How Safe Is Uber? It Depends on Gender

 It's shorthand for the potential danger women face when they use ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. And if you're already in denial about how dangerous it can be, you've obviously missed the flood of similar headlines from across the country.

• "Uber driver accused of statutory rape detained after dangerousness hearing" (Boston Globe, August 2016)

• "Police get tip Lyft driver accused of sexual assault and planning to flee country" (Dallas Morning News, November 2015)

• "Police: Uber driver returns to rape, rob passenger at her home" (FOX-TV New Orleans, January 2016)

• "Fake Uber driver arrested after brutally sexually assaulting passenger in Westlake: LAPD" (KTLA-TV Los Angeles, April 2016)

You read that right. According to that latest headline, we've now reached the point where bad guys are actually posing as Uber drivers to lure unsuspecting women into their cars.

"Given the alarming number of alleged sexual assaults involving ride-hail drivers, it's urgent that we bring this issue to the forefront of conversation," says Delilah Rumburg, CEO of the nonprofit National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

By then, the organization had teamed up with another nonprofit, the National Limousine Association (NLA), which—last year calling for a "Passenger List of Rights" as part of its "Ride Responsibly" initiative—was spearheading a nationwide movement. subject Uber drivers worldwide to the same rigorous criminal background checks as those behind the wheels of taxis and limousines.

For starters, the two enlisted Pamela Anderson — formerly of "Baywatch" fame — to make their case in a public announcement. "You can't always vet the driver you're using," he says in "The Driving Game!" video, "but the service you're using should."

Whether even Ms. Anderson will be enough to stiffen politicians' backs against formal opponents of the ride-hailing industry in general and Uber in particular remains to be seen. The main problem? We'll get the industry to finally start spending extra money to fingerprint their drivers instead of relying on what NLA President Gary Buffo scornfully calls the "dangerously comprehensive background checks" Uber and its ilk continue to resist.

How formidable is the ride-hailing industry?

Consider this: a few months after Uber and Lyft pulled out of the Austin, Texas, market last May rather than comply with new fingerprinting regulations voters had just approved, the problem has resurfaced in Massachusetts. Boston, you see, has seen a number of alleged sexual assaults by Uber drivers that have left women embarrassed. Still, lawmakers were unable to muster the votes needed to include the fingerprinting requirement in the statewide bill that eventually passed.

"It's really frustrating when you see these attacks happening again," Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, who favored fingerprinting, told the Boston Globe. "It's hurtful to the victim and hurtful to the community."

"When," he adds, "will it stop?"