EXPERIENCES OF FEMALE RIDESHARE DRIVERS
A research study conducted to illuminate the concerns and issues that female identifying rideshare drivers have, with a special emphasis on safety.
MY ROLE
UX Researcher
THE TEAM
Personal Project
TOOLS & METHODS
User research, interviews, affinity mapping, insight generation, design recommendations
OVERVIEW
Have you ever thought about how many of your rideshare drivers have been women?
I recently did, and after going through my trip history my answer was a measly 2%, however I understood that I wasn't the biggest user of rideshare apps and so spoke to other friends and heard similar responses.
I was curious as to why this could be the case, and so decided to investigate.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
RESEARCH QUESTION 1
Why aren’t there as many female rideshare drivers?
RESEARCH QUESTION 2
What are the experiences of female rideshare drivers?
RESEARCH PROCESS
Secondary Research
The secondary research phase involved me reading several news articles, blog posts, and discussions on forums that discussed the experiences female drivers went through and the precautions that they felt they had to take.
Some of the news headlines and articles are shown below (or consider having a caption below the images).
Secondary Research Findings:
1. I gathered statistics which confirmed my initial suspicions about the proportions of female rideshare drivers whereby:
Only 27% of Uber drivers and 29% of Lyft drivers are women.
Female drivers have a higher attrition rate
Female Uber drivers drive ~13 hours / week whereas Male drivers drive ~18 hours / week.
One statement which I thought was particularly interesting was that even an Uber senior official said that they had underinvested in the driver experience.
Secondary Research
The secondary research phase involved me reading several news articles, blog posts, and discussions on forums that discussed the experiences female drivers went through and the precautions that they felt they had to take.
Some of the news headlines and articles are shown below (or consider having a caption below the images).
Secondary Research Findings:
1. I gathered statistics which confirmed my initial suspicions about the proportions of female rideshare drivers whereby:
One statement which I thought was particularly interesting was that even an Uber senior official said that they had “underinvested in the driver experience”.
Only 27% of Uber drivers and 29% of Lyft drivers are women.
STATISTIC 1
Female drivers have a higher attrition rate
STATISTIC 2
Female Uber drivers drive ~13 hours / week whereas male drivers drive ~18 hours / week.
STATISTIC 3
Interviews
I felt that the best way to get an in depth understanding of the experiences and concerns these women had would be through conducting one-on-one interviews where I could really get a chance to dive in and get a sense of their feelings on the subject. Since I had a limited amount of time for recruitment and data collection, I thought 5 interviews would suffice.
The primary research phase involved me recruiting participants from an online Facebook group that was dedicated to female rideshare drivers.
I scheduled one-on-one interviews via zoom, each lasting about an hour. The participants were all located within the US, more specifically from Alabama, Arizona, LA, and Michigan.
Affinity Mapping + Data Analysis
Since I primarily collected attitudinal and behavioral data, it made sense for me to conduct a thematic analysis that would allow me to synthesize the data into findings that made sense, after which I could convert these findings into insights.
Once I was done with the interview stage, the next step was to study the transcripts I had made, make sense of all the data to collate them into something meaningful. Given the pattern of responses I gained and the thematic nature of the study, I decided to use affinity mapping using Miro to help sort the responses based on common ideas and themes that pervaded multiple interviews.
Findings
Based on the data I collected from the interviews and the affinity mapping I had done, I was able to put together my findings as shown below.
Lack of Verification
No form of verification is required on behalf of the passenger when signing up for an account.
The participants claimed that they felt uncomfortable with the fact that anyone can make an account and request a ride.
If an account is reported, a passenger can easily make a new one
Anonymity
Apps don't require passengers to have pictures, nor do they have to use their real names.
Difficult to recognize passengers
Adds element of anonymity which may encourage inappropriate behavior
Research shows that anonymity is associated with an increase in anti-social behavior Including using violence, shouting and being verbally abusive, and sexual aggression.
