Female only taxis

[mummybear701]

I was talking to my niece today on the phone, she is in a different area with her own daughter who is 12 now. She was telling me there is a taxi firm that is women only, in both drivers and passengers they will carry. She said she feels safer with a woman driver at night and I completely understand, although some men are trying to get them closed down on sexism grounds. I understand its not the first company operating this way but hasn't reached my area, or even a firm that will send a female driver on request. Well I know men don't like it, but many women DO feel safer with women in a cab all on their own, and to an extent it protects men from accusations as well. Do women think its a good idea?

"So a male only taxi service would be fine?"

Is this the "sauce for the goose" argument, the one that ignores the fact that men aren't generally attacked and sexually assaulted by women and don't fear women attacking and sexually assaulting them?

I don't think many men would use a male only taxi service. There's just no reason to. If, as can be assumed, the first taxi in sight is a regular one, they'd use that. Most likely the driver would be male, anyway.

Which is why those men who oppose the women only taxi service will likely fight tooth and nail to have it banned, and won't be content with the permission to have a male only taxi service. They know it wouldn't be successful. Even if, by random coincidence, half of the men use the men only taxi, that'd be 25% of potential customers, while a women only taxi would have more close to 40% of potential customers, and generate new demand because women who up to then thought public transport safer might consider a female taxi driver even safer than that.

Would it be possible to have 100s of cctv streaming into the office?

I wonder if it would become mainstream? It's not a service I would use. At the moment I suppose if you want a female driver you could ask when booking.

Would it be possible to have 100s of cctv streaming into the office?

With present tech, I doubt it, however, if it was a thing that people wanted it might be doable and I'm sure someone would come up with a way of doing it.

This would be pretty expensive, plus what about comms blackspots? Also wouldn't prevent a cabbie driving woman home then assaulting her outside the cab and claiming consent.

It also perpertrates the idea that women = safe and harmless men = danger, avoid whenever possible.

As long as men continue to be a danger to women, I don't see the problem with acknowledging that. I don't think a taxi service of all things will socialize boys to be violent - television, videogames and cinema are doing that much more effectively.

And really, women ARE safer, even if they are criminals, because if a woman attacks you, you have a fair chance fighting back. So I'd rather take my chances with a criminal woman. Especially since she's much more likely to be just after my money.

I don't think you can universally assume women are always safer and/or a criminal woman can be fought off or bought off.

I've never bothered but when you order a taxi can you ask for a female driver?

They've been doing this in Germany for decades. Certainly when I lived there in the 90s, I was able to call the local taxi firm after my shift in the bar I worked in and ask for a Frauentaxi. (Incidentally they also had something which translated as "last one to lock up taxi" the last member of the staff in all the bars in town got a half price taxi home - I used to cause some consternation when I ordered a Frauentaxi combined with a "lock up" taxi)

I don't remember any problems with men wanting men-only taxis or women being blamed for getting taxis driven by men and then being assaulted.

That is because The Patriarchy has put a memory-erase spell on you, vvviola.

Why isn't this seen as once again putting the onus on women to accommodate men's violent behaviour?

I don't understand your point there, Grimarse. This is a service option. It's also possible to request a larger or smaller cab and some firms operate hybrids to be greener. Not sure what it has to do with accommodation?

Yes it's a good idea. Three things I have had/known to happen in taxis:

• ex's sister was raped by a taxi driver.
• local taxi drivers use the mobile phone numbers our pretty nannies used to book (and to receive the confirmation text with the car model and plate) to phone them in the evening and ask them out on dates! They feel very threatened.
• one local driver scares the life out of me - he clearly has a problem with women, is very bitter and twisted and I try to avoid his car (hiding until someone else takes it at the rank). I always wonder whether his ex (or any passengers) are buried under his lawn.

On the other hand the vast vast majority of male taxi drivers I use are absolutely lovely.

As someone said previously, the separate train carriage proposal was unpopular because it put the onus on women to choose a woman-only carriage. If she didn't, and she was assaulted in a mixed carriage, society would find a way to blame her - she shouldn't have been in there, she was asking for it by travelling with men, etc etc.

So why isn't it the same with women-only taxis? Surely it is up to men to sort out their behaviour, rather than force women to seek out a service that is not widely available.

I actually think that this is a great idea - women's safety should be paramount. It just seems to be contradictory to the train-carriage discussion, because I thought that that was a great idea too, but many people didn't.

A train carriage, would be as part of a public service and, if mandated, would always

...raise the question of why it wasn't used or, as highlighted above by me, could be a target for groups of men if no guard (and trains are largely single guard or guard free so very likely)

This would be a private choice, probably only available or guaranteed in a few areas and, crucially, 121 so no risk of intruders.

Okay, I don't want to derail (lol), so thanks for the clarification.

Plus the current situation IS a 121 where a woman is largely in a cab alone with a male driver. The current train situation is mixed.

I used to live in a town with women only airport taxis. All the drivers were women, and only women / women and children could use them. I loved them. Get off the plane at any time of day or night and collapse into a cab and switch off entirely until you get home.

Having worked through the above in text, I think the key difference is that the driver of the taxi has a high degree of control. He is one to one with his passenger, if he chooses to drive elsewhere, he can. He has the power to stop the car and pull the passenger out or assault her in the cab. No one else can get in.

If a man has bad intentions in picking the profession, he will soon have plenty of tailor made opportunity to exercise those intentions.

In a train, not only is it far less common to be a lone woman in a carriage with a lone man, the man does not control the train stopping and starting or who gets on and off. The train will go to its destination and the doors will open at stations. The hypothetical man with bad intentions doesn't control all aspects of the situation. It is a public space so restricting it feels far more akin to saying "women only walk down this street"

Shetaxi - About
www.shetaxi.in/about

There is the she taxi service in Kerala and there may be a similar service in New York (wasn't clear if it had got off the ground)

So far as SharingMichelle s comment I can't think of any airport I've ever landed at where it would make the slightest difference to me what sex the driver was.

I think it's fine but I'd expect to pay more only because a small company with a limited demographic will have to cover overheads somehow.

And if that small company couldn't meet my needs (as in they'd take longer to provide a taxi) then I'd use my usual taxi company.