The ride share apps have an option for only "women and nonbinary drivers." I absolutely hate it.
1. Nonbinary people are not women. They can be everything and nothing. Including manly!
2. Cis men drivers have admitted to claiming to be nonbinary so they don't lose out on rides. There is no way to enforce this that isn't exorsexist. This defeats the whole purpose of the feature.
3. Even if it was woman only, woman does not instantly mean safe.
4. If you have to make the system, make the option to choose only men or only women or only enbies. Men and enbies deserve to feel safe and comfortable with only men and/or enby drivers as well.
The service for women and trans people is trying to make their customers feel safer.
"In an effort to increase protection for trans people, a Pakistani business has launched a ride-share service that will be available only to women and trans people.
Called SheDrives, the service was launched last weekend [early September, 2024] and seeks to protect trans people from discrimination and harassment, says Ammaz Farooqi, the company’s chief executive.
It currently operates only in the second-largest city of Lahore, but Farooqi said that expansion is possible...
Gay sex is illegal in Pakistan and punishable by up to two years in prison, though it rarely is. Queerness is looked down upon, which makes being openly trans or gay difficult.
It is estimated that Lahore is home to around 30,000 transgender people, with organizations advocating for their welfare estimating the transgender population across Pakistan to be about 500,000 out of the country’s population of 240 million.
Farooqi himself is not transgender, but he sees his business as a way to help two marginalized communities: women and trans people.
“I’ve taken a small step, and we may expand this service to other cities,” he said.
He also said that “a unique aspect of this app and ride service is that both drivers and passengers will be women and transgender individuals.”"
A young woman shared how her Uber driver played an extremely inappropriate song during her ride, turning a simple trip into an uncomfortable situation.
Women deserve safety, respect and basic boundaries in every space, including rideshares.
Day 3 of Nonsense November! Timinette this time, for the prompt Ride Share
@maribat-calendar-events
Link to AO3
Tim was late and he thanked every lucky star out there that he managed to grab the only available car in the vicinity. When he got picked up, he glanced at the time on his phone and breathed a sigh of relief. If they moved quickly then he would be just on time, and traffic didn’t look awful so he was optimistic. At least, he was until the driver started to turn off of the route to swing down a side street.
“Hey, my guy, I really don’t have time for a detour-” he began, the time looming in his mind.
“Well, I’ve gotta pick up the other rider,” he said gruffly, and Tim thought he might scream from frustration. He couldn’t have chosen a ride share, it wasn’t possible…except he had been desperate for the lift. “Look, it’s not far and I accepted it before I accepted yours.”
“Okay, but if I paid you twice as much-” Tim said desperately, but the driver shook his head.
“I’m not tanking my rating just because you didn’t plan properly,” he snorted, pulling up on the side of the street and opening the window. “Hey, sweetheart, you Marinette?”
“Yes, thank you so much,” a young woman said, smiling brightly and making her way to the car. If Tim wasn’t so desperate to keep moving, he would have thought she was really cute, but the only thing he could think was that she was taking forever to get in the car. “Do you know if there is a coffee shop on the way?”
“Sure thing, want me to drop you there?” the driver asked, all but sending Tim into a spiral of annoyance and panic. The pair continued to chat as the car made its way along the road, the young woman laughing at the driver’s over the top ranting about coffee shops in Gotham. “There you go, sweetheart. Are you sure you don’t want us to wait?”
“No, it’s fine,” she said, slipping out of the car and closing the door. “Have a safe trip!”
The remaining short drive was silent, neither Tim nor the driver talking as they sped along the street. The time nagged at him, mocking him from his phone and making him glare out of the window as he willed the Wayne Enterprises building to appear next to them. By the time they slowed to a stop, he was itching to throw himself out of the car even if it hadn’t come to a stop.
Muttering a thanks as he jumped out, he ran into the building and almost screamed in frustration when he got stopped at the door by people streaming out for lunch. Bruce was absolutely going to cut him out of the meeting because he was supposed to be resting at home after a mishap the night before on patrol, but Tim couldn’t miss it. He’d been the one advocating for this partnership for the past five months and he refused not to continue as a contributing party.
Screeching to a halt outside Bruce’s office, he saw that the lights were off and nobody was inside, which confused him. Had the meeting already ended? In the…fifteen minutes since it was supposed to start? Oh no, someone please tell him that Bruce hadn’t ruined it with one of his Brucie acts. It was enough to make the younger CEO want to cry, but he clenched his jaw and jabbed open his phone to call Bruce before he threw a fit.
“Tim, why do I get the feeling that you aren’t at home resting like you were supposed to be?” Bruce said in lieu of a greeting. He didn’t sound like he was putting on a Brucie act, but he also didn’t sound at all like the Bruce that ran Wayne Enterprises. No, this was his ‘I’m exasperated with my children and my patience is at zero’ voice that only came out when he was with them and nobody else.
“I don’t know, Bruce, why doesn’t it sound like you’re convincing my favourite fashion designer to collaborate with us?” Tim retorted hotly, well aware that he was on his way to pouting at nothing. “How could the meeting be over already, are you punishing me? Is that why you didn’t even manage to keep MDC here for fifteen minutes?”
“Tim, don’t be so dramatic,” Bruce said, sounding amused. It was enough to make Tim splutter indignantly, though he didn’t manage to say anything as he indignantly searched for the most disappointed words. “MDC isn’t here.”
“Did you cancel?!” he shrieked, horror washing through him. “Bruce, how could you? I put- I did- do you know how long it took them to agree to meet us?”
