Getting Pulled Over While Driving for Uber or Lyft

I had just picked up my passenger. We were having a good conversation. I leisurely took a left hand turn, and all of a sudden, I could see the red and blue lights lit up behind me. I was being pulled over for the first time while driving Rideshare, but what did I do wrong?

Here’s what drivers should do when they get pulled over by the police.

 

I Got Pulled Over With a Passenger in My Car!

This actually happened to me a couple of years into my rideshare driving experience, and it’s just like I said, it was a very leisurely left hand turn. I got pulled over and I was very curious as to what I did wrong and it turns out that I turned into a bike lane.

And not to give myself an excuse here, but this was a really confusing lane. The right lane before the bridge was a right lane of traffic. Then in the right lane it was a bike lane, and then the right lane past the bridge, it’s a right lane of traffic again.

Both the passenger and I were really confused when I was pulled over. The police officer walked up to the vehicle, told me what I did wrong, asked me for my license and registration, went back to his car. Normally I think I would have been embarrassed getting pulled over with a passenger in my car, but I knew what I did was a honest mistake. I wasn’t trying to break the law. The passenger understood too, we had a good conversation.

The traffic stop only lasted a few minutes. The officer came back, just gave me a warning, gave me my license and registration back and then the passenger and I were off. I apologized to her for delaying her, but she was awesome. She was completely understanding and was confused as to why I got pulled over in the first place too.

Never Pulled Over in 6 Years! Then it Happened Twice in a Day

Again, this was the first time I was pulled over in my Rideshare driving career. It was two years in, and something must’ve been in the air that day, because I was actually pulled over for the second time that day at the airport. So I’ve been driving Rideshare for six years. Those are the only two times that I’ve been pulled over while driving Rideshare.

The second time again was at the airport. It was as I was about to arrive to pick up the passenger. There was an officer outside of his vehicle, and he pointed to me to pull over. This is probably something this officer was doing all day to Rideshare drivers. The portion of the road that I got pulled over on was 15 miles an hour. If I were to guess, I was going probably about 25 miles an hour. When he came up to the vehicle, he was pretty pissed off. He asked me why I was going so fast. I was just honest with them. I said, “I didn’t know the speed limit was 15 miles an hour.”

He also just gave me a warning. So I was pulled over twice in one day, luckily no tickets. The passenger that I was about to pick up saw the whole thing. When he got into the vehicle, I apologized to him for delaying his pickup. He also was confused as to why I got pulled over, so he was understanding as well. Needless to say, I drove really carefully for the next week after that.

What You Should Do if You’re Pulled Over

The main thing that you want to do is just empathize with the passenger. Make it known to the passenger that you apologize for delaying them at all. They should be understanding, most passengers should be understanding, especially if you only make a minor traffic violation. But the main thing that you want to do, and this goes without saying, is just be careful when you’re driving Rideshare. Realize that you have, especially when someone’s in your vehicle, realize that you have another person in your vehicle.

You may drive differently when someone’s not in your vehicle and that’s totally fine, that’s totally up to you. But when someone’s in your vehicle, you want to take extra special care as to not do things that may make the passenger feel unsafe. And in the cases where you’re pulled over and you know that you probably were doing something wrong and you are going to get a ticket, again, just empathize with the passenger. Let them understand you. You apologize for delaying them.

There may be times where you’re going to get that ticket and it’s going to take 10, 15 minutes. The passenger may be upset with you. You can always tell the passenger, “I apologize for delaying you,” and you could end the ride early as kind of a good faith gesture. You could tell the passenger, “All right, as we approach to your location, I’ll probably end the ride maybe a mile or two miles, five minutes early to save you time as you shouldn’t have to pay for me getting pulled over.”

What about you guys? Have you ever been pulled over while driving Rideshare before? What did you do? How did you handle yourself? Leave a comment below and let us know. Thanks again for watching!