Ride-share services study shows less willingness to ride alone at night

A UCT study has found a high perception of crime regarding ride-share services in Cape Town, with almost all respondents showing less willingness to use ride-share services alone at night.

Many women without access to a private vehicle indicated that they see ride-share services as their only possible option for transport even though at times they did not feel safe while doing so. They also indicated that in such circumstances they share their trip with friends or family, if possible, to manage their concerns.

The research by Jennifer Baufeldt, a doctoral student at UCT’s Centre for Transport Studies, and Professor Marianne Vanderschuren, which focuses on personal safety and Covid-19 concerns, will be published in the September issue of Research in Transportation Economics journal.

Using scenarios of engaging in ride-share services for trips “alone”, “at night” or “alone at night”, they investigated who would be willing to use ride-share services in Cape Town. The questions were framed to cover the period “before Covid-19”, “during Covid-19” and “after Covid-19”.

The findings are based on a response from 2 857 UCT students.

The researchers found a high perception of crime, with roughly half or more of the groups indicating that they consider crime to be high.

The main differences identified were between those who have access to a private vehicle and those who do not.

Students who considered crime to be low ranged from a mere 1.9% (females with access to private vehicles after Covid-19) to 11.9% (males with access to private vehicles during Covid-19).

Male students with access to a private vehicle reported a reduction in the perception that crime was high during the Covid-19 pandemic, while the percentage of females with access to a private vehicle that perceived crime as high increased during and after Covid-19.

“The changes were not statistically significant,” said Baufeldt. “So, while males were influenced by the framing of the question in ‘before’, ‘during’ or ‘after’ Covid-19, females were not significantly influenced in their perceptions of crime. Their higher uncertainty levels before Covid-19 may have influenced this.”

All groups, apart from females with access to a private vehicle, showed a reduction in willingness to use ride-share services “alone at night” across “before”, “during” and “after” Covid-19.

The results showed that only an average of 30% of the females with access to private vehicles are willing to use ride-share services alone at night.

“However, the percentage of females with no access to a private vehicle who are no longer willing to use ride-share services increases to around 40%,” said Baufeldt.

Vanderschuren said it was also noteworthy that women with access to private vehicles have a significantly higher perception of crime than females without access to private vehicles, while for males, access to a private vehicle was not significant.

“This may imply two different insights: females with access to private vehicles use private vehicle trips as a measure to avoid crime, and females with access to private vehicles have a more critical perception of crime than females without access to a private vehicle.”

This week, e-hailing service provider Bolt announced a new safety feature on its app.

This feature empowers both drivers and passengers to initiate an audio recording of their trip within the Bolt app, offering a solution in situations where they may feel unsafe during the trip.

Bolt regional manager in South Africa, Takura Malaba, said: “We continuously develop safety features and tools that address driver and passenger safety concerns and the audio trip recording feature is the newest addition to our in-app safety toolkit for our Bolt community to use if they’re ever feeling uncomfortable during a ride, offering drivers and passengers a high-quality ride-hailing experience.”

An Uber spokesperson said they have launched several industry-leading safety features over the years, including features dedicated to the South African market.

“These include the in-app emergency button, which dispatches armed security to your location within minutes of an emergency. We also have a women-specific feature called Women Rider Preferred View, which allows women drivers who use the Uber app to set a preference for picking up only women and non-binary riders.”

Cape Times