“Yes, Tim, I’m aware that you put a lot of time and effort into arranging the meeting,” Bruce said, the exasperation creeping back into his voice. “And before you try to level any more accusations at me, we didn’t cancel. She called me this morning - while you were where you were supposed to be, sleeping - and asked if we could push the meeting back because she got a request from another client.”
“You spoke to her?” Tim asked excitedly, integrating the new information about the mysterious MDC in his memory bank. “Wait, the meeting got pushed back, which means-”
“Yes, it means that you somehow managed to get into the office in time even though you’re supposed to be on bedrest,” Bruce sighed, appearing in the hallway in front of Tim and hanging up. “I had hoped that when you weren’t here on time it meant you were listening to Alfred’s advice about staying in bed for the time being and making sure there were no more effects from the latest fear toxin.”
“I’m not having any more effects,” Tim said dismissively. When Bruce snorted he scowled and wanted to hit something, annoyance settling over him like a second skin. “I’m fine! And I deserve to be a part of this meeting because I put all the work into making it happen, so you can’t keep me out.”
“Fine, but you’re resting in my office while we wait for her, and as soon as it’s done I’m taking you home,” Bruce commanded sternly, steering Tim into the office and forcing him to sit in the plush armchair in the corner of the room. When he protested, Bruce fixed him with a steely, unyielding look that made him mutter darkly again and pull out his phone to pull up the notes he’d been making for the past year.
Time passed agonisingly slowly now that he wasn’t running late, but finally there was a knock on the door. Tim shot up from his seat, even as Bruce groaned and made his way to the door, fixing a jovial smile on his face as he approached it. Moving over to the desk, Tim had to fight the urge to shove past his adoptive father and introduce himself to MDC first. He worked to not even look at the doorway lest he fall apart and beg her to sign on with them, choosing instead to move his chair next to Bruce’s.
“Thank you so much for agreeing to move the time, my uncle was insistent that we have our appointment before lunch,” a lilting, French accented voice said, and Tim tried to spontaneously gain x-ray vision to see the woman through Bruce. She sounded young, and that surprised Tim for any number of reasons, the primary of which being that she had been working with Jagged Stone for six years. That must have started when she was in her late teens, given that she didn’t sound any older than her early twenties, though the accent could be throwing him off.
“Not at all, Miss, we want to accommodate you as best we can,” Bruce replied smoothly, turning at last and leading whoever it was into the room. “And I apologise, but there is another person, who I think is who you have been coordinating with mostly in regards to this joint venture - joining us for the meeting.”
“Oh, call me Marinette,” she said, finally coming into view. Tim only just managed not to gasp aloud as he instantly recognised her as the woman from the taxi he’d taken not even an hour ago. “The whole ‘miss’ thing will confuse me more than anything else, and I prefer to have a relaxed approach to my work. I feel it helps the creative process, I’m sure you understand.”
“Only if you’ll call me Bruce,” he replied instantly, a charming but vacant smile on his face. Tim thought that she was scrutinising the older man, eyes narrowing slightly as she took in the slightly fake smile and overly relaxed body language. “And this is my son, Tim. He’s been very excited about the collaboration and will be helping direct a lot of this conversation as I’m not exactly fashion forward.”
“Hello, again,” Marinette said with a polite smile, her eyes guarded as she gave him a once over. “I suppose I should have guessed that you worked here, given we were heading to the same place. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance at last, Monsieur.”
“Call me Tim,” he blurted out, flushing when Bruce covered a laugh with a cough. “Uh, yes, it’s nice to actually meet the genius behind the MDC brand after so many years of following your work. I hope that this collaboration will be beneficial to the both of us.”
Marinette nodded and came over to the desk, clearly ready to get down to business as she pulled out a notebook and pen, alongside a sketchbook that he was sure was full of ideas and designs she had already told him she was making. He didn’t grab it from her hands, but it felt like a very close thing as she settled into her seat and tilted her head towards them.
A month ago I became a ride share driver. The company name rhymes with tuber.
Yesterday I got a request for a pick up. Then the rider texted me with the message, “Don’t pull up next to the house.”
Okay. Color me intrigued. Maybe it’s a guy or woman (the rider info was for a guy’s name-which is no guarantee that it would actually be a guy) doing the walk of shame. Or it could be…well my imagination was going off the rails.
I got the message in time to wait around the corner from the pick up location, a nice looking house, and I could see the pick up location clearly.
About three minutes passed and then I see two 14 year old boys on the roof of the house between the two stories. My imagination started racing. They are looking around for a way to get off the roof and down to the ground. They didn’t jump. It appeared they went back into the house, but I wasn’t sure. Then one of the boys comes out from a side entrance and approaches me.
It’s my rider. At this point I’m trying not to pepper him with questions. We get underway and asked him what was going on with the rooftop getaway. He told me the parents of the boy he stayed with overnight didn’t know he stayed overnight.
I then asked if his parents knew where he stayed last night. I wanted to know if I needed to drop him off around the corner from his house. He said they knew.
It then hit me: What if there were ride share services when I was 14? Would I have hitched a ride to the bus station and got the Hell out of Dodge?
Tony falling for his co-worker Peter when during a journey while ride sharing another car swerves in front of them and he instinctively put his arm out to protect Tony
Just did the math, and it's actually cheaper to rent a uhaul pickup truck from the uhaul near me, and drive it to the uhaul closest to the airport, than it is to get an uber or lyft for the same drive.
