20. Flashback

Tonight’s story is a flashback…

This evening, I had three different people ask me what was my most memorable experience as a ride share driver. I thought of several occasions where passengers tried to pile into my car with seven or eight people or the occasions where drunks had almost caused me to crash by distracting me from the back seat. I thought of various occasions where I had driven sex workers to their destinations, and they had spent the ride getting ready in the back seat. I thought of my recent experience with the human traffickers but after talking with the detective this afternoon, that one is making me feel uneasy.

So, instead, I told them of an adventure from my days of driving in the Bay Area when ride sharing was first available, and they were working the kinks out.

And it was one of those kinks that was the cause for my most memorable ride. It is a kink that they seem to have taken away and I couldn’t be the happier for it: the carpool option.

It used to be that people could select the carpool option to save some money on the ride. This would mean that the driver could pick up other people along the original route and drive up to three people to separate destinations. I guess they thought it would be good for passengers to save money and allow drivers to make more money on one trip.

But the problem was that the people being picked up separately were all strangers. And it was this that lead me to one of my most memorable rides.

I had picked up an attractive young lady from the Embarcadero. Her English was not very good, and I wasn’t sure if she was an immigrant or a tourist. But I did see that she had selected the carpool option. I asked her if she understood what it meant, and she gave me a look of confusion as I tried to elaborate. She said she just needed to get to her destination.

I got a notification to pick up another passenger as we were driving and so I stopped and got a middle-aged gentleman from a bar. He looked like a tired salesman who had a bad month and just had an afternoon of drinking to ease his pain.

As we started off again, he began trying to converse with the young lady. She smiled sheepishly and leaned away from him. I told him that she didn’t speak much English and he probably couldn’t have a conversation with her.

This seemed to have given him more determination. He slid a little closer and I could hear him offer his services to her as a guide around the city.

It was at this point that I pulled over. I asked him if he could sit up front and leave the lady alone.

He said he was happy in the back. I then asked her if she wanted to sit up front and as she moved away, he grabbed her arm and told me she could also stay in the back.

I asked him to get out of the car. This was the early days of ride share and there were no emergency options on the app to deal with aggressive passengers. More kinks they had to work out. So, at this point, my best option to get him out of the car was to ask.

This was also before “Me, too” and still at a time where men felt empowered by their penises.

I didn’t want to play tug of war with the girl and so I asked her again if she wanted to sit in front. She nodded at me and seemed frightened and confused by what was happening. But he didn’t let her go. 

I came around the other side of my car and pulled the man out. When he got out. he pushed me and told me he was going to report me to the company. He was the customer, and the customer was always right.

The young lady stayed in the car. The side of the car she was on was towards traffic, which just whizzed by us, people ignoring what was happening. Or maybe they just didn’t want to get involved.

I told the man that he could find another ride. He was not happy with that and told me I better drive him to where he needed to go or he would get me fired and I would be in a world of shit. 

He was standing in the doorway of my car, and I was a little afraid he was going to try and break the door. I asked him to get away from the car and call for another ride. He responded by getting back into the car.

I grabbed him by the arm and jerked him out. He lunged towards me and pushed me back while grabbing me by the collar. His fist was coming up to punch me, but I reacted by kicking him in the groin.

He doubled over and I then hit him in the jaw. Not once, but at least five times until he was down. 

At that point, a police car pulled over. I thought I was fucked. This looked like I had beaten down this guy and the only witness to back me up didn’t speak much English. 

He started screaming about how I assaulted him and broke his face. The cops called for an ambulance. His nose was bleeding and he had blood coming out of his mouth. I thought I was going to jail for sure. 

I told the cops the story and they wrote his side and my side down.

I learned the young lady was Swedish because one of the paramedics who arrived in the ambulance spoke Swedish. She told him what happened and how I was only defending myself. He told the cops.

The man angrily denied everything and said she was a lying whore and I was her pimp and that we were mad because he refused to pay us. As the cops knew this was a ride share, I think this new amendment to his story sank the guy.

The police let me go and said they would write up the other man for attempted rape. One of the officers rode with him as the ambulance drove off. The other cop got my information in case I would be needed as a witness for the case. He said he would drive the young lady to her destination as well.

In the end, I was left alone on the road minus two fares. I drove to the ride share headquarters in the city and told them what happened. I wanted to make sure I was not blamed for any of this, and I wasn’t going to pay for that guy’s medical costs or anything. I gave them the case number and told them that there was a reason I couldn’t finish that ride and to clear it off my record. I also told them I wasn’t picking up any more of these carpool passengers.

And that no one else should either.