About this episode

The episode discusses rideshare safety legislation in Colorado, inspired by a lawmaker's personal experience with sexual assault during a Lyft ride.

A state lawmaker shared her harrowing account of an alleged sexual assault during a Lyft ride. Her personal experience inspired legislation in 2025 to further regulate ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber in the state. Other survivors came to the State Capitol to share their stories and support the legislation. That bill did not become law after the governor’s veto. But lawmakers tried again the following year, and parts of the pared-down version take effect this month. Uber has publicly said the vast majority, 99.9%, of its rides happen without incident. But when taking scale into account, and how many rides occur each day, that fraction of a percent can add up. Emily Steel , an investigative reporter for the business desk of The New York Times, has covered this issue extensively. Her reporting into Uber revealed that, between 2017 and 2022, the ride-hailing company received a report of sexual assault or misconduct nearly every eight minutes on average. She joins CPR’s Bente Birkeland to share her reporting, including a recent investigation about how Uber’s legal team is approaching the mounting number of civil suits against the large company. Dig deeper into the scope of…

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