Ride services are super convenient solutions for the problem: how does one get from point A to point B. If you’re in the right city and you have the right number of people in your posse, sharing a ride can even be cost effective. However, it seems we as a society are still figuring out the standard of etiquette around sharing a Lyft. How do seven people decide which two punks have to jump in the back-back of an XL? Who sits up front? Is there a power dynamic at play that we should be paying closer attention to?
In my experience as a woman thus far, I am always wary of how and when to take a Lyft alone. But I think the power dynamics with a stranger-driver extend far beyond when one is alone in the car. As all conceptual power dynamics are, this can easily get complicated; I’ll try my best to cover my bases while keeping it breezy. Today I step up on my soggy soapbox to say:
If you don’t order the Lyft, you shouldn’t have to take the front seat.
There are caveats! There are so many standard markers of what elevates someone in a power dynamic: race, gender, presentation, sexuality, and so much more. In general if one of your friends in the party fits a profile that they may feel safer in the front seat than the person who called the car, I suggest that it would be polite for them to volunteer. But let’s say you have two white, hetero, masculine-presenting, cis-men in your posse and one calls the car; he who called it should take the front, the other should not have to. And no one else should have to either!
This is just one small piece of setting a standard of etiquette for sharing ride services. There are many (MANY) other behaviors which I believe to be impolite (or even inappropriate), but I’ll save those for another soapbox on another day. My soapbox wouldn’t be so soggy if I had a strong case for an influential opinion. But, my case for the front seat is soft and this opinion probably won’t make a difference other than preventing light resentment between pals…so soggy it is.
shot on 35mm by Jess Littman