Spartan Scroll

by Angela Shum

photo courtesy of netralnews.com

While Uber and Lyft are two popular modes of transportation, they are not completely safe and should be considered with care.

For example, in an article called, “Women Harassed by Uber Driver and Lyft Drivers Want Answers – Not a $5 Credit,” it states that Rachael Maier was being harassed by her own Uber driver. When Maier left the showing 30 minutes, her driver had not left and continued to offer her a free ride. When she tried to walk away, he began to follow her down the street. This is unacceptable, and Maier states in the article that, “I think they try to minimize things like this to keep you coming back… they clearly did not feel this had the same level of urgency or danger that I thought it did.” This shows that the service that Uber and Lyft offer are not able to support and answer the concerns that passengers may have when using their application and lead to greater dangers such as these. Due to instances like these, the trust between the driver and consumer is lost.

The consumers for these transportation services are also exposed to other crimes, ultimately murder. According to an article, “Samantha Josephson murder; Safety Tips for Uber and Lyft Riders,” it states that a 21-year-old student was murdered for apparently mistaking the suspected killer’s car for her Uber ride. Using applications like Uber and Lyft increase the chance for consumers to mistake their drivers for frauds. Uber mentions that they show the model of the car so that consumers can expect which one to come, but there are numerous drivers who could have the same model car.

Moreover, Uber and Lyft companies do not take responsibility when there are incidents concerning the employees they hired. In an article called “Uber Can Be Risky; 5 Reasons Why,” it states that, a kidnapped passenger, by her Uber driver, was taken 20 miles out of her way to an abandoned lot. Later that year, Roberto Chicas was attacked for telling his driver that he’s taken a wrong turn. Two years latr, Uber driver Jason Dalton went on a killing spree in Kalamazoo, using the app to get victims. Uber took accountability for none of these incidents. Companies do not want to damage their reputation, so they shift the blame to others so they would not lose money. These companies do not want to take action to prevent these types of incidents since they do not actually care about the well being of the consumers involved.

In addition, their hiring process is too lenient and has caused more consequences. According to the Uber driver requirements, it proclaims that anyone is able to, “Sign up in minutes.” As a result, it is effortless to sign up and work and the people who are driving are not associated with the company at all, which means that the company has not hired them personally.

Overall, transportation methods such as Lyft and Uber are not safe and can lead to consequences such as harassment, companies deny all liability for all incidents, and at worst, death.