Chicago rideshare drivers looking for safety solutions
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[January 22, 2024]
By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – Chicago Gig Alliance organizer Lori Simmons is
leading the charge in demanding city officials take action in response
to a rash of recent rideshare driver robberies on the city’s West Side.
“It’s really scary,” Simmons told The Center Square after authorities
recently issued a community alert about the attacks. “I did rideshare
full-time for about five years and I’m still on the platform as a part
time worker and a lot of people that I know and care about do this work
full time. It’s really terrifying to see people take advantage of this
platform, of the fact that it’s a dangerous job.”
Simmons said much of the danger stems from drivers not knowing what the
people they’re picking up look like and none of them being required to
use their legal names in signing up to use the app to request a ride.
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We literally have no idea who’s going to get in the car so it makes it
really easy for someone to take advantage of that either by using a fake
name and pretending to be a passenger or for someone who just sees a
rideshare vehicle outside and knows they can run up on the vehicle and
the driver probably won’t know that it isn’t their passenger,” she
added. “I’ve been trying to get some details from police about what were
the circumstances of these incidents, but they really don’t want to talk
about it.”
In the alert, the Chicago Police Department noted that all of the
ambushes have occurred while drivers were either picking up or dropping
off passengers and in the same area where two ride-share drivers were
recently slain. More recently, a rideshare driver was shot in the chest
and critically injured in the Austin neighborhood when three men tried
to rob him.
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Through CGA, drivers have long been calling for policies crafted to help
keep them protected, including the Chicago Rideshare Living Wage and
Safety Ordinance that Simmons said also seeks to increase wages for
drivers and provide them greater job security.
“We’re working with the city of Chicago to try to find ways to alleviate
the dangers of doing this job,” she said. “The companies at the very
least could do their due diligence in terms of who’s using the app. We
might not know what’s going on outside the vehicle but we at least want
to know we’re not going to get robbed or murdered by our own passenger.”
Simmons added among the steps she would like to see companies take are
requiring ID from passengers and providing drivers with pictures of
them. She insists that in order for drivers to prove who they are and
use the rideshare app, they are required to do facial recognition by
looking into their phones several times a shift.
With Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration now in power at City
Hall, Simmons said she is hopeful that change may be on the way, adding
that CGA was recently invited by the mayor to take part in a hearing
where a new committee of rideshare drivers, mail carriers and bus
drivers worked on safety solutions.
“Before Mayor Johnson was elected we couldn’t get any traction talking
with any of the mayors,” she said. “With the new administration, we were
pleased to be invited to participate. We’re in the early stages, but I’m
hopeful we can come up with some solutions to make drivers a little bit
safer.”
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