East Lansing Police Department Lieutenant Adrian Ojerio said the best way to ensure your safety while using a rideshare app is to be mindful of your surroundings. 

“After you book a ride and before you get into the vehicle, make sure that you verify the driver and the vehicle that you booked is actually the car that you’re trying to get into,” he said. 

You should also track where your driver is taking you using GPS, he said, to ensure that they are taking you in the right direction to your destination. He also recommends that riders who are alone share their location with a friend or family member so they can know where they are. 

It is also important to check if a vehicle is damaged when the driver arrives, Ojerio said. 

“Rideshare companies don’t always have the manpower or the staffing to check vehicles that apply to be rideshare vehicles, so if you see a car that’s heavily damaged or it’s just in ill repair, it would be advisable that maybe the vehicle itself just might not be a safe vehicle to ride in,” he said. 

In the case of a damaged car or reckless driving, Ojerio said passengers can report it directly to the rideshare application so the company can flag the drivers. 

Riders who feel uncomfortable or fear for their safety can always call 911. In this situation, he recommends ending the ride as soon as possible and requesting to be dropped off in a well-lit, high traffic area.

When it comes to issues with rideshare apps, Ojerio said the most common problem in East Lansing isn't the drivers, but rather the riders who try to get into vehicles that are not rideshare vehicles.  

“We have had multiple instances where people are not paying attention and they’re not aware of their surroundings when they try to get into vehicles that are not rideshares,” he said. “That presents a problem because now we have people entering private citizens' vehicles unwanted.” 

Ojerio said the police sometimes see problems with drivers requesting "extra" things from riders, such as more tips, money or phone numbers of passengers.

“We fully support calling the police if you have those types of issues,” he said. 

Students' uncomfortable experiences 

Another issue is drivers trying to get riders to use their services outside of a designated rideshare app, which can present dangers as the rides and driver cannot be tracked via an apps. 

Human biology sophomore Aubrey Hessbrook said she experienced this one night about a year ago. 

Hessbrook called for a ride using Uber, a popular rideshare app, and a younger-looking driver arrived to pick up her and her friends. 

Hessbrook said that throughout the ride, the driver made her uncomfortable by talking about previous riders who had "hit on him" or made advances toward him. 

“He really wanted us to know that girls always tried to be very personal with him,” she said. 

At the end of the ride, the driver handed Hessbrook what appeared to be a business card. He encouraged Hessbrook and her friends to directly call him the next time they needed a ride instead of booking one through Uber, claiming it would be an easier and cheaper alternative. 

Hessbrook, unsettled by the experience, decided to do away with the business card. 

Communications sophomore Ava Gioffre and communications sophomore Ella Comerci had a similar experience, except in their case the driver offered them free rides. They accepted the offer, not yet knowing the risks associated with it. 

Gioffre and Comerci took four “off-app” rides before various uncomfortable incidents made them stop. 

Having first encountered the driver using a rideshare app, they were intrigued by his "chill" behavior that set him apart from other drivers. 

Because of this, Comerci and Gioffre weren’t surprised when he said he would offer them free rides if they added him on Snapchat, a social media platform. 

Comerci said the driver showed them all the other girls he had saved in his phone that he gave rides to, who she noted were predominantly freshmen students. He also told them that girls would frequently call him while they were in the car, showing that he genuinely offered these services through a third-party app. 

Gioffre and Comerci became unsettled when he began making flirtatious comments during rides. 

“He started saying things like, ‘oh, what if we just drove back to my house?’” Gioffre said. 

Comerci said the driver would jokingly pretend to swerve into oncoming traffic to scare them and would say things like “don’t get your panties in a twist.” 

The final straw for them was when the driver began Snapchatting Gioffre about things not related to ride services, which prompted her to block him. 

Ojerio emphasized the importance of reporting drivers who participate in uncomfortable or dangerous behavior to the rideshare apps directly so they can be removed from the general pool of drivers who do a good job.

Safety data and rideshare features

Despite some students' experiences, the data shows these incidents are rare. 

Uber’s most recent safety report, which is from 2021-2022, shows that out of 1.8 billion U.S. trips from January 2021 to December 2022, 99.9998% ended without a critical safety incident of the kind included in the report. 

The number of sexual assaults reported in an Uber during 2021-2022 was 2,717, making the frequency of them occurring approximately 1 in 700,000. The frequency of Uber-related fatalities was approximately 1 in 12 million. 

The report also highlights the various safety features on the app, including the ability to share your trip with friends or family and an in-app emergency button that can be used to contact emergency services. There is also a RideCheck feature that detects long stops, unexpected routes or potential crashes, prompting an in-app message to be sent to the driver and passenger. 

Uber conducts thorough background checks on potential drivers, according to the website. Its requirements state that a driver must possess a valid U.S. driver’s license, need one year of U.S. driving experience and must have a current license without disqualifying restrictions. 

Certain criminal convictions as well as certain pending charges can disqualify a driver from being hired. Disqualifying convictions include felonies, violent crime or sexual offenses.

Another popular rideshare app called Lyft has similar criteria for its background checks. 

Lyft also has a pretty clean safety record, with the most recent from 2020-2022 saying that 99.999% of rides were completed without any safety incidents. There were a total of 2,651 sexual assaults reported, meaning the frequency of one occurring was about 1 in 540,000. 

When used properly by both the rider and driver, Ojerio said rideshares have made a positive difference in East Lansing. 

“Ridesharing is an extremely important feature that the police department has noticed has successfully reduced the number of drunk driving since the implementation of ride sharing, so it does serve a very valuable function,” Ojerio said. “There’s a lot of good rideshare drivers out there but as always, there’s always a few that are bad.” 

Alternative options

There are also alternatives to rideshare apps offered through the university. ASMSU Safe Ride is a free late-night transportation service provided to members of the MSU community. 

Rides can be requested through the Transloc app, where students can log in using student credentials and can call rides to pick them up from on-campus buildings, off-campus apartments and off-campus work locations. 

Another alternative is the MSU CATA ‘Night Owl’ which provides late night and early morning campus service at times when other CATA bus services are not in operation. 

Rides are only available to on-campus locations and can be requested by calling 517-432-8888.