RightRides for Women's Safety developed its flagship free, late-night, safe car rides program (called RightRides) in 2004 as a community-based response after founders Oraia Reid and Consuelo Ruybal learned of increasing sexual assaults on women walking home by themselves late at night in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, two North Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Initially, RightRides operated in just three neighborhoods-Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and the Lower East Side-but securing a vehicle sponsorship with Zipcar in 2006 enabled RightRides to expand the program significantly by enlisting community members to volunteer to operate the donated vehicles and implementing a dispatch system to coordinate the cars.