SPOKANE, Wash. — Black-and-white posters claiming to show that Uber and Lyft are “not safe” have been appearing, and then disappearing, in areas around downtown Spokane.
One taxi driver said he and other drivers have been putting up the signs to show that Uber and Lyft rides are not safe. He said Uber and Lyft drivers have been taking the signs down.
On one side of the signs, bold white texts says, “Uber Lyft are not safe.” The right side of the signs claims that 52 deaths, 102 assaults, 395 sexual assaults, 22 kidnappings and 26 felonies are associated with Uber and Lyft incidents.
The bottom of the posters cite the website whosdrivingyou.org.
The website features a lengthy list of links to news articles about incidents both from around the country and internationally that reportedly involve Uber and Lyft drivers. However, some of the links to these articles are broken, meaning they redirect to 404 or “Page not found” screens.
KREM 2 reached out to Uber and Lyft for any reports on incident data, and representatives from both companies said they don’t have any information on incidents that they release to the public. Therefore, KREM cannot prove or disprove the above numbers.
An Uber representative said the ride-sharing company will begin tracking and releasing incident data to the public by the end of 2019.
According to the Downtown Spokane Business Improvement District manager, Elisabeth Hooker, the signs are violating city code. The improvement district's "Clean Team" is working on removing the signs as well as contacting the organization and letting them know that the signs are not allowed due to the city code.