Oraia Reid: Bringing RightRides to You

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After numerous assaults on women walking home by themselves late at night in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, two Brooklyn, New York neighborhoods, partners Oraia Reid and Consuelo Ruybal decided to do something about it. RightRides has been giving many women, trans and gender queer folks rides home since 2004.
In honor of the official “RightRides for Women’s Safety Day� on Thursday, December 14, RightRides is hosting a special celebratory event at the Cake Shop in New York City. Come show your support if you’re in the city.
Here’s Oraia…


Congratulations on your second anniversary. How does it feel to be two years old now?
It’s amazing. When we first started out, we really didn’t have any idea that it was going to be so well received by the community. And we certainly weren’t making plans, like “Well, on our two-year anniversary…� It’s been such a pleasure to make this happen and to really make a difference in other people’s lives. It’s an incredible feeling, and hopefully we’ll be here in the next two years.
Can you talk more about the motivations behind RightRides?
There were an increasing number of attacks on women, and as residents of that community for several years it became really frightening. It was something that we felt was going to completely turn our lives around, i.e., we’re never going to go out again. Or we were going to do something about it. Consuelo and I were talking about how could we increase safety in our community, and I said I would just want to give everyone a ride home. We’re fortunate enough to own a car, so that was actually a possibility. So, we spent about three weeks brainstorming the best operational model. We conducted community surveys; we really wanted to determine the need and to see if something like RightRides could be viable. It turned out that there was overwhelming community response. People were real supportive of our proposed idea and within a month we were operational. We got a cell phone for free and we put out flyers.
With some help from volunteers and their cars until late 2005, we pretty much operated the service ourselves. At the time we were only in three neighborhoods and we were unable to serve so many requests for rides home because there was only one car. We put the service on hold late last year in order to seek a vehicle sponsorship so we could continue RightRides. And that’s where Zipcar comes in and they’ve been phenomenal. They enabled RightRides not only to resume services but to expand to 19 neighborhoods. It’s also great because our volunteers can now drive the Zipcars and not have to own their own cars. In New York City, it’s just so much easier to be able to offer a vehicle to a volunteer to make RightRides happen.
How many cars do you have total now?
We have three cars, and in the next four to six months, we’re working on growing the service. I can’t really say how much at this point but we’re certainly looking to increase our Brooklyn projects and are seriously looking into Harlem and the Bronx neighborhoods. Especially in the Bronx, we receive so many requests for rides home and certainly these are areas with lower-income residents who do not have a lot of resources in their community. Walking home from public transportation can be scary. So, we really want to make sure we can expand RightRides into these areas.
RightRides is made possible by volunteers. The great thing about volunteering is that it’s just a couple of hours a night, and we ask volunteers to volunteer at a time of four to six weeks for a shift. Volunteers are always expressing how fun it is to volunteer their service. There’s a lot of positive feelings from volunteering and it’s fun to drive the Zipcars. It’s a feel good way of giving back to your community.
Is it only on the weekends, or during the weeknights as well?
Saturday nights from 11 pm to 3 am. In order to expand to other nights, we would need to virtually double or triple our volunteer staff. Right now, we have about 75 active volunteers. We’re able to do three cars every Saturday night with these volunteers. It really takes a lot of volunteer effort to expand, whether to different nights or to different areas.

You mentioned needing volunteers for RightRides in Harlem and the Bronx?

