Despite concerns, Uber is safe to use
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that four Uber drivers cited at Los Angeles International Airport had serious criminal records. The incident is the latest among a number of other allegations that Uber is unsafe, that its drivers have attacked passengers and that its background check process is not rigorous enough. But at USC, Uber is just as safe as Campus Cruiser and traditional taxi services.
Many students can use Campus Cruiser as an effective alternative to Uber for close distances. Many students, however, prefer Uber over Campus Cruiser because Uber generally picks up students within four to five minutes while Campus Cruiser takes around 10 minutes. Uber’s faster response time lessens the potential danger a student faces when waiting alone at night around the USC neighborhood.
However, as a student-run organization, Campus Cruiser only employs student drivers, who the University is already comfortable with. Uber, meanwhile, hires a range of people aged 21 and older — which is more likely to include people with criminal records.
Uber’s track record does look concerning. The district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles filed a civil suit in December claiming that Uber misled consumers about the effectiveness of its backgrounds checks. The lawsuit stated that a number of Uber drivers with criminal records were discovered after they were ticketed at LAX. In one instance, a driver who had been convicted on felony charges for lewd acts with children had given over 5,600 rides as a driver. Another driver has been convicted of burglary and identity theft. Back on the home front, a USC student has claimed that she was raped by her driver in April after using Uber to leave a Downtown party. These drivers had all passed Uber’s background check in order to drive under the service.
But while these incidents create concern about whether Uber is safe or not, the evidence isn’t substantial enough to prove that Uber is less safe than traditional transportation services such as taxis. This is because many police departments don’t track assaults by where they happen — whether in a taxi, an Uber or on the street.
“As far as tracking the offenses in taxi cabs specifically, I don’t have a way to look this up,” said Grace Gatpandan, a public information officer with the San Francisco Police Department.
“We don’t keep specific data with relation to passengers being assaulted,” said Lee Jones, a spokesman for the New York Police Department.
So though recent news raises doubts about the safety of Uber, there is no definitive evidence about whether Uber is any more or any less safe than taxi services.
No background check is foolproof, and while one background check may do some things right, it may miss vital information caught by another background check. Joe Sullivan, chief security officer for Uber, backed this up in 2014, when he wrote that at least 600 people licensed to drive taxis in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego failed Uber’s background check. The group, according to Sullivan, included 19 sex offenders and 36 people convicted of DUI.
Some of the security risks with Uber may be artificially overstated due to the influence of the taxi industry. Uber is currently valued at up to $50 billion — no small feat for a company founded just six years ago. Such growth threatens the traditional taxi industry. In Washington, D.C., taxi rides dropped by 9 percent from 2013 to 2014. One study showed that taxi use in San Francisco, the home of Uber’s headquarters, suffered a 65 percent decline from 2012 to 2014. Part of the taxi industry’s response to this threat has been to lobby intensely against Uber. According to an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation, for every $1 that ridesharing apps Uber, Lyft and Sidecar have given to state legislators, the taxi industry has donated at least $3,500. It would not be a stretch to believe that the fierce competition between the two organizations has tainted Uber’s reputation in some way.
The allegations surrounding Uber are worrisome. However, at USC, it is probably safer to take an Uber or Campus Cruiser than to walk alone on the streets around the USC neighborhood. And there is no substantial evidence suggesting that Uber is more dangerous than other transportation services such as taxis or Campus Cruiser. No service is perfect, and every service — whether it be getting a ride, swimming in the ocean or taking a plane flight — involves some sort of everyday risk.