This article originally appeared in Reviews.Com
Hitchhiking was normal practice at one time. People would get into a random car or pick up a total stranger. This practice is not common any longer, for various reasons, and especially for women. But every time a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft is used, that’s ultimately what women drivers and passengers are doing — riding with a stranger. Here are some rideshare safety tips.
It doesn’t matter how many five-star rides a driver or passenger has had. There’s always a risk-taking a car ride with a stranger.
In this article, we cover recent rideshare crime stats, what companies are doing to make ridesharing safer, what you need to know about rideshare insurance, the best car insurance to stay protected as a driver, and safety precautions to take with every ride.
Is Ridesharing Safe?
Let’s look at the statistics. The vast majority of rideshare drivers are male. According to Business Apps, only 27% of American Uber drivers in 2019 were female, an increase from 14% in 2015. However, the usage among genders tends to be more split. A 2017 report by GlobalWebIndex found 48% of Uber’s American users were female.
In 2019, Uber released its first crime report, revealing there were 3,045 sexual assaults related to rides in the United States in 2018. Uber also reported there were 235 “Non-consensual sexual penetrations,” nine “fatal physical assaults,” and 58 crash-related deaths.
Lyft spokespeople told Wired magazine they are committed to working on a similar report, though none has been released yet at the time.
Criminologist John Roman believes factors like these contribute to ridesharing’s alarming crime rates:
Despite the risks, ridesharing usage has shown no signs of slowing down.
Who Uses Rideshare and Why?
Ridesharing usage is on the rise. According to a 2019 report by Pew Research Center, the percentage of Americans using ridesharing services has more than doubled since 2015, to 36% of American adults. Ridesharing demographics tend to skew younger, with 51% of 18- to 29-year-olds and 43% of 30- to 49-year-olds having used rideshares, compared to 24% of those 50 years and older.
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