Kailynn Bannon
Opinions Editor
When it comes to using rideshare services as a woman, it can be difficult to ride with confidence and not stress about feeling unsafe. Lyft is aiming to eradicate that uncertainty with a genius new in-app feature.
With Lyft’s Women+ Connect, drivers and riders can now travel with more peace of mind. When users choose to opt in on the service, they set their preferences to be paired with women and non-binary people.
When opening the Lyft app, drivers and riders in select cities will be prompted with the option to use Women+ Connect when booking rides. However, this new feature does not guarantee that women will be paired with each other. If there are not enough women or non-binary drivers in the area, a passenger could still be paired with a man.
According to Lyft, this service was created to create more opportunities, improve rideshare for everyone and connect women with each other. Pairing women with one another not only removes the fear of getting into a car alone with a random man, but also gives Lyft users the flexibility to ride with who they want and strengthen diverse communities within the company.
The service is currently only available to riders and drivers in San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego and San Jose. Once released around the country, the service will most likely boost the ratings and revenue of Lyft, and hopefully lead the way for other rideshare platforms to make similar changes.
Uber, Lyft’s main competitor, has been the more popular service for years. Ever since Uber started in 2009, the two companies have been competing against each other to come out on top as the best rideshare service. Uber was the fastest growing company from the start, and still dominates the market today. In such a narrow industry, something has to be done that will intrigue customers and convince them that one business has more benefits than the others.
This might be Lyft’s angle to becoming the top rideshare app. By catering to women and non-binary riders’ needs, they will be encouraged to use a service that makes them feel seen. Since Uber and Lyft don’t have too many differing factors between them, Women+ Connect is bound to push Lyft’s popularity once the feature hits more cities.
Whether or not the new feature is just a way to get an advantage over Uber, it’s a genius idea. This will let women who are hesitant to use rideshare services feel more at ease, as well as provide an enriching feature for those who already ride with Lyft. The program will increase the number of new users as well as increase user retention rates.
Sophomore at Florida Southern College Emma Wiegand believes that more women will want to ride with Lyft once this feature is implemented.
“I think it would be a good idea, and I think it would make girls feel a lot safer when getting in the car with people,” Wiegand said.
