Using shares as a young woman is still terrible

“You know, we’re all out here in the middle of nowhere. I could just drive and hold you if I wanted to! ‘

My Lyft driver laughed and assured me that of course he would never do that to a customer – but that was just another notch in my ever-growing belt of awful riding opportunities. I laughed with him, for it was honestly not surprising to me; I’ve been through that shit before. Only when my husband panicked to ask me if I was doing well did I realize that this was not normal.

I think we are all familiar with stocks. It’s basically a taxi service run by an app, where ordinary people drive you from Point A to Point B. I still remember the first time I heard of them, in 2014, when my friend recommended that we take an Uber from downtown Austin back to my apartment. . They became a de facto part of my university experience because I wanted to go to places, did not like to park and that I struggled to understand public transportation after a childhood in the boonies.

But participating in a female always involves the necessary risk. You accept that you are essentially placing your life and safety in someone else’s hands. These are people who undergo a short screening process, but who are usually left to their own devices unless they receive a complaint. And some, like my recent Lyft manager, try to ward themselves off from complaints; the man I was driving with last week did not want to let me out of the car until he watched me give him a five star rating and a tip. I had to contact Lyft after I reached my destination to let them know that this guy was actually creepy.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time a manager with a stock has been unfamiliar. I doubt it will be the last, although I have now reached the point in my life that renting is a legal possibility in most countries; I really doubt if I will leave myself at the mercy of anyone else from here on out.

There were a few drinks and an Uber taken home from the concert hall where I was at college time. The driver parked, but unlocked the door before asking me if I just wanted to go eat something with him every now and then.

Or the other time a driver waits for me to be buckled before his friend appears from the third-row seat where he has gone to lie down; that friend then offered to sell me cocaine, and when I declined, he tried to talk me into it with a shoulder massage.

Or the time a driver withdrew my hand to touch my knee because he ‘wanted to see how my jeans felt’.

Or the time a driver left his car and tried to follow me to my apartment complex under cover to make sure I got home safely.

Or the time a driver told me how much he liked to drive around women because they were so hard to get a good rating, he asked me to get out of his car on the side of the highway with half a mile left to walk to the airport because there was construction and he did not want to drive through it.

Or the countless times a driver has asked me why my boyfriend / fiancé / husband allows me to travel alone because men like that driver can easily take advantage of me. Which is usually accompanied by an assurance that they is not one of those men – but, seriously, my luggage is in their trunk, so even if I were to bail, they could find me through my address (and yes, that one happened too).

Most of the time I have decent stock managers. Most just want to talk a little bit about where I’m headed or share a little bit of their life story. Many more than like to sit in silence, which I think is good. I gave a handful of me a selling point for their rumble. I am usually happy to just hang out together and enjoy the ride.

But there are enough creeps that take advantage of the service that if I go on a long journey through an unknown area, get drunk or go out at night, I will take the penalty for canceling drivers until I get a wife. I hate wasting someone’s time, but sometimes you just wonder if one of those people is going to be the last person you’ve ever talked to – or, at least, if they’ll make you so uncomfortable that you ruin your adventure.

And I hate that I feel grateful that I was just used to it bird unsafe because there are other women who have had it so much worse.