Rideshare in the Time of Plague

You learn a lot about people when they’re in your backseat. When so many people pass through your vehicle on a given day, the sheer exposure to humanity makes you introspective. Everyone has their individual story, but taken as a whole, you can only see the same thing so many times before you start to draw conclusions about society.

The past year of the pandemic has taught me that the human mind has an infinite capacity for both cruelty and kindness, self-delusion and empathy. When the pandemic first started, I made a post on Twitter that you might have seen:

There was a massive outpouring of support from people who knew nothing about me. Through donations, I was able to stop driving for quite a while. Inevitably though, the need for money returned, and I was forced to get behind the wheel again.

Being a rideshare driver during a pandemic is harrowing. With the constant churn of people in my backseat, even a single infected person could turn into a disaster for my entire community. Put some Smash Mouth on the radio, and my car is a one-man Sturgis rally waiting to happen.