Patience is a virtue.
But very few people haven’t lost their patience at least once in their lives.
Nor can there be many people who’ve lost their patience in an instance where they felt they were completely justified for doing so.
Redditor SeaweedCompetitive53 recently found themself in such a situation, and wasn’t afraid to make their impatience known.
But after being called out by their girlfriend for overreacting, the original poster (OP) took to the subReddit “Am I The A**hole” (AITA), where they asked fellow Redditors:
“AITA for telling an Uber driver to speed up?”
In a short, concise post, the OP explained why they felt they had every right to tell an Über driver on a recent ride to get a move on, even though their girlfriend thought otherwise.
“Lol this is basically just what the title says.”
“My gf and I were on our way to a concert on Saturday evening.”
“My girlfriend got angry with me after the fact but, I don’t think I did anything wrong.”
“We were going to a concert, and we were on the highway.”
“There was very little traffic and our driver was going 40 mph.”
“We all know 40 on the highway is way below what other cars are doing.”
“We were getting passed by everyone, including large semi trucks.”
“I said ‘we are on an expressway can’t you do any faster than 40?’”
“He apologized and brought it up to around 50.”
“I then asked if there was a reason why he’s driving so slow because 50 is still low on a highway.”
“I said that if there’s some important reason than it’s fine but I’m just wondering.”
“My girlfriend yelled at me after but I said that he’s an Uber driver, what if we were late?”
‘Or going to be late?”
“We should have to tolerate that as paying customers because he was going so damn slow on the highway?”
“She didn’t respond.”
Fellow Redditors weighed in on where they believed the OP fell in this particular situation by declaring:
NTA – Not the A**hole
YTA – You’re the A**hole
NAH – No A**holes Here
ESH – Everybody Sucks Here
The Reddit community agreed that the OP was not the a**hole for telling their driver to increase his speed.
If some felt that they could have made their request a bit more politely, it was generally agreed that their Über driver was, in fact, putting the OP and their girlfriend in danger by driving so slowly on the freeway.
“Based on the comment giving more information, NTA.”
“Driving 40 in a 70 MPH zone in otherwise good conditions is dangerous.”- ShiloX35
“NTA.”
“Driving that slow on the highway is extremely dangerous.”
“If someone was driving me that slow in that situation, I would wonder if they were sober.”- uninitiatedastronaut
“NTA.”
“It’s okay to request.”
“Maybe you could have done it more nicely, but the fact that you asked someone you were paying to drive you to speed up doesn’t make you an a**hole.”- upsidowning
NTA
“Not only is it delaying you, it’s also genuinely dangerous for you and the other drivers on the road.”
“If they can’t drive in a safe and effective manner they shouldn’t be driving for a job and quite frankly I would’ve reported them because that’s super dangerous.’
‘It’s the exact same as asking them to slow down if you were going too fast and felt unsafe.”-Drewstosay
“He wasn”t driving safely.”
“You need to match the speed of the other vehicles on the highway.”
“Not doing so is driving unsafely and risking accidents.”
“NTA.”- ScarlettSparrow
“NTA.”
“That’s unsafe to drive on a speedway at 40mph.”
“EXTREMELY unsafe.”-yummyforehead
“If all is as you say, NTA.”
“At all.”
“As a semi truck driver, a woman, at that!”
“Please tell your girlfriend I said this:”
“If I am driving on the freeway at the speed limit or with the flow of traffic, and I come up behind a vehicle traveling 40-50mph, it legit is just as though they are at a full stop.”
“SUPER DANGEROUS!”
“Especially since everyone on the roadway is obviously way more important than whatever the 80,000 pound truck is doing, and no one will let us move over a lane.”
“It’s honestly insanely dangerous, and if he didn’t have a good reason for doing it, may even have been illegal depends on the laws where you are.”
“Even if he had a good reason, far right lane with emergency flashers on is the only acceptable way to travel this much slower than the speed of traffic.”- My_Lovely_Me
“NTA.”
“Driving so slowly, he was being dangerous.”
“The expectation would be to go around the speed limit.”
“20-30 miles BELOW the speed limit on a freeway is dangerous.”
‘If the driver is that timid, maybe they shouldn’t be a professional driver.”- crazycatleslie
“NTA.”
