New York City To Begin Offering Female Taxi Drivers For Women Only

If you’ve ever taken a taxi alone and late at night in New York City, you probably understand the need for this.

The New York Times explains that starting September 16, a new service called SheTaxis-SheRides will begin servicing patrons in NYC. They write, “The service will be called SheTaxis-SheRides in New York City because of regulations barring it from using ‘taxi’ in its name — and aims to serve women who may feel uncomfortable being driven by men, or who simply prefer the company of other women. The app will ask potential riders if there is a woman in their party. If not, they will be automatically redirected to other car services.”

Considering the huge amount of taxi drivers in NYC, not many of them are women. “Only about 2 percent of all US taxi drivers (about 225,000 in all) are female,” writes InternationalWomensDay.com. “In New York state the figure is even lower with about 1.1 percent. Women account for 60 percent of all taxi rides in New York City yet men account for 99 percent of all taxi drivers.” Here’s a video from a while back of those women talking about what attracted them to the profession.

SheTaxis-She Rides was founded by Stella Mateo, a mother of two daughters and wife to the founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. NY Times writes, “SheTaxis will partner with existing livery companies to provide the rides at competitive rates, Ms. Mateo said. SheTaxis, which has a staff of six, has already recruited 50 female drivers, ranging in age from 21 to 70. The service will collect fares through its app, using credit or debit cards, and then send payments to the drivers.”

Right now the app is only available through Apple, but will make it’s way to Android phones soon.

(via NBC News)

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