{"id":26437,"date":"2014-09-19T20:13:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T12:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=26437"},"modified":"2014-09-19T16:36:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T08:36:56","slug":"shetaxi-app-seeks-female-drivers-for-women-concerns-include-safety-and-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/19\/shetaxi-app-seeks-female-drivers-for-women-concerns-include-safety-and-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018SheTaxi\u2019 app seeks female drivers for women; concerns include safety and religion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo from news.entecity.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK\u2014Sometimes a woman can be hard to find\u2014if you\u2019re looking for one behind the wheel of a taxi in New York City.<\/p>\n

Less than 3 per cent of the city\u2019s about 115,000 licensed taxi, livery and limousine drivers are women, and that can be a problem for women who are reluctant to get into a cab alone with a male driver because of safety concerns or religious and social mores.<\/p>\n

An app called SheTaxi would locate taxis with a woman behind the wheel in New York City, Westchester County and Long Island. The app was scheduled to launch Monday, but its creator, Stella Mateo, has delayed it until she gets more drivers. She estimates around 500 drivers are needed to make it viable.<\/p>\n

Mateo said about 100 women have signed up as drivers so far. They will wear pink scarves, making it easy to identify them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t we have female drivers exclusively for female riders? It would be nice to have that choice,\u201d Mateo, said before a\u00a0news\u00a0conference Monday. Her husband, Fernando Mateo, is founder of the industry group New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.<\/p>\n

SheTaxi, called SheRides in New York City, has been two years in the making. When it\u2019s launched, it will be available for the iPhone initially, and an Android version is in the works. There also are plans to expand to other cities.<\/p>\n

Passengers can pay their fares through the app using a credit or debit card. The drivers would be independent contractors.<\/p>\n

Taxi and Limousine Commission regulations say for-hire car services are prohibited from refusing customers. Mateo said female drivers registered with her app are free to pick up anyone they want; the app merely helps women who are looking for female drivers.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Human Rights Commissioner, Patricia Gatling, said the agency is reminding car service companies that denying service based on gender is illegal under city law.<\/p>\n

Such requests are common among some religious communities, like among some Orthodox Jews and conservative Muslims, where social and cultural mores emphasize men and women staying in separate spheres.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sometimes a little difficult to keep up with the demands,\u201d said Richard Tinel, assistant administrator at Brooklyn Radio Dispatch, which has about 10 women driving. \u201cWe lose a lot of calls because we don\u2019t have enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mateo also hopes the app will spur more women to join the profession.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not looking to take over the industry, we\u2019re just looking to raise the number,\u201d Mateo said.<\/p>\n

Dinorah Decruz, 64, of East Meadow on Long Island, said the app made her decide to get back to driving after stopping about a year ago. She said she had some safety concerns and was almost robbed by a man once. She said focusing on women passengers makes her more comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the idea,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bronya Shaffer, 66, of Brooklyn, said the app is a good idea and she would encourage her daughters to use it. She likened it to being able to go to female doctors or attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s having one more opportunity in our whole\u00a0world, in all of our interactions everywhere, to know that I can choose to have a woman if I want,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of nice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014Sometimes a woman can be hard to find\u2014if you\u2019re looking for one behind the wheel of a taxi in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","mauthors-deepti-hajela","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}