There are far too many incidents occurring where females are reported missing or even dead after leaving a club and splitting up from friends. Rides home in cabs and Ubers can be scary with shady drivers, leaving females with very few options. Check out this Toronto woman’s plan to eradicate those fears.
Aisha Addo has created a plan to help women in Toronto and hopefully everywhere, feel safe riding home. After taking a taxi home one night, she says she felt very uncomfortable by the way her driver was talking to her.
“You know when you’re in a situation and you just get this feeling that there’s something weird or off? It was like that. I shouldn’t have to worry about my girls being in a car or have to stay on the phone to make sure that they actually get home safe. It’s really important to have an option.”
Thankfully, Aisha stayed on the phone with a friend and made it to her destination safely. This encounter sparked her to create an Uber-like service for women only, with female drivers. The taxi service is called DriveHer, and has already received 20 female drivers.
Aisha shares:
“There have been stories about passengers being assaulted by their Uber drivers, and recently, there was an incident of a woman being groped and touched inappropriately by a taxi driver. We’re not trying to say that all taxi or Uber drivers are bad people, we’re just saying that this is happening too often and there is an alternative.”
When asked about her taxi service comparing to others, she adds:
“The taxi industry is such a male-dominated industry so I thought that it would be more powerful as a female-run business rather than a part of a big corporation. I felt like that wouldn’t have the same effect.”
Aisha says that having female drivers for her taxi service will cause more of an impact than many may think. Being that the taxi business is super male-dominated.
“One of the things I realized was that we’re focused on the passengers but this is also about the drivers. Most taxi drivers are men [85.1 per cent of taxi drivers are male according to the most recent census data], so we’re hoping to help empower more women to join this industry—and feel safe at the same time. As a driver, your back is to the passenger, you can’t really see them or know what they’re doing. If you’re an Uber driver, you have the option to accept a call or not, but sometimes it’s tough to see who you’ll be picking up. With all-female drivers and passengers, we create a level of comfort that goes both ways. The drivers don’t have to worry about picking up, for example, a bunch of rowdy guys who might have had too much to drink.”
Aisha is excited and says there has been great feedback and responses from her service. The DriveHer service can be accessed via app like Uber and will aim to be very affordable., and available at all times of the day and night.
“It’s been really amazing. One of the things that really touched my heart is the validation from other women who have actually experienced some of these uncomfortable situations with taxi or Uber drivers. To have a community of women saying, “It’s not just you, I actually had this happen to me too and if this service was around, maybe the outcome would’ve been different.” It really motivates me, knowing that this is bigger than me, or my direct community, it’s a movement.”
Women in the Toronto area can register to be a driver or ride with DriveHer at http://driveher.webflow.io/
