VCW – SafeRides, a free taxi service available to Georgetown students, has been cancelled for this weekend because of a recent spate of crimes around Georgetown, according to an email sent Tuesday night to students.

The email explained, “due to inclement conditions in the West Georgetown neighborhood–including a recent rise in muggings and assaults–SafeRides service will be suspended indefinitely.”

“As always, the safety of our drivers is our paramount priority,” Georgetown police chief Jay Gruber wrote.

According to GUPD, students are advised to consider simple precautions, including downloading the department’s LiveSafe App onto their phone before it is inevitably stolen, walking in well-lit areas so that they can better identify assailants in a line-up, and puffing their chests and spreading their arms in order to appear larger to their eventual attackers.

According to Thomas O’Regan, Adjunct Associate Vice President for Expensive Litigation Reduction, students can expect SafeRides service to resume as soon as MPD increases its presence around the university. Until then, students may obtain individual walking escorts by calling GUPD and reporting the smell of marijuana at their location.

To the relief of many students, Uber car services remain an option. Uber Drivers are, on average, less afraid than their SafeRides counterparts, with considerably more of them having “seen some shit” at some point in their lives.