“If you were asking him to go faster than the speed limit my answer would be different.”
“I suspect there was something wrong with the car or he is under the impression he can save gas by driving slower speeds.”-Substantial_Bench102
“Driving slower than traffic can be more dangerous than speeding.”
“NTA- the speed limit has a minimum too.”
“A Texas highway with a 75 mph limit has a minimum speed of 55 I think.”- Business-Public3580.
“NTA.”
“That is a ridiculously slow speed and he was clearly trying to get paid more, or may be afraid to drive on the freeway in which case he needs to find another job.”- Gryffindor4ble
“NTA.”
“Driving too slow on a highway is a severe safety issue.”-LolaBeauteau
“NTA.”
“Most highways, I’ve been on have actually had a speed MINIMUM of 55, because driving 40 is going to cause an accident, since yeah, people are expecting you to be moving fast.”
“If you aren’t comfortable driving, you shouldn’t be an Über.”- Forsaken_Ad_1453
“Based on the fact that he was going 40 in a 70 mph zone, definitely NTA.”
“That is super dangerous! “
“You could have gotten rear ended at that speed!”- saxahoe
“NTA.”
“Although I’ll say this is the kind of thing that really depends on how you said it.”- Anthroman78
“NTA.”
“Unless you had an a**hole tone, lol.”- onethatgotaway_
“NTA.”
“Your girlfriend sounds like she wanted to be upset with you today.”- ThatKaylesGuy
“Assuming this is a normal highway of 65mph and this guy was going 2/3 of the speed is dangerous.”
“Even a person going 65mph would be blasting by him and he’s more likely to cause an accident.”
“I guess maybe your delivery wasn’t great but this person just sounds like a bad driver.”
“NTA.”- edwadokun
“NTA.”
“Going that slow is dangerous.”- keyboardbill
“NTA.”
“A safe driver would have been going more than 40MPH on the entrance ramp.”
“Dude was either a horrible driver or was trying to scam you.”- Legion1117
“NTA.”
“40mph in a 70mph zone is a ticket-able offense.”- RushStorm
“NTA.”
“What he was doing is so dangerous that you wouldn’t be an AH even if you reported him to Über and got his app revoked.”
“Big rigs can’t just swerve around cars willy-nilly, people!”- Appropriate-Bar-2822
“NTA, report them to Uber for unsafe driving.”
“If the driver was impaired, a common effect would be driving significantly under the limit, then Über needs to know.”-GolfballDM
“Speed difference is unsafe.”
“Must match the average speed of traffic flow.”
“It’s a passenger car, not a heavy load.”
“Driving much slower than everyone else is unsafe for everyone.”
“F*ck that guy, they shouldn’t be on the road.”-dsdvbguutres
“That’s actually classed as dangerous driving.”- Onion5253
“I mean so long as he was going legal speeds its fine.”
“But from the sounds of the post, that’s not the case and NOT going the speed limit can be just as dangerous as speeding.”
“The Über driver shouldn’t have be driving for a ride share app if they can’t adhere to the rules of the road.”
“NTA.”- PikaGurl332
“NTA.”
“OP please report him”- Butterfly_Heaven101
“NTA.”
“Seems he just wanted it to take longer for more pay.”
“If he truly had some issue with going faster he shouldn’t have been driving in the first place as he knew where he would have to drive.”- Imaginary-Analyst-72
“People hate me because I drive the speed limit.”
“I think it is a limit for a reason.”
“This is so egregiously below the speed limit.”
“NTA.”- mezobromelia1
“NTA.”
“You drive the speed limit on the highway unless you have damn good reason.”
“He wasn’t even at optimal MPG speed.”-TatteredCarcosa
“No.”
“If I’m in the right lane doing the speed limit, or more frequently, 5 or so miles above, I’m not driving too slowly.”
“They’re breaking the law.”-Alternative-Sign-198
“NTA.”
“As a former driver I know that you make more money by getting the next passenger as quickly as possible, not milking the clock for like the 11 cents or so a minute that they pay.”-Strange_Pop_3673
It’s understandable how the OP’s girlfriend wasn’t comfortable in their telling the Über driver how to do his job.
But beyond making the concert on time, this driver could very well have put them in danger by driving that way, as many Redditors pointed out.
One hopes his learns this before driving on the freeway that slowly again.