Yes, we’re seeking community support meet areas. In addition to that, we’re also looking for board members who are local leaders who are tied to these communities with a different range of experiences. Everything from traditional Mom and Pop stuff to more corporate sponsorship; that kind of fun development work. There are many different ways that one can get involved with RightRides.
Do the drivers receive special training?
We have an orientation that everybody goes through and we have a comprehensible manual. It’s made up of teams of two: a driver and a navigator; one has to self-identify as female, and that is for the comfort of our riders. The navigators help navigate the driver to and from the caller. We use web-based software and the dispatcher is in a separate location. There’s training on using the dispatch system.
But we’re also looking into getting grants to build up the capacity for volunteer training. Right now, one of our partners is The Center for Anti-Violence Education. We’d really like to bring additional training to our volunteer driving teams if there was ever a time or place that our volunteers were driving up into that would be able to assist the rider. There hasn’t really been a situation where the potential rider or rider was in physical danger.
Have any of the drivers received any hostility from the riders?
No. For the most part, people are so appreciative of what we’re doing. We have now driven over 500 riders home; the majority being first-time riders. It’s really showing that people are utilizing RightRides when they most need it. We hand out dispatch cards, we’ve got flyers up in our service areas, but most people will receive the information and not necessarily call RightRides right away. People really have the sense that this is really special, something in the community that we don’t want to squander. And we get feedback all the time, “We’re so grateful to have the RightRides number in our cell phone because I was going to take the subway and this guy started harassing me. I didn’t feel comfortable walking by myself so I called RightRides.� People for the most part use RightRides when they’re feeling uncomfortable and really scared and do not have any money to otherwise get a car service. That’s why we’re here.
What’s the average number of riders RightRides drives home on an average Saturday night?
That varies. We have between 15 and 20 calls on an average night, depending on what time of year it is, if it’s raining. Each ride can be between one and three people. It’s certainly enough rides that our three teams are busy throughout the night. It’s really exciting to see how much RightRides has grown throughout the last year.
What would you say is your biggest demographic of riders?
For the most part, we have a very diverse constituency from all walks of life. We definitely don’t ask, but I would say that they’re between 20 and 21 and their mid-30s. They are students or maybe they’re just starting out on their own. They don’t have a lot of disposable income. They’re living in lower-income neighborhoods. Maybe they’re really new to the city and they don’t necessarily know their way around or feel safe walking around. Sometimes we get late-night workers, servers, and bartenders. Our peak callers are actually people working late-night shifts and can’t afford to take a taxi home, and walking off the subway is certainly not safe.
Has RightRides met its goal for the year? On your website you mention that you want to drive 600 riders home by the end of the year.
By 2007, our goal is to drive 600 riders and we’re already at 500, so we’re certainly going to surpass our goal, which is phenomenal. Everyone has been very supportive of RightRides and has really gone above and beyond the number of shifts that they’re willing to volunteer. I’m really hoping we can continue this very strong volunteer showing and expand sooner rather than later.
So, one member of the driving team is female-identified. Do you encourage male-identified drivers?
Absolutely. In our driver teams, we certainly encourage male-identified drivers to get involved. It’s an organization with community safety in mind, and male-identified people certainly have a huge role in that. We want everyone to get involved in community safety and certainly in reducing sexual assault. Drivers or navigators can be male or female, as long as one female-identified person is part of the driving team.
Can you talk more about the riders and why you and Consuelo decided to serve these particular communities?
When we first started RightRides, we focused the scope of our services for those who would be at great risk for sexual assault if they were to walk by themselves late at night for a lack of funds. So, it’s not that we’re discriminating against anybody, but we’ve chosen to focus our efforts and our resources on serving those who are at great risk for sexual assault. Perhaps one day we will be able to service everybody. But now, because we are a nonprofit, we don’t accept any cash in the car, we are highly volunteer-run, we really have to focus on who we can serve in order to best serve those people. Right now we are choosing to serve women, trans people, and gender queer individuals. So, if you identify as trans or gender queer we can serve you. But if you identify as a gay man or a straight born-male person, we are unable to serve you because we really want to reduce the risk of sexual assault and women and trans people are at a greater risk for sexual assault should they be walking home late at night. Sadly enough, women are at a higher risk of sexual assault than men, and violence against people in the trans community are at epic proportions and we want to show these communities that we are inclusive and receptive to their needs. For me, it really comes down to the resources of the communities that we are serving and the risk for sexual assault.
Is there anything you would like to add?
If volunteering is something that one can do, please contact us. We’re certainly a very small grassroots organization and donations, no matter how small, always help. We’ve been able to keep RightRides operational by the $10 or $20 donations we’ve received. A little bit of money goes a long way because our overhead is really low.

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