Photo by Miki J.
A local woman had a ridesharing experience that soured her on the service on Wednesday night. Desiree Taylor says she was trapped in the back of a Lyft driver’s car because he refused to take her home, NBC4 reported.
In a video recorded by Taylor during the ride, her passenger door is opened because “he won’t stop,” she said. “This is the Lyft driver that you don’t want because this Lyft driver is taking me somewhere else. I have no idea where he’s taking me.”
Taylor and her friend were picked up in the U Street corridor around 9:45 p.m., according to NBC4. When the driver refused to take her friend home, she got out of the car and walked. But Taylor stayed. When the driver gave Taylor an opportunity to exit the vehicle, she didn’t because she wasn’t near her house.
She eventually hopped out of the car at a stop sign, went home, and filed a complaint with Lyft. The company’s spokeswoman Alexandra Lamanna issued a statement to News 4.
“We are extremely troubled to learn about this incident. We have a strict zero-tolerance policy and any behavior threatening the safety of a Lyft community member is not tolerated. The driver’s conduct was absolutely unacceptable, and his access to Lyft has been permanently removed.”
Will she get another Lyft in the future? “Absolutely not, I can’t trust it,” Taylor said, adding that she will use Uber instead (Uber customers have registered complaints about the safety of that service, too).
She told WJLA that D.C. police said since there was no specific threat and she wasn’t harmed, there wasn’t much they could do for her.