worst drinkers and drug users. Related, a cop’s kid was one of the dealers.
My school started random tests for cannabis use, so kids started doing coke instead since they weren’t being tested for that.
Sounds about right.
Some of the “artsy” kids in my school were casually into hallucinogenics. I don’t really know what else people did, but drinking was huge and I know they smoked by the smell. I don’t think the harder stuff was very popular, though I wouldn’t know unless they were heavier users and displayed the signs, like the itching of opioid users or that weird jaw thing coke heads do.
Our designated smoking spot was a curb just outside the school’s jurisdiction.
They had an abandoned railroad track that is now a bike trail.
We also had a fort that someone built deep in the woods behind the dorms that you could find at night, thanks to someone making a beacon out of a stolen road sign with a blinking orange light on it
I do appreciate the freedom of expression, and as shows definitely can spark conversation waiting at a stop light.
I do get annoyed by some of the crazies and their truck rear window decals that get a little too pro violence. The only thing I can do is combat that with more zen decals on my rear window, be kind/rewind, give a hoot don’t pollute, adopt don’t shop, etc.
It’s astonishing how many decals are available that tout an enthusiasm for murder or armed assault. Not a murder enthusiast, you say? Well how else am I to take your sticker depicting a pile of skulls next to an assault rifle?
Have you ever seen the version of the stick figure family but made out of guns? The rest of the world is not wrong in how they think of us.
Being from Kentucky I think I’ve seen a sticker representing every shape or word that could possibly be made with guns.
Is there Ford-Chevy-like intrateam rivalry between ammosexuals? Like a decal of a Glock pissing on a Beretta?
I’m not sure branding is as important in the gun nut world. From what I can tell gun nuts are just gun nuts and hold no brand loyalties. I think it’s important in the gun nut community to have a positive view of all guns. There do seem to be enthusiasts of certain bullet calibers though, especially the ones associated with assault rifles.
I live in a small town in Michigan and lots of people have these decals of the “hand” that is the lower peninsula of Michigan holding a gun (usually surrounded by about 17 other gun-related decals).
We own guns in my household. But JFC. Is that your big personality reveal? That you just loooove guns?
Absolutely. They aren’t exactly conversationalists given their limited understanding of the world around them.
I miss the days of Calvin peeing on the opposing brand as being the height of offensiveness.
I always assume they also have an enthusiasm for having their vehicle broken into by punks hoping to score a gun. Why else would they advertise that there’s a higher-than-average chance that their unattended vehicle contains one?
There’s a regularly recurring news story around here about people breaking into a bunch of unlocked cars in some neighborhood and getting several guns.