Lyft reveals more than 4,000 sexual assault incidents in three years

by · Washington Examiner

Lyft users reported more than 4,000 sexual harassment incidents in three years, the company said in its first-ever safety report.

The ride-sharing app said in its highly anticipated inaugural safety report Thursday that there were 4,158 reports of sexual assault on the app from Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2019, including 360 reports of rape.

"Safety is fundamental to Lyft. That means creating features and policies to give riders and drivers peace of mind and being clear about what happens on our platform," said John Zimmer, co-founder and president of Lyft, in the report. "Our report is just that: a look at where our company has been and where we're heading, in order to help everyone have a safe ride from beginning to end."

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The report, arriving almost two years after competitor Uber released its safety report in 2019, breaks the sexual assault reports into five broad categories: nonconsensual sexual penetration, attempted nonconsensual sexual penetration, nonconsensual kissing of a sexual body part, nonconsensual touching of a sexual body part, and nonconsensual kissing of a nonsexual body part.

The company said it "recognize[d] that sexual assault is chronically underreported, and it can sometimes be months or years before a survivor is ready to come forward and report what happened — if they choose to do so at all."

"Knowing this, Lyft included any incident reported in 2017, 2018, and 2019, regardless of when the incident was reported to have occurred," the report said.

Lyft said it collected 598 reports for 2017, 661 for 2018, and 1,041 for 2019. While this could be interpreted as a steady increase in assault reports, Lyft contextualized this data in relation to the app's market growth between 2017 and 2019.

"The number of trips increased dramatically over this time period, so the absolute numbers increased, but the rate went down," a Lyft spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. "Reported sexual assaults occurred in 0.0002% of rides."

Uber and Lyft have previously come under scrutiny for their handling of sexual misconduct allegations in the past.

"If marketing your company as providing safe rides for young, intoxicated women is going to be part of your business model, then it is especially crucial that you ensure that these rides are in fact safe," wrote Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal in a September 2019 letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. "Otherwise, these advertisements serve as a signal to sexual predators that driving for Uber is an effective way to prey on vulnerable young women."

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In its inaugural safety report, Uber disclosed that 3,000 sexual assaults had been reported on its app in 2018.

As of July 2021, Uber and Lyft face more than 1,000 lawsuits claiming drivers harassed or sexually assaulted passengers.