Ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, offer women considerable convenience and flexibility, however, the end-to-end nature of their services comes with an element of risk, including a raft of sexual assaults allegedly committed by drivers using the services.
To highlight the issue, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center has teamed up with the National Limousine Association (NLA) to demand that drivers for Uber and Lyft be subjected to the same kind of rigorous criminal background checks that exist for taxi and limousine drivers.
The NLA created the “Passenger Bill of Rights” last year as part of its “Ride Responsibly” initiative, to combat threats posed to passengers traveling by ride-hailing services.
However, the industry is expected to resist moves to force them to subject their drivers to fingerprinting, despite rises in assaults on passengers by drivers.
In cities such as Boston, victims of such assaults are increasingly pushing for fingerprinting to be included in any legislation passed requiring background checks.