Is it Safe to Ride an Uber or Lyft Alone?

Even just five years ago, if you wanted a chauffeured ride in NYC, you were limited to the options of calling your local car service or standing outside and waiting for an empty, on-duty cab to drive by (which, unless, you were in prime areas of Manhattan, meant you could be waiting a long time). Now, ridesharing app services like Uber and Lyft have changed everything, bringing down prices for rides and extending car service all across the city. But, unlike taxi and livery services which tend to employ long-term drivers, these ridesharing apps employ “independent contractors” who may never have driven professionally before or even had face-to-face interaction with any types of supervisors or managers at Uber or Lyft. This calls into question the safety of the drivers working for these ridesharing apps, both with regard to their skills as drivers and their potentially criminal intentions, all leading to the question of whether it is safe to ride in an Uber or Lyft car alone.

The 2015 Lexus GS350 was driven by an unidentified 24-year old at the time it collided into the 12-year old at the intersection of Dahill and Cortelyou at 7 AM on a September Wednesday morning. Police arrived at the scene and appeared to conclude that the collision was an accident and did not issue a summons.