It’s a scary headline: “Uber Says 3,045 Sexual Assaults Were Reported in U.S. Rides Last Year.” But don’t let it leave you with the wrong impression. Yes, 3,000 might sound like a lot of assaults, and even one is too many. Yet in the grand scheme of things, ride-sharing apps such as Uber are incredibly safe.
These widespread media reports come after Uber released its 2017-2018 U.S. Safety Report on Friday. The report is 84 pages long, but media coverage has largely focused on a few eye-popping statistics — namely, that there were 3,045 reported sexual assaults and 235 reported rapes reported to Uber over a year.
But don’t fall for the fearmongering narrative about innovative services such as Uber, which in reality have improved the lives of millions of Americans.
Here are some other important facts found in the safety report.
That “3,000 assaults” figure needs to be put in the context of 4 million Uber rides per day and 1.3 billion rides every year. And per the report, “The vast majority (99.9%) of Uber trips end without any safety-related issue at all.” Only “0.0003% of trips had a report of a critical safety incident.”
Sounds like Uber is extremely safe, then. https://t.co/dVnQskVHpc
— Brad Polum-snot-nosed-lemming-bo (@brad_polumbo) December 6, 2019
Basically, this report just shows that Uber is incredibly safe. Readers should be sure not to read only the “3,000 assaults” headline and think otherwise. And they ought not to fall for Democratic state legislatures’ nanny-state campaign against Uber as blue states across the country are passing laws specifically intended to put the ride-sharing company out of business, often at the behest of the taxi lobby and labor unions.
This misguided regulatory campaign should be dismissed out of hand. As I’ve previously written, Uber is incredibly beneficial for society:
Of course, 3,000 sexual assaults are still 3,000 too many. Uber should, and plans to, take steps to increase passenger safety and combat sexual assault. But we can’t compare these figures to some abstract notion of a zero-crime utopia. We ought to compare Uber’s safety figures to those of traditional taxi cab services, and when we do, there’s no real sign that taxis are any safer. A comprehensive 2015 review by the Atlantic, for example, found “there’s little to suggest that the newest form of ridesharing is significantly riskier than the old one.” And Uber has only improved its safety practices since then.
So consumers should be wary of scary-sounding headlines about thousands of assaults in ride-sharing services. The actual facts reveal little cause for concern.
