It would be far better if our culture could educate itself into safety solutions rather than legislating them.

@Zaku I’m not sure what education into safety solutions would mean in the ride sharing situation. I think the law is a good idea – or something similar.

@janbb Our culture is used to responding to bad things that happen by trying to control them with overly-broad reactionary laws that have other unintended consequences. And we don’t use much wisdom or intelligence in coming up with the best solutions. We’re conditioned to want one immediate reactionary “fix”, but in practice that tends to have unfortunate consequences.

It seems to me that it would be better if we had wise intelligent people who could and would calmly and carefully consider various aspects of the situation, and come up with very well-considered solutions which are overall good.

@Zaku I don’t disagree with you there. It has been stated that laws that are named for a single person are often bad laws and I get that. Just not sure what solutions there are to ride share safety but I take your point that it’s worth pondering more.

The dead woman needed to look at her phone before she got in the car.

Uber and Lyft both give the model, color and license plate number of the car. And in Lyft’s case, a photo of the driver.

I’m not necessarily blaming the victim, but this death could have been avoided if she had been a little more aware of what she was doing.

@elbanditoroso Interesting. I’ve only used Lyft a few times and remember seeing the make and model of the car and name of the driver; I don’t recall a license plate number of picture. But I may have just not been noticing. They also have your first name so making sure they use it would be another guide.

Someone at work told me the driver should know your name, since it’s on the app.

I said she very possibly was drinking, too, since she just came out of a bar. Who knows what condition she was in.

Regardless of whatever the issues are or are not with Uber and Lyft, it makes me never want to take them and to caution my daughter against taking them. I feel like you’re better off with a regular taxi.

They have a big “U” on Uber windshields and Lyft has the word “Lyft”.in most regions.

@elbanditoroso Gives a good example of a solution that already exists, and could be improved upon and taught to our population, rather than making a law about car labeling which would have other effects and not really prevent crafty murderers, nor drunk victims.

Another customary precaution could involve a computer-generated password per appointment that the app gives the rider for the driver to say,

e,g, “Your driver will say PETUNIA.”

or “Your driver will show you your user picture on his phone.”

Or any number of other voluntary solutions.

I see cars with illuminated Lyft signs. Though it would be easy enough for a miscreant to buy one.

A woman with a few drinks in her gets in the wrong car. She has the great misfortune to stumble across EXACTLY the right car to in effect win the oppposite of the lottery. I think it’s a waste of time speculating over whether a sign might have spared her a gruesome fate. Require the signs and be done with it.

@stanleybmanly I gave you a lurve before reading your last sentence, because I couldn’t imagine that as the conclusion to your setup. How about we don’t require the signs and be done with it.

I thought the cars tended to have giant moustaches, anyway.

Seems reasonable

The moustaches began vanishing years ago, and the artifacts are now prized collectibles. You require the signs for the same reason they’re mandatory for taxis.

@stanleybmanly but signs can be forged or faked.

Make all the work-arounds you want, but the fact is that a positive way of identifying the driver does already exist, and the girl either didn’t know what or simply ignored it.

<sarcasm>
Person who picks up strangers in his car and murders them: “Hmm, oh no, now there is a law requiring signs on ridesharing cars. However will I murder drunk people now?”

Good thing Captain Gratuitous Laws solved that problem!
</sarcasm>

@elbanditoroso It’s not like hailing a Cab, you basically set-up a contract for ONE person to pick-up ONE party at ONE place with a HANDSHAKE. The handshake is the driver’s car and color and the driver has to know the party’s name .

Her problem was maybe; too many drinks and being in a hurry. I don’t think his car even had a bogus or real Uber sign in the windshield. She just got in a random car !

@elbanditoroso Of course signs can be faked. That goes without saying. But the facts in THIS case are about a woman climbing into a car with no sign. The perp need exert no effort beyond stopping the car, and odds are the man had no idea that he would “get lucky”.

I thank everyone for their ideas!!! I agree with most & at the same time disagree with most. I don’t think that legislating more laws is the answer to the problem; while at the same time, I do agree that these vehicles should have visible markings. We teach our young children to NEVER approach a strange vehicle because a bad guy might grab them & hurt them. Then we expect our older children to walk up to a vehicle to see if the driver knows their name or has the correct password. The video from a street cam showed that she wasn’t fall down drunk & I wasn’t there to know IF she was buzzed enough to have bad judgment. I don’t like the idea of placing the blame on the deceased because there is so much that has been reported that was pure speculation on the authorities part. There are cases where perps have been able to obtain everything they need to set themselves up as an undercover police officer, so I’m not fully convinced that lit signs held on by magnets is the solution either. Rather than legislate new laws, I feel that the companies paying the drivers should be the ones to come up with a SAFE plan. I have also seen many reports of Uber/Lyft drivers who have murdered their fare. I understand the parent company cannot protect us from every possible scenario; however, the parent companies go strangely quiet every time something goes wrong & I feel they should be held somewhat responsible since they don’t mind accepting their portion of the income. In this case I can’t even blame the parent company as this was out of their control. Still, IF they had safeguards in place, it would have been more difficult for this young lady to be confused about which vehicle was her ride.

I have a niece near the same age as the victim who goes to college about 2 hours away from where this happened, so it is really bothering me & I think something needs to be done!!! I don’t have a real answer & was looking to brainstorm a better idea. I’m looking toward sending my ideas to the main architects of the bill to require lit signs. I doubt that they will listen; but they surely won’t IF I don’t send it!!! Thanks again for ALL your thoughts!!!

~ ~ Get her out of school ! ! ! ! J.K.

THEY HAVE SIGNS !

Perps don’t have signs, he didn’t a sign!!

Willie, from what I’ve read, some have signs & some don’t. To my knowledge, I’ve never seen one or maybe I’ve just never seen one with a sign. IF it were left up to me, my niece’s butt would be back home safe. Her parents don’t agree with me, so I have to live with whatever they choose!!!

I live in a really small town & we don’t have a taxi company available. That could also mean that we don’t have any rideshare drivers also; but, I doubt it. Wouldn’t life be a lot simpler IF all bad guys had a sign on their head flashing their intended crime???

The more I think about it, the more I think that a law requiring signs on rideshare cars is not going to reduce the murder rate due to the sorts of people who would murder unknown drunk women using their cars.

Uber and Lyft have documented all transactions on their respective websites (locations and payments) !! The driver is known, the passenger is known and the driver’s GPS smartphone tells where the vehicle is located.