If you’re tired of making stilted small-talk with cab drivers who immediately follow up “Where are you headed to?” with “Do you have a boyfriend?,” the soon-to-launch app SheRides may be just what you’re looking for.
SheRides (known nationally as SheTaxi) was started by Stella Mateo — whose husband Fernando is the founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers — and will provide women-driven cabs exclusively to female riders in New York City. Riders can use an app — available only on iPhone for now — to request the cars starting September 16.
The goal of SheRides is twofold: Mateo hopes that it will provide safe transportation for women who feel uncomfortable being chauffeured around by strange men (men drive 95 percent of cabs and livery cars in NYC), and that it will also empower women who have considered joining the taxi fleet to do so.
Bonus: Having a female car-service driver makes you 10,000 percent less likely to get a dirty look when you ask to plug your iPhone into the sound system and blast Taylor Swift.