Ordering rides for others
5/5 participants complained about the fact that people can order rides for people besides themselves.
"I knew someone who only accepted rides at night from women's accounts as a precaution, however men still end up in my car as the account owner was a woman who ordered a ride on behalf of her male friend".
Not having information on all passengers
Drivers only have access to information of the individual who requested the ride.
Participants mentioned wanting to report an individual person from a group but were unable to as they only had information of the person who ordered the ride.
Drivers are given minimal trip information
The only information that is guaranteed is a name (which could be fake).
Prior to accepting a ride, drivers are not given the pickup location, the destination, or even the general direction they need to travel.
"I spent 20 minutes driving ending up in a very dark area in the middle of nowhere with nothing but train tracks around. My passenger would not up my calls but would text me to approach the area”. - PX
"Once I ended up picking up someone from jail! I had no idea where I was driving until I reached the pickup spot at the front gate. - PX
Issues finding Bathrooms
2/5 participants got bladder infections from holding in urine as it can be difficult to find bathrooms.
One participant mentioned that it can be difficult to focus on driving when you need to find a bathroom but are unable to.
Recommendations
After developing those insights, I thought it was worth putting some thought into potential recommendations for the design that could help female rideshare drivers feel safer.
Requiring Passenger Verification
Requiring passenger verification would allow both drivers and passengers to know that they are in a car with someone who meets some minimum threshold of safety.
Indication of Passenger Identity
An explicit prompt asking whether a ride request is for an account owner or for someone else will allow drivers to know whom to expect in their cars and hopefully set their minds at ease.
Currently on Uber users are able to order rides for themselves or others, however this option is not very salient and so may not be noticed by users which may reduces its utility. A more explicit option may be required to ensure usage.
Setting Passenger Gender Preferences
This is a very common request amongst both drivers and passengers.
Drivers could toggle a setting on/off when they want to accept only female drivers after a certain time.
Interestingly, Uber in Saudi Arabia has already implemented this for female drivers: "Women Preferred View".
However, there could be potential issues of gender discrimination and misuse.
Record of all Passengers
Requiring a record for all individuals in a car during a trip which can be accessed later if needed.
This allows both passengers and drivers to be held accountable for their behavior and actions.
Avoid Certain Areas
Allow drivers to avoid certain areas
This was pilot tested by Uber in the past but not implemented
Negative implications: Trip discrimination
Passengers in low income and disadvantaged areas may suffer disproportionately
Maps for Bathrooms
An in-built map for bathrooms alongside an indication of whether a bathroom is open or closed as many participants claimed that they had to try several bathrooms to find one that was open.
Limitations
Small sample size (N = 5)
All participants originate from the US
All able-bodied participants
Firstly there is a very small sample size (N = 5), and so it is possible that these issues aren't representative of the entire female driving population.
Moreover given that all the participants were from the United states, it may be possible that female drivers located in different regions or from different cultures may have had varying experiences and concerns.
Considerations
It can't be denied that attempting to improve the safety and security experience for female drivers may come at the expense of the passengers experience, whom arguably right your companies would want to prioritize over the drivers.
Potential Impact
If female drivers feel safer, this may lead to an increase and the number of female drivers, and it is known that there is also a demand on behalf of the passengers for gender specific drivers were about female passengers also wish to be paired with female drivers, and so this could lead to potential increase in profits for the companies - especially given that there are gender specific driver apps that currently exist just for women such as Safr.
Secondly Rideshare companies may financially benefit from having more female drivers as women tend to take significantly fewer risks compared to male drivers , and so they would be cheaper to insure.
Lastly, Uber in the past has been under fire multiple times, and so it could be possible that providing more women-friendly features and accounting for their experiences could improve the overall image of the company as a whole.
Next Steps
A natural next step from this research would be to conduct usability testing with these implemented changes to see the impact that these extra steps may have on passengers and whether it truly impacts the experience for passengers using the apps.