The latest New Yorkers of the Week are the founders of a service program that's working to make sure women and transgendered individuals in New York have a way to get home safely. NY1’s Sandra Endo filed the following report.

“My very first pick up ever of volunteering was actually a girl that was held up at gun point,” said Jackie Lee, a volunteer for Right Rides. “So it made me feel really good that we could help her.”

Reducing the frequency of such violent situations is the mission of Right Rides, a free late-night car service founded by two women who felt moved to do something about the increase in sexual assaults on women in North Brooklyn neighborhoods.

“Instead of being threatened by what was happening, we decided to do something about it,” said Right Rides co-founder Consuelo Ruybal. “We had a car at that time and we got a cell phone and started using it as a dispatch phone. We got a bunch of fliers and business cards and started to distribute them and we started giving people a ride home.”

Started in 2004, Ruybal and co-founder Oraia Reid first ran Right Rides locally with their own car, but over the last three years with a combination of community support, private donations, a team of volunteers, and a partnership with Zipcar, Right Rides quickly expanded and has now provided a free safe ride home to over 1,000 New Yorkers.

“We would love to see Right Rides 24/7,” said Reid. “At this point we are serving 19 neighborhoods every Saturday night from midnight to 3 a.m. Sunday and we are hoping to expand to 35 neighborhoods by the summer of 2007.”

The program serves women and transgender individuals in low-income areas of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and, soon, the Bronx, who live in neighborhoods with limited or no access to public transportation. The organizers combine crime statistics with ride request rates to determine which areas need service most.

A call from someone needing a ride brings a driver and a navigator, one of whom is always a woman, for the pick-up.

“I think it is great because it can serve just about anybody from a young girl, a young 14-year-old girl, if she is out late, or an older person, who maybe works late at a bar or something like that, or just someone who was out with their friends and they just need a ride home,” said volunteer coordinator Tara Sherry Torres.

“Many people are working late-night shifts and taking a taxi is half their shift pay from one neighborhood to the next, and walking home from public transportation is not always safe late at night,” said Reid. “So this is something that we are really happy that we can be there for those in need.”

So for believing that getting home safely shouldn't be a luxury and working to change that, the founders of Right Rides are the New Yorkers of the Week.

-Sandra Endo

If you'd like to nominate someone to be NY1's New Yorker of the Week, send an email describing their qualifications to: nyer@ny1.com or mail a letter to:

New York 1 News
New Yorker of the Week
75 Ninth Avenue, 6th Floor