Free Ride Service for Women, LGBT People Is Expanding in Ward 6

(Updated at 1:55 p.m.) A program that offers women and LGBT people free, late-night rides home will operate soon in Southwest, Navy Yard and Capitol Hill.

RightRides DC will provide trips all over the city on Friday, March 27, the nonprofit Collective Action for Safe Spaces announced.

The service aimed at protecting women and LGBT people from assault and sexual harassment launched in D.C. on Halloween, with rides provided only in Northwest. The first time around, the group was able to serve 20 people. The second D.C. RightRides night was held on New Year’s Eve, when volunteer drivers gave 36 rides in Northwest and Northeast.

Now, the group will serve the whole District.

Requests for rides home (not to another bar or party) will be available from midnight to 3:30 a.m. March 27 and can be made by calling or texting 202-556-4232.

“People call a number, we pick them up and they can get a safe, free ride home,” volunteer Tamara Vatnick explained at the ANC 6D meeting Monday night.

CASS is seeking volunteer drivers, navigators and dispatchers in the neighborhood. Volunteers attend a training, must pass a background check and then set out as a driver-navigator team in vehicles donated by Zipcar. For more information, see the CASS website.

Photo via Facebook/Collective Action for Safe Spaces