‘WORST area for an uber’: Street terror’s pickup attempt backfires when woman refuses to play along

TikToker Highofffadri recently caught a man behaving reprehensibly while she and her friends waited for their Uber in New York’s Times Square.

When she shared her TikTok post showing a man asking for her number, and reacting like a man-child when she refused, her comments section blew up about the best and worst places to wait for your ride. To be clear, Highofffadri — or any woman, for that matter — should feel free to stand on a public sidewalk for any reason and not have some creep pester her. In the clip, you can hear her tell the guy to “back up” as he seems to touch her. The guy walks away while still yelling.

Sadly, however, based on comments like, “‘Just say no’ they said. Now look why we can’t simply just say no, and “100 men vs ‘No,'” and then “Why do they even ask for girls numbers if they can’t even handle rejection 😅,” interactions like what we see in the post are pretty common.

“WORST area for an uber”

Meanwhile, one comment called Times Square the “worst” area to wait for an Uber, which got us thinking: Are there safer and less safe places for women to wait for their driver? Rideshare safety is a significant concern for women, and experts recommend waiting for your ride in a well-lit, populated area, much like Times Square, so maybe, as scary as that encounter seemed, she and her friends were in the best spot after all.

But what about after she got in the car? There isn’t much data on the safest place to wait for your driver, but sources say don’t give your driver too much personal information, just like Highofffadri did to the guy who asked for her number on the New York sidewalk.

As of May 2025, Uber has not yet released a safety report covering data for 2024. The most recent available report encomes incidents from 2021 and 2022. In that report, Uber documented nearly 4,000 reports of the five most severe categories of sexual assault during U.S. rides, including 141 reports of rape in 2020.

While specific data for 2024 is unavailable, Uber has introduced several safety features aimed at enhancing enger security, particularly for women. These features include encrypted audio recordings, PIN verification, and live location sharing, allowing engers to select up to four safety preferences during a ride.

But again, let’s take a moment to talk about men’s responsibility in situations like Highofffadri’s post. Other comments included, “No man shouldn’t be putting their hands on any woman for rejecting him,” “100 men vs. ability.” Finally, one guy spoke up and said, “As a guy, the way he handles rejection … is a red flag. Now if he acting like this in public imagine how he acts in private. Stay safe ladies.”