The company report, issued late on Thursday, showed sexual
assault reports on its platform had increased from around 1,100 in 2017 to some
1,800 in 2019. But it said bookings increased at a higher rate during that
time, resulting in a 19 percent drop in the overall incident rate.
Lyft said more than 99 percent of its journeys had occurred
without any safety incident.
"While safety incidents on our platform are incredibly
rare, we realise that even one is too many. Behind every report is a real
person and real experience, and our goal is to make each Lyft ride as safe as
we possibly can," Jennifer Brandenburger, head of policy development and
research, said in a company blog post.
The company said it has invested in safety features,
employed rigorous driver background checks and consulted sexual assault
experts.
Lyft had committed to releasing its report at the end of
2019, when its larger rival Uber Technologies provided the ride-hailing
industry's first detailed safety report.
Uber at the time disclosed it had received some 6,000
reports of sexual assault related to 2.3 billion trips in the United States in
2017 and 2018.
Lyft, which services significantly fewer trips than Uber,
did not disclose the total number of rides it completed in its Thursday safety
report, but at 0.0002 percent the incident rate was the same as Uber's.
Unlike Uber, Lyft did not disclose what share of incidents
resulted in drivers being harmed. Uber's report showed riders accounted for roughly
half of the accused in sexual assault reports. -Reuters