A new taxi service will allow New York women to call a cab driven by a woman if they don't feel comfortable with a male driver.
The new livery service called SheTaxis or SheRides (New York City regulations bar the use of "taxi" in the name) will begin on Sept. 16, according to The New York Times. Female drivers will exclusively pick up female passengers and deliver them to locations in New York City, Westchester County and Long Island.
The service will target women who "feel uncomfortable" with a male driver or who prefer the company of a woman for their ride. Passengers will contact their ride via an app, available only through Apple at first. The company will expand to Android devices soon.
The app will ask the requesting passenger if a woman is in the party. If not, the app will direct the user to another car service. The app will collect the ride's fare through credit or debit cards and send the payments to the driver.
SheTaxis has already recruited 50 female drivers, ages 21 to 70. They will wear hot pink pashmina scarves to identify their service.
"Perfect idea," Gretchen Britt, a Manhattan school clerk, told the Times. "You feel safer and more comfortable with a woman."
Stella Mateo started the women's livery service that will partner with other livery services to provide the rides at competitive rates. Her husband Fernando is the founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, an industry group representing 30,000 taxi and livery drivers.
Mateo's new ride service will also employ more women in an industry where only 1 percent of yellow taxicab drivers are female. Only 5 percent (2,952) of women make up the 59,999 for-hire drivers of livery cars, green cabs, limousines and luxury sedans, according to the Times.
"I think there's more opportunity," livery driver Christina Velos told the Times. The Dominican Republic immigrant became a driver after 17 years as a hotel housekeeper. "You have more time for family. You feel more comfortable. You never have a supervisor."
