Washington, D.C. — Today, Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR) released the following statement after Uber released its first-ever safety report, which detailed 3,000 reports of sexual assaults on U.S. rides in 2018 alone. Chair DeFazio has been pressing Uber, as well as its ridesharing competitor Lyft, to cooperate with the Committee to answer critical safety, labor, and regulatory questions.
“I’m glad Uber finally agreed to release this information, as it is incredibly important to the Committee’s ongoing work to identify much-needed solutions to prevent and address sexual assault and harassment across all modes of transportation, including ridesharing companies,” Chair DeFazio said. “That said, merely releasing this information will not be enough. I will continue to push Uber and all other companies and agencies whose employees and customers are at risk of sexual assault and harassment to establish formal policies, training and reporting structures. As a country, we must ensure safety is a priority, and make it clear that sexual assault and harassment will not be tolerated anywhere, no matter where it occurs.”
Last month, Chair DeFazio introduced HR 5139, the “Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in Transportation Act," legislation to help track and prevent incidents from occurring in different modes of transportation, including passenger airlines, commuter and intercity passenger railroads, transit agencies, cruise ships, certain types of bus companies, and ridesharing companies. The bill passed through Committee in November and now awaits consideration by the full House.
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