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If You’ve Ever Felt Unsafe in an Uber…
Uber, Lyft and other ridesharing apps’ SOS button hasn’t improved user safety. Here’s what they can do about it.
I’m a fan of mass transit, but for me, the ongoing pandemic has meant less subway usage and more private transportation when I need to make a trip across town I can’t reasonably reach by foot.
A few weeks ago, I did just that. I took an Uber to an appointment to get some documents notarized that actually wasn’t that far away, but it was windy and raining something awful, and the walk from the nearest underground stop to the notary’s office was long enough that I was sure to get drenched. So I hailed an Uber.
I was leaving earlier a bit earlier than I needed to; according to the app, I would arrive at my destination 10 minutes early. A bit of a problem in the driving rain and wind, but it’s taken me a couple of weeks to secure this appointment, and I figured it would be better to leave early, in case there was suddenly traffic due to the rain.
As soon as I got in the car, the driver was chatty. Nothing creepy or weird, just talking about the weather (terrible!), corona (long!), construction in the city, what summer might be like. Typical polite chitchat. Since we were still on lockdown here in Berlin, the driver was…
