California’s ride-hailing regulator has repeatedly promised to release safety data on Uber and Lyft — most recently voting last August to do so. It still hasn’t, leaving the public in the dark about the scope of driver assaults and whether the agency has done its job.
Author Archives: Seth Rosenfeld
Seth Rosenfeld is an independent journalist who for more than 30 years has specialized in using public records acts in defense of the public’s right to know. He has been a staff reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle and his freelance articles have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Harper’s Magazine. He has received the George Polk Award for health reporting and other national honors.
Posted inCalifornia, Economy & Business, Public Safety, Transportation
Uber Submitted False Information to Regulators, Used Substandard Limousines, Agency Rules
Uber must pay a $50,000 fine for submitting false information to state regulators about numerous substandard rides it provided on its Uber Black luxury limousine service, violating a fundamental rule that officials said caused “harm to the regulatory process.”
In the previously unreported final decision, the California Public Utilities Commission found that San Francisco-based Uber had lax review procedures and failed to detect obviously falsified limousine licenses presented to it by independent limousine companies that Uber had subcontracted to give rides on Uber Black.
Posted inCalifornia, Transportation, Utilities
Proposed Ruling on Substandard Uber Luxury Rides Would Threaten Public Safety, Appeal Says
Safety officials at the California Public Utilities Commission thought they had a powerful case against Uber for endangering the public.
In 2019 they discovered that Uber had allowed luxury limousine companies to provide hundreds of thousands of rides for Uber Black, its premium car service, even though these firms had given Uber blatantly false documents or employed drivers not fully insured or enrolled in mandatory drug testing and driving record reviews, the officials later alleged in a legal brief.
As their investigation continued, the safety officials learned that in almost two dozen cases, drivers for these unauthorized subcarriers had allegedly assaulted passengers or engaged in other misconduct, they said in the brief, some of which could have been prevented had Uber properly vetted the limousine firms.
Posted inNews, Public Safety, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
Local Planners Say State Failed to Track Safety Incidents on Uber and Lyft
The state agency responsible for ensuring Uber and Lyft rides are safe failed to consistently track the number of accidents, assaults and drunk driving complaints that occur on them, according to a new study by San Francisco traffic planners.
The California Public Utilities Commission did not even consistently collect the most basic industry information, such as ride requests and miles driven, the report from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority shows.
Posted inCalifornia, Economy & Business, Government & Politics, Labor, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
Uber, Lyft Must Adopt Measures to Prevent Sexual Assaults, California Regulator Rules
Nine years after becoming the first agency in the nation to legalize ride-hailing — and after thousands of publicized sexual assaults on Uber and Lyft rides — the California Public Utilities Commission for the first time is requiring the industry to adopt comprehensive measures to prevent such attacks.
In a previously unreported vote last month, the commission issued a decision requiring that all ride-hailing firms train drivers to avoid sexual assault and harassment, adopt procedures for investigating complaints and use uniform terminology in their annual reports to the agency so it can accurately monitor them.
Posted inCalifornia, Economy & Business, Government & Politics, Law & Justice, Open Government, Public Safety, Utilities
Court Says California Utilities Commission Must Obey State Public Records Act
In a broad victory for government transparency, an appeals court has ruled that the California Public Utilities Commission must comply with a state law requiring all agencies to promptly release information to the public.
In a unanimous decision issued Friday, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the commission’s lengthy and open-ended administrative procedures violate the strict timelines of the California Public Records Act.
The ruling could bring more accountability to the commission, which has faced criticism of excessive secrecy and ineffectiveness, advocates said. It regulates corporations ranging from utilities to ride-hailing services.
Posted inCalifornia, Economy & Business, Government & Politics, Law & Justice, Open Government, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Utilities
How California Utilities Commission Undermines the Public Records Act
Despite vows to become more transparent, the California Public Utilities Commission has systematically violated the public’s right to know about its handling of deadly disasters and corporate scandals, according to court records and First Amendment attorneys.
Applying century-old laws meant to fight corruption, the commission has effectively limited court enforcement of the state’s public records act. But a state appeals court on May 3 is hearing a lawsuit challenging that practice and could bring more transparency to the commission.
Posted inNews, Public Safety, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
Utilities Agency Admits More Problems in Tracking Ride-Hailing Assaults
The state agency responsible for ensuring that rides with Uber and Lyft are safe has acknowledged that it failed to consistently monitor passenger complaints about rapes and assaults for years. The California Public Utilities Commission confirmed in an unpublicized ruling that it had let the ride-hailing giants use varying definitions of sexual assault and harassment in their mandatory reports to the agency since at least 2017.
Posted inNews, Public Safety, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
Officials Demand Reform on Uber, Lyft Assault Reports
Two key elected officials have criticized the California Public Utilities Commission’s inconsistent collection of information on passenger complaints about assaults and threats on Uber and Lyft rides and called for reforms. A leading researcher on sexual assault added that the commission’s methodology was out of line with accepted practice and that it suggested a “lack of concern” about monitoring the incidents.
Posted inPublic Safety, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
California Failed to Consistently Track Ride-Hailing Assault and Harassment Complaints
The agency responsible for regulating the ride-hailing industry in California has failed to collect consistent data on complaints of assaults, threats and harassment on Uber and Lyft rides, a San Francisco Public Press investigation found.