One sponsor of the invoice referred to as Uber’s risk a “cynical and disheartening transfer by a multi-billion greenback firm.”
Uber has threatened to stop operations in Colorado if a newly handed rideshare security invoice turns into regulation. House Bill 25-1291 was lately accepted by the Colorado Basic Meeting and now awaits Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’s consideration.
The invoice aims to enhance security and accountability within the rideshare business by introducing stricter driver reporting necessities and compliance checks on restricted practices, resembling providing meals and water to passengers. To safe its passage, lawmakers removed a number of the invoice’s extra contentious provisions — together with a mandate for audio and video recording of all rides — and narrowed the circumstances underneath which passengers can sue rideshare firms, shifting many disputes to arbitration. Regardless of these concessions, Uber has continued to threaten a statewide exit.
Democratic State Rep. Jenny Willford, a lead sponsor of the invoice, has emphasized the necessity for firms like Uber and Lyft to take extra duty for rider security. In January, Willford herself filed a lawsuit towards Lyft, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a driver working underneath a fraudulent account in 2024.
Willford said that lawmakers have “labored with Uber in good religion for months and accepted a lot of their modification requests — together with a full rewrite of the invoice.” She referred to as Uber’s risk to go away Colorado a “cynical and disheartening transfer by a multi-billion greenback firm to show their again on survivors somewhat than implement actual security measures.”
In Uber’s newest U.S. Safety Report, the corporate documented 2,717 reported incidents of sexual assault in 2021 and 2022. Whereas the frequency of total incidents has decreased, the speed of reported rapes has remained largely unchanged since 2017.
“The underside line is one sexual assault is one too many,” Willford said. “For years, Uber has checked the field on security, however time after time did not ship for victims. It’s clear Uber received’t rise up for security, to allow them to proceed to maximise earnings somewhat than deal with the horrible incidents that change the lives of riders and drivers eternally.”
Uber has a historical past of threatening to go away cities over regulatory disputes however not following by means of. For instance, the corporate has beforehand resisted unionization and fingerprint background checks in Seattle and Chicago however finally continued operations. In 2024, Uber and Lyft announced plans to go away Minnesota over a driver pay ordinance in Minneapolis. Related eventualities have unfolded in New Jersey and California, the place exit threats led to coverage concessions however have been finally not acted upon.
“I do know once we move this invoice, and the governor indicators it into regulation, that we are going to be actively taking a step ahead to forestall this sort of sexual assault from occurring sooner or later to make rideshare extra protected for all of us,” said Colorado State Sen. Jessie Danielson.
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