Well, we’ve made it 2019. You’d think at this point people would learn to be much more cautious with sharing their highly controversial opinions, especially in a service industry, where a large portion of your pay comes from tips. That however, is where’d you be wrong. I’m here to tell you just how wrong you are. Bear in mind that these experiences in no way tainted my love for rideshare services, specifically Lyft. I mean I took 119 rides with them last year for god sakes (don’t ask). Rest assured I also gave all of these drivers one star, and left them very strongly worded notes of improvement. I’m simply here to shed light in a hopefully comedic way on my chronicle of bad Lyft drives.
Pretty early on in my Lyft driver experiences I came across my first chapter of pure horror. I had requested a ride, and the driver looked nice enough. I was expecting a nice, easy, non-confrontational drive. Oh how wrong I was. I began having casual conversation with this individual, they then asked why I liked Lyft so much. Not thinking about it, I responded “I just feel like it’s just easier and safer than taxi services.” Without any hesitation my driver responded “Well that’s because we don’t hire any foreigners.” I was dumbfounded. I mean I understand that I live in Utah, which is full of upper-Class, white, Republican males. Nonetheless, it still confounded me. I replied with a simple “That was entirely the wrong thing to say, I come from a family of immigrants.” In my head I was really just pleading for the ride to be over. I left him a scathing review, and upon exiting their car slammed the door in true dramatic fashion.
Fast forward a few months, and I find myself in the car of another stranger, while this individual from the get go seemed much more….unique? I was not deterred. That is until we started talking about my career decisions. I told them that I had the intention of becoming a doctor. Plain as day my driver responds “Just stop trying now. Women are not meant to be doctors, and I don’t know why you guys keep trying.” I’m sorry………what gives you the right to stay that?? It truly took every fiber in my being to not just explode entirely on this person. I told them I disagreed, and didn’t say another word the remainder of the drive. Another one star review, and mordant commentary. Oh, and I 100% told them that I sincerely hope that they one day receive life saving medical treatment from a woman. Truthfully, I can only hope that it’s me. Just because I would revel in that for the rest of my life.
Now on to my most recent and hopefully, but almost certainly not the last chapter of this horror story. In order for this story to make some sense I have to provide some back story. We had recently had a police chief in Utah shot in the line of fire. Unbeknownst to myself, his funeral procession happened to be taking place at the exact same time that I was on this ride. As we’re approaching the beginning of the procession. I think out loud, “Wow, that must be quite the accident.” Because Utah is quite renowned for those too. My driver very aggressively replies “No…that’s clearly the funeral procession for the cop that was shot.” I apologized thinking that was the end of that debocial. However, my driver kept going on and on. Then he started talking about how anyone who is shot by a cop deserves it. I immediately thought to myself “Shit, what did I do.” Well, long story short my driver began to make some really racist remarks, which I’d prefer not to repeat. Yet another one star review, and a very lengthy complaint to go along with it.
Well ladies and gents, there you have it, a chronicle of my very bad Lyft drives. Lyft, I love you dearly, but I sincerely hope that you took some action with those drivers. I’m just sorry I can’t take more time to try and help these individuals. Thanks for tagging along! I can only hope that I won’t have any more frightening stories to report back to ya’ll.