Uber and Lyft passengers in Colorado will have more protections starting Wednesday.
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at rmpbs.org.
Under a law signed by Gov. Jared Polis in June, rideshare companies operating in Colorado will be required to investigate drivers after receiving complaints from riders — including about sexual assault, harassment and stalking — within seven business days or face penalties.
House Bill 1424, the Colorado Rideshare Safety and Accountability Act. ensures “drivers who have committed serious offenses are quickly removed from the app to keep Coloradans safe,” Democratic state Rep. Meg Froelich, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a written statement.
Uber and Lyft, the largest rideshare companies in the U.S., say they have zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior and sexual advances and have processes in place to address them. But Lyft does not specify a timeframe for follow-up actions following complaints. And Uber has been the target of thousands of lawsuits alleging that the company failed to implement appropriate safety precautions — and riders suffered sexual assault or harassment as a result.
A New York Times investigation found that between 2017 and 2022, Uber received a report of sexual assault or sexual misconduct from more than 400,000 Uber trips. That number is likely undercounted as the vast majority of sexual assault cases go unreported.
House Bill 1424 requires a person, not an algorithm to review driver complaints.
“I think it strikes a really nice balance between honoring people’s privacy but also increasing safety, transparency and accountability,” said Democratic state Rep. Jenny Willford, another sponsor of the bill.
Willford was particularly invested and influential in getting the new law passed. At the start of the 2025 legislative session, she shared that a Lyft driver sexually assaulted her in February 2024. When dropping her off after a night out, the driver got into the back seat and sexually assaulted her, Willford said.
That driver turned out to be a different person than the driver listed on the Lyft app. Willford later sued both Lyft and the transportation company, Shanu Transportation LLC, whose account the driver accessed and impersonated.
“I decided that I had to say something because there were probably other people that were experiencing what I did, and having a position of being a state lawmaker means that when I speak up, when I bring something up on the floor, people have to listen,” Willford said.
“I shouldn’t have to use my position. I shouldn’t have to share my pain to force change. But it’s part of the reason that I am,” she said.
The new law aims to prevent drivers who use imposter, shared or rented accounts, like in Willford’s case, from being able to continue driving for rideshare apps.
One provision Willford was hoping to include in the bill, but ultimately couldn’t get the support for, would have made the rideshare companies automatically liable in litigation. Willford said she was comfortable dropping this provision due to recent legal decisions that ruled companies like Uber and Lyft were liable for what happened in rideshare vehicles.
“I felt that survivors were able to seek justice, so I let that piece go,” she said.
By January 2027, other parts of the new bill will go into effect, including a requirement that rideshare companies administer background checks of their drivers every six months. By June 2028, the state’s Public Utility Commission must also develop a set of rules and guidelines around what to do with audio, video and data collected inside rideshare vehicles. The commission must also make decisions about how to implement driver safety trainings.
Getting this bill passed was no easy feat. Legislators, including Willford, tried to pass a similar bill in the 2025 state legislative session, but Polis ultimately vetoed it. At the time, Uber threatened to stop operating in Colorado.
In recent years, alternative smaller-scale rideshare companies have popped up as a result of frustrations with Uber and Lyft, including over driver wages and benefits and safety concerns. Drivers Cooperative Colorado, an employee-owned and operated rideshare service, launched in 2024 and currently employs 1,500 drivers. The company guarantees 80% of the ride fare to the driver — more than Uber and Lyft — and requires that dashboard cameras, or dash cams, be used to record rides — something not currently mandated by Uber or Lyft.
Both Uber and Lyft have started offering rideshare matches on their platforms exclusively for women and nonbinary individuals — a response, in part, to safety complaints.
The new legislation targets rideshare companies of all sizes, Willford said, but there are a few additional provisions for larger companies that administer 20,000 rides a month, including that they pay for routine background checks for their drivers.
Despite Colorado’s efforts to rein in rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, the companies have been lobbying at the national level for greater immunity. Lobbyists for Uber and Lyft helped put forward an amendment to federal transportation spending bill BUILD America 250 Act that would shield them from liability in cases involving car crashes, assaults and sexual harassment. This law would pre-empt state level regulations.
“It’s deeply concerning,” Willford said.
As more states like Virginia, Ohio and Colorado have proposed or passed stricter regulations targeting rideshare companies, “they have shifted their focus from the state level to the federal level,” she said.
This June, Willford sent a letter to Republican speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson, calling for the removal of that amendment. She got more than 280 other women legislators to sign on to it. Currently, the proposed bill and amendment has passed committee and has been introduced to the U.S. House floor.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, with support from news outlets throughout the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.