The dark realities women face driving for Uber and Lyft

Uber and Lyft allow drivers to report incidents in the app or through a 24/7 call line. They

Late one night in June, Jody Pagliocco was driving down a long, wooded road in southern Maine. She was working for Uber, and her passenger, a man, was in the front seat. That was unusual – but she hadn’t felt comfortable telling him to get in the back when he opened the front door. She had picked him up from a bar in town, and he was drunk. The road was dark and there was nobody around. Pagliocco was getting uncomfortable. ”He made a joke about not being a serial killer,” Pagliocco said. “Then he started talking about sexual stuff,” and all she could think about was: “What if he tries to grab or touch me?"  

Pagliocco drove to the front gates of his house and told the passenger to get out of the car. She was relieved he left, though the incident left her scared and shaken, causing her to stop driving for several days. Soon after she got back on the road, she drove another passenger who she said tried to grab her and kiss her. Pagliocco has only been driving for about half a year, yet of the thousand or so rides that she's driven for Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc, she says a few hundred of those have led to inappropriate advances or uncomfortable encounters.