Anyone who has ever received a speeding ticket knows how important it is to obey the rules of the road. Depending on how fast someone is going, a speeding ticket can range from costing them money to costing them their license.
That’s why many people try to follow posted speed limits carefully, making sure they don’t exceed them.
But that can sometimes backfire, especially if they’re excessively slow and opt to drive under the speed limit. Drivers traveling substantially below the speed of surrounding traffic can cause congestion and create hazards themselves, especially if they are driving too slowly on interstates or highways where traffic tends to move at a faster pace.
One TikToker even highlighted some of the dangers of driving too slowly, posting a video of a “morally right” driver on social media. The video shared by @lilaq quickly went viral with over 1.4 million views as of the time of publication. And based on the comments left on the video, it looks like a lot of people have dealt with drivers like this in the past.
One Slow Driver Can Block Traffic
@https.lilaq PULL OOVEEEEERRRR #trend #trending #fyp #baddrivers #fypシ ♬ original sound – chaoscriterion
The clip shows what one driver can see in their rearview mirror as they look back on a line of cars. “When the ‘morally right’ guy wants to drive below the speed limit,” the text over the video said. It looks like the cars were on a two-lane road with one lane in each direction through a rural stretch of town, where there was no option but to keep pace with the slowest driver in the car line.
And while the scenery looked stunning, one would have to imagine these drivers had somewhere else they’d rather be than sitting in traffic.
People Jumped Into the Comments
The driver who took the footage wasn’t the only one who was irritated by the situation. “No, genuinely, how do you not pull over? Having this many cars behind me would send me into a panic attack,” one person wrote.
“And they love to brake behind an imaginary car,” another person wrote.
But there were others who defended the driver. “‘Below the speed limit,’ but more likely he is going the speed limit, and everyone else just wants to speed,” another person wrote.
“If he’s driving the speed limit, there is no problem,” yet another added.
America’s First Motor Vehicle Speed Limits Date to 1901
While there are probably a lot of people who are deeply frustrated by the idea that they can only drive so fast, the American Safety Council says that speed limits were created for a very important reason. According to the organization, the first speed limit for vehicles (there used to be different rules for horses and wagons) was imposed in Connecticut, and it was just 12 mph in cities and 15 mph on country roads.
These limits have changed a lot over the years—the country has come a long way since that first 12 mph limit, and now there are places in the U.S. where drivers can legally reach speeds of 85 mph, according to the American Safety Council — but the legal and social rules of the road remain.
And based on the comments on this post, everyone would be a whole lot happier if those “morally right” drivers would pull over and let the faster drivers pass them when things get this backed up.