RightRides Volunteers Oraia & Tiara (Photo courtesy of RightRides).

Getting There Safely Shouldn’t be a Luxury

It happens to me all the time. I go out on the weekends – sometimes in Brooklyn, sometimes in Manhattan – and before I realize it, it’s 2 a.m. and I just want to be in my bed, instantly.

But, we all know that if you live in New York, getting home “late night” ain’t that easy. The trains start skipping stops. Those four-inch heels – which don’t seem like such a good idea anymore – make your walk a little wobbly. And, worst of all: freaks come out at night!

Then, I am faced with the ultimate question: spend my week’s lunch money on a cab or spend a grueling two hours taking the subway home and risk getting mugged, or worse, sexually assaulted?

Now you don’t have to choose. Thanks to RightRides - a non profit aimed at building safer communities by ending harassment and sexual assault - women, transgender and gender queer individuals can now get a free, late night ride home on Saturdays.

The organization was founded in August of 2004 by Consuelo Ruybal and Oraia Reid. The pair noticed sexual assault statistics were increasing by 200 percent in some New York City neighborhoods, and they wanted to do something to stop it.

Operating solely with the help of volunteers and cars donated by Zipcar, RightRides offers rides to 35 NYC neighborhoods across four boroughs. Interested riders can call between the hours of 11:59 p.m. and 3 a.m. on Saturday nights and a RightRides dispatcher will arrive at your location within 20 minutes. Each volunteer driver has gone through a background check and has no recent major traffic violations.

Four years and 1,000 rides later, RightRides now partners with the Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE) to bring low-cost self-defense classes. At these classes, which are held in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, ladies will learn basic verbal and physical self-defense skills, boundary setting, intuition training, risk assessment, the language/cycle of violence and self-confidence.

To find out if RightRides serves your neighborhood (it most likely does), click here.

The Dispatch number to call for a ride home is (718) 964-7781.

Check out the RightRides’ website.