After Uber sex assault report, should ride-hailing be delayed?

Uber just released some shocking statistics on sexual assaults in their vehicles, but the ride-hailing giant said the numbers have to be seen in a larger context. The report detailed thousands of sexual assaults, including 235 rapes, in connection with Uber vehicles in the U.S. last year.

As disturbing as that is, Uber is urging passengers to remember the company completes more than three million trips every day south of the border. Compare that with sexual assaults on the New York transit system, Uber argues, pointing to 1,125 sexual assault complaints.

Sexual violence awareness and prevention advocates aren’t buying it.

“It’s not acceptable to say, ‘Oh, the buses are just as bad, so we don’t have to do anything,’” Stacey Forrester, local organizer of the Good Night Out sexual assault prevention group, told me Monday.

She was also not impressed with Uber’s explanation that just 0.00002 per cent of its passenger trips ended with a rape.

“What’s the acceptable number then?” Forrester asked. “How many sexual assaults and rapes are an acceptable amount? It’s already way too many. People should be able to move around their city free from the threat of violence.”

I certainly agree with her, but what to do about it?

The Good Night Out group does fantastic work keeping women safe in Vancouver’s downtown entertainment district, where late-night “street teams” help women who are often intoxicated.

One of the group’s primary goals is to get women home safely after a night of partying.

That’s why Good Night Out has been calling for ride-hailing services after so many women were denied taxi rides to the suburbs.

But, after the new Uber report, the group is now asking for another delay in introducing ride-hailing, while calling for mandatory sexual assault prevention training for drivers.

“There’s a real opportunity for the city to emerge as a leader here,” Forrester said, pointing out Vancouver has a gender-equity mandate that includes a goal to make the city safer for women to move around. “If we want to see that goal happen, this is a prime opportunity.”

I think she makes a great point, and it’s another example of the government’s continuing ride-hailing failures that this training wasn’t made mandatory from the start. In the U.S., the Lyft ride-hailing app just partnered with RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), the country’s largest anti-sexual-violence organization, to roll out mandatory driver training there.

There’s no reason Uber and other ride-hailing apps couldn’t do the same here. And taxi drivers should be included, too.

Forrester told me her group has heard complaints of sexual assault and harassment in taxis, but stats are scarce.

“We can’t get any data out of the taxi companies or any accountability,” she said. “We’ve been trying to work with taxis in Vancouver for a long time. We haven’t made any headway.”

At least Uber has been upfront in publicly disclosing the company’s sexual assault data.

All other ride-hailing apps — and the taxi companies — should do the same.