This new ride service launches later this month.
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/08/chariot-for-women-is-a-new-ride-sharing-service-for-women-only/
Love this. My D has inquired several times about using Uber in the Albany/Saratoga area and I’ve told her to use it only if she is with someone else, never alone. I’d feel quite differently with the safety net of all-female drivers and CORI checks.
I love this! I have only used Uber when I was with H and S and have some concerns about safety.
I hop this comes to the DC area and NYC.
I saw this yesterday on Facebook - what a great idea. I hope it gets a strong following and succeeds.
Sad that I couldn’t use the service if I’m with my spouse, because he’s not a woman, but I do understand how this could be much safer for solo females and young kids.
Great idea ! I haven’t been comfortable with Uber in the last several months since a young man we know with a horrible driving record took a job with them. I hope that this new service does better background checks, including driver’s accident history
I’ve been using Uber for a couple of years, I guess since it began. I travel across the US for work and call for a ride from airports. My experience has been excellent and every driver has been friendly, professional, and personable. I forward the Uber text with photo, car and plate number, and itinerary to a female associate who travels to the same meetings, doesn’t trust Uber, and disapproves of my using it. I always tag it “My murderer.” It’s not a safety net, but she could identify my killer. 
I will use Chariot if it is available at my destination airports.
This is good. Reminds me of the “Pink Taxi” service for women in AbuDhabi. The taxis were pink (duh!), driven by women and only allowed female passengers and young kids. They were available since 2010.
While I would use a service like this. There is something unsettling about the whole thing. Basically they are saying that all men drivers could be rapist so don’t use them as drivers…
It doesn’t assume all men are rapists, but it does assume that most drivers are not properly vetted and passengers are taking a risk when they get in the car. Just common sense. Frankly, Uber and the other services should do thorough background checks, if they don’t want the competition. I’m very happy that it’s going to be rolled out in Boston, where my D lives.
sorry, but it will never survive the legal challenges. I hope that the have plenty of $$ to pay the lawyers.
Hope this lights a fire under Uber’s fat butts to actually do something about safety.
Getting into a taxi never feels safe to me. No one else in the world knows that you and that particular driver have met and there is no electronic trail. I guess if you pay with a CC, there is, but not if you pay cash.
Agree with @bluebayou. I am sure this will be the subject of legal attacks and I doubt it will survive them.
Couldn’t you do the same thing with a taxi - photograph the driver’s name/medallion and text it? If you were that sort, of course.
I’ve only had one taxi incident where I was taking a taxi from O’Hare to home, where I obviously know the route like the back of my hand. The driver started to take me onside streets versus the obvious highway route and I was suspicious. So I called my H and said “Hi honey! I’ll be home in a half hour. The taxi driver has me on such and such street right now.” H immediately recognized that this wasn’t the correct route and stayed on the phone with me the whole time til I got home.
I’d like to not catch the guy after he murders me. I like it, but I wonder what we’d think if it was a men’s only service.
I meant to add, I’d like the driver to not murder me in the first place.
“sorry, but it will never survive the legal challenges. I hope that the have plenty of $$ to pay the lawyers.”
The founder of the co. already mentioned something about wanting to go all the way to the SCOTUS if their business model is ever challenged. I asked a person who clerked for one of the former SCOTUS justices about the financial side of taking the case so far, and the answer was that usually in constitutional type challenges, there is a big $$ interst bankrolling such challenges - on both sides.
@Pizzagirl I always call H or a friend, too, as soon as I get in the car and tell them that I just got in the taxi, Uber, shuttle, etc. and am on the way to the hotel, so the driver hears.
I’m going to tell my daughter about this. She hasn’t had bad experiences with Uber but she has had some drivers who have been overly friendly/chatty in a flirty way.