Creator shares her tips for women that take Uber or Lyft: ‘always pretend like something got caught in the door’
One woman who frequently travels alone is sharing her safety tips.
On June 28, Jeeks (@jeeeks), a 24-year-old creator based in New Jersey, took to TikTok to reveal the ways she prioritizes her own safety as a woman who tends to travel alone.
Jeeks stitched her response with a now-deleted video posted by Kailee Billerbeck, the founder of Everyday Armor (@everydayarmor), a self-defense program based in Newport Beach, California.
“As a woman who travels alone quite a bit, I have a couple things that I will consistently do every time I get into an Uber, a Lyft or a cab,” Jeeks says. “Especially in an area that I’m not familiar with, that I want to share.”
In addition to corroborating Billerbeck’s point that sitting directly behind the driver’s seat is the safest place to be, Jeeks says that she will “always pretend like something got caught in the door” to “make sure that that back door opens” and that “there are no child locks on it.”
Jeeks also reveals that she pretends to be on the phone with someone for the duration of the drive.
“Even if I don’t have someone to call, I will always ‘be on the phone’ whether that be someone that I am actually speaking to or literally just talking to myself pretending that I am having a conversation,” she says. “So that it seems like I’m always talking to somebody.”
Whether or not this conversation is real, Jeeks notes that she’ll always mention that there’s someone waiting to meet up with her.
“It just gives the impression that there is someone looking for you,” she says. “Like if something were to happen to you.”
Jeeks’s final tip is to always have safety tools “within the hand’s reach.”
“My hand will be on my purse, ready to grab it the second that I need it,” she explains. “So I have a knife with me; I have a tool to stab with. I always have those on hand, no matter what. Especially if I’m getting into another vehicle with a driver that I don’t know and trust.”
Top Class Actions via Huffington Post shared a series of red flags to look out for before using a ride-hailing service:
The license plate does not match the information in the Uber app
Other information, including the make and model or driver not matching information in the Uber app
The driver does not know the rider’s name or destination
The driver asks the rider to sit in the front seat
The driver seems inebriated or otherwise compromised
Should you feel unsafe with your driver, don’t be afraid to look for a way out.
“Look for opportunities where you can easily escape and always try to defuse the situation,” Harry Campbell, the founder of The Rideshare Guy, told Huff Post. “Say something like, ‘I just got an emergency text or phone call. Can you pull over?’”
Added Chelsea Burton, who drove for Uber in Minneapolis, “What you can also do is just add a stop that’s midride or close to where you currently are and then just get out at that stop.”
In an effort to provide “extra peace of mind” for female and non-binary registered drivers, in 2022, Uber launched the Women Rider Preference feature, which gives them the “opportunity to express the preference to only receive trip requests from women riders when they are online with the Uber app.”
‘the checking the child lock is so smart I’m gonna start doing that’
TikTok users have taken to Jeeks’s comments to share additional safety tips that they practice when traveling solo.
“I always pull up my own navigation to check on the route,” @niivans wrote.
“When talking on the phone make sure to mention that the person you’re talking to has your location/that you’re going to send them your location,” @leeleahlea commented.
“the checking the child lock is so smart I’m gonna start doing that,” @saakshx wrote, to which Jeeks replied, “If you open the door and then ‘bend down to fix your shoe’ you can also easily look for them.”
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