'There really isn’t anything that can keep you safe': Women Uber and Lyft drivers speak out

"It's not just women passengers who are at risk. It's the women drivers, too." "It's not just women passengers who are at risk. It's the women drivers, too." Photo: Getty Images Photo: Getty Images Image 1 of / 35 Caption Close 'There really isn’t anything that can keep you safe': Women Uber and Lyft drivers speak out 1 / 35 Back to Gallery

Laura Alicia Moreno, a Bay Area Uber driver, was driving late one night in Santa Clara County and picked up two unruly men from a bar. They were very drunk, and one immediately started making rape jokes and hitting on her.

"You're so beautiful; do you have a boyfriend? If you were my girlfriend, I wouldn't let you drive Uber — so many weird men out here," Moreno recalled him saying.

At first, she tried to stay quiet and nervously laugh — she needed to get home, and she needed the money from the ride. But as a sexual assault survivor, the man's comments set off alarm bells in her head. She told him to stop, or she would ask him to get out of her car. In return, the man screamed at her, called her a bad driver, and threatened to give her a low rating.

"I left that ride completely shaken, angry and disgusted that those men made me feel unsafe in my car," said Moreno. "I didn't drive for another three weeks after that."

Bay Area Lyft driver Iesha Birdsong has also had her fair share of run-ins with aggressive male riders. One passenger tried to kiss her; another refused to leave her car until she gave him her phone number.

"I quickly disintegrate a lot of mens' manhood before they even have an opportunity," she said. "Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that I probably would've been raped or taken advantage of quite a few times."

Recently, Lyft announced a few new safety initiatives following a lawsuit from 14 women alleging the mishandling of their sexual assault complaints against drivers from the app. Now, all drivers will be required to complete a "community safety education" program, and a tool is being added to the app that alerts Lyft safety agents if a ride is unexpectedly delayed or off-course, as well as an in-app panic button for both drivers and riders who need to call 911 (Uber launched its in-app 911 button about a year and a half ago, with technology that digitally sends trip data to 911 when pressed in some U.S. cities).

"We don't take lightly any instances where someone's safety is compromised, especially in the rideshare industry, including the allegations of assault in the news last week," wrote Lyft President and co-founder John Zimmer in a press release earlier this week. "The onus is on all of us to learn from any incident, whether it occurs on our platform or not, and then work to help prevent them."

But it's not just women passengers who are at risk. It's the women drivers, too.

"There really isn't anything that can keep you safe," wrote user momof4, a Philadelphia Uber driver, on RideGuru, a forum for drivers and riders to discuss rideshare apps. "I am operating a vehicle that weighs over 4,000 pounds, in a confined space, with my back to passengers — not an ideal situation to defend yourself."

For drivers, taking safety precautions can also come with an added concern: retaliation. Being on the phone (some said that in emergencies, they call a family member or friend), or asking drivers to get out of your car can aggravate riders and cause them to give low ratings.

In addition, monetary pressures can cause female drivers to accept trips that are late at night or in unfamiliar areas they wouldn't normally feel comfortable with. It's also not financially viable to avoid male passengers altogether.

"I don't bother with sex discrimination. That's just turning down money," said Tia Starr, a Sonoma County Uber driver.

To keep herself safe, Starr believes that "tension diffusion" is key. Other women also agreed that staying quiet or not engaging with aggressive passengers is important. Uber and Lyft both prohibit drivers from carrying firearms — Lyft doesn't allow weapons at all, even pepper spray — so if women do defend themselves in this way, they're not admitting it.

Some opt for more expensive measures: installing dash cameras. However, "I really didn't feel that it was my duty to purchase additional equipment to monitor my safety," said Moreno.

Mostly, safety is a matter of avoiding unfamiliar areas and trusting your gut. Denise A., a Lyft and Uber driver in San Francisco, recalled one night where she accepted a ride at 2 a.m. in Benicia, an area she'd never been. In the end, she canceled the ride when the passengers started acting suspicious upon her arrival — which she's grateful for, as she now believes that they were planning to steal her car.

"I called my husband immediately, and he said, 'You're not driving late anymore. You need to stay in your own area,'" she said. "Now, I typically shut my app off around 9 p.m."

Many women avoid driving late at night due to scares like Denise's, although this can lead to missing out on some of the best money-making opportunities. Other ways of protecting themselves include not accepting passengers with low ratings and using the apps' route-sharing features so a friend or family member can keep tabs on them.

However, Starr thinks Uber's "Follow My Ride" feature needs to be better.

"It times out and doesn't tell you, simply doesn't work, and drops the track if you lose reception," she said.

All of the drivers surveyed believed that the apps could stand to implement more safety precautions. Some suggested that calling someone else a ride shouldn't be allowed — not having any information on the passenger in your car leaves a potential harasser completely unaccountable.

Also, some recommended background checks for passengers or a "night mode" that only connects women with women at late hours. Earlier this year, Uber launched a new "Women Preferred" feature for women drivers in Saudi Arabia, but it hasn't made its way to the United States.

"There's nothing more important than the safety of the drivers and riders we serve," said an Uber spokesperson. "[...] We will continue to put safety at the heart of our business and expect to roll out more features this year."

Despite the occupational hazards, none of these women drivers are planning to stop driving anytime soon. The flexibility of driving for Uber or Lyft is what keeps them — and in some cases, a moral obligation.

"S— happens at work, but I refused to let some disrespectful people keep me from doing my job and taking away the freedom Uber gives me," said Moreno. "And at the end of the day, most Uber riders are really amazing, and I wanted to stay out driving because I know I'm helping keep people safe by getting them home and keeping drunk people off the road."

Madeline Wells is an SFGATE editorial assistant. Email: madeline.wells@sfgate.com | Twitter: @madwells22