Getting a non-male cab/rideshare driver

July 28, 2022 3:38 PM

A female friend is looking for a way to ensure that she doesn’t get a male driver when she requests a cab/rideshare. She’s in Seattle. We've looked into a bunch of options but we're coming up short. Any ideas?

Options we've tried:
*Looking for dedicated rideshare apps for women/non-male drivers- none serve the Seattle area
*Calling cab companies; some have 1-2 women drivers but all refuse to assign specific drivers to specific riders or assign riders by gender to protect the safety of the driver
*Calling car service companies; all require a minimum time reservation and so are not a good fit for in-town trips
*Looking into requesting a woman driver on Lyft/Uber- this isn't possible

The only option we can find is to cancel Lyfts/Ubers until she’s assigned a non-male driver, but that’s obviously a major pain given that most drivers are men. Is there any other alternative?

posted by quiet coyote to Travel & Transportation (12 answers total)

Whenever she gets a female taxi driver, she should ask for that driver's business card with the drivers work phone number - a lot of drivers are happy to take bookings directly from passengers who they know will be hassle-free, rather than risk random passengers from the central booking line.
posted by carriage pulled by cassowaries at 3:41 PM on July 28, 2022 [24 favorites]

Response by poster: Riding with a male driver is not an option, even if it is in service of eventually getting a female driver that she could rely on.
posted by quiet coyote at 4:20 PM on July 28, 2022

If anyone else she knows uses Lyft/Ubers, if they get a female driver, can that person get the driver's business card for them? That's the only thing I can think of to get around all the blocking issues here.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:23 PM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

At this point, it's not an option for your friend, but maybe she should keep an eye out for Wilma in case it migrates south of the border.
posted by sardonyx at 4:28 PM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

I would post on taskrabbit or nextdoor, like "if you are a female lyft or taxi driver I would like to speak with you about becoming a regular customer."
posted by fingersandtoes at 4:29 PM on July 28, 2022 [18 favorites]

Uber Seattle should let her favorite drivers after giving them five stars. It will try to book those drivers in the filter.

Is she disabled? Paratransit might make her feel safer regardless of driver demographics.
posted by michaelh at 4:33 PM on July 28, 2022

Is this a religious prohibition, or a psychological issue? Disparaging neither, but it might be helpful in thinking of workarounds.
posted by praemunire at 4:45 PM on July 28, 2022 [9 favorites]

(I would consider reaching out to Repair Revolution, which is an explicitly queer-owned auto repair place, to see if they could provide some names of women drivers. I bet they see a lot of car service traffic.)
posted by praemunire at 4:51 PM on July 28, 2022 [10 favorites]

Long shot: Is there a taxi stand in her neighbourhood? Bus or train station? Mall? She could go hang out at one waiting for female drivers to cycle through and then get their direct contact information that way.
posted by Mitheral at 5:19 PM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

Ask in her local buy nothing or mutual aid group for a volunteer driver?
posted by OrangeVelour at 5:49 PM on July 28, 2022

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/women-only-car-services-fill-a-niche-but-are-they-legal/

Apparently "Chariot for Women" and "SheTaxis/SheRides" were ahead of their time (this article's from 2016). Chariot for Women got shut down on discrimination, and it looks like the She* services are still in the building stage (like, the obvious-typos-on-their-front-page stage.)

BUT the first comment from Carriage pulled by cassowaries was a hole-in-one. If you call a cab service and explain to them what you want, they will give it to you (or you just call the next one on the list). And if you find a driver you like and trust, they'd LOVE for you to put their contact info in your phone and ping them for rides instead of going to the cab pool/Uber/Lyft/DiSrUpT/whatever.
posted by adekllny at 6:34 PM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

The only thing I think you can do is use the internet crowdsource a couple of female drivers, and give your friend their information, and have her text them for pick-ups. Local neighborhood/ Seattle groups on Facebook and Nextdoor would be best, and Reddit has the following forums that you can try posting in:

r/LyftDrivers

r/Lyft

r/UberDrivers

r/Uber

r/Seattle
posted by Champagne Supernova at 7:48 PM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]