Two weeks ago, Aisha Addo launched DriveHer, a women-only ride sharing platform. Aisha, a Ghanaian who lives in Toronto, Canada, was motivated to start DriveHer after an experience with a taxi driver left her uncomfortable.
She was in a taxi going from a friend’s house to her home in Mississauga when her cab driver started asking her uncomfortable questions.
Aisha Addo (Photo: CBC)
It’s a story many women can identify with. She says:
“He was asking me if I lived alone, and for me that was a bit triggering, because I happened to. Then he started asking if I had a boyfriend, and then [there] just started to be some really weird sexual innuendos. I became a bit guarded.
It sort of got me thinking later on, ‘What about the people whose phones are off, or they don’t really have anyone to call?'”
She then called a friend who she asked to stay on the phone with her for the rest of the ride. She made it home safe, but that taxi ride, along with nights as a designated driver for her friends and hearing multiple news of women getting assaulted and harassed, inspired her to create DriveHer.
“Funny enough, the moment we sort of brought out the concept or idea of DriveHer, I think within that week there were five or six incidents of women that have been assaulted or women that have experienced some sort of violence.”
DriveHer (Photo: DriveHer)
(Photo: DriveHer)
Aisha acknowledges that other ride-sharing services allow riders to specifically request female drivers, but she says DriveHer goes above and beyond existing options.
“There’s so many ride-sharing services, let’s not get that wrong, and that’s amazing, but then there was never really any option for women and people that identify as women. What DriveHer is, is providing an option and creating an equitable space where women and people who identify as women have that option.”
Essentially, while the platform functions like every other existing ride-sharing app, it’s unique in that the the app doesn’t allow male passengers or drivers. And, all the (female) drivers go through the police and criminal background checks that are standard for other ride-sharing services and training specific for its service.
- Credit: konbini.com
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