While I am not overly stressed or worried about the coronavirus due to the facts, the thought of using public transportation right now does not interest me one bit. Thankfully, I don’t live in a city like New York or San Francisco were I would be reliant on public transportation to get me where I need to go. 

While there is a light rail here in Downtown Houston, I just stick to walking most places or driving outside of the city if I need to.

But there is another form of public transportation that has emerged in the past few years and it is rideshare services.

I don’t think a lot of people have thought about how rideshare services could be impacted by a pandemic, but now services like Uber and Lyft are faced with dealing with potential coronavirus transmissions by either their drivers or their passengers (or both).

Reportedly, Uber and Lyft are both working to curtail any transmissions by suspending the accounts of drivers or users who have been known to been infected.

If a driver is forced to self quarantine and thus unable to drive for Uber or Lyft they will reportedly still receive some financial assistance for up to 14 days until they are medically cleared to return to their job.

That’s pretty cool and a departure from the ways of the past for Uber.

I’m not exactly sure how Uber and Lyft will get the information that their drivers or users have been infected, but here’s what they say:

We [Uber] have a team available 24/7 to support public health authorities in their response to the epidemic. Working with them, we may temporarily suspend the accounts of riders or drivers confirmed to have contracted or been exposed to COVID-19. We’re also consulting with an epidemiologist to make sure our efforts as a company are grounded in medical advice.

So it is at least encouraging to see that efforts are being made to cut down on the transmission of the disease.

Uber is also reportedly working to provide drivers with disinfectants although I wonder what the percentage of drivers that will be receiving those given how vast their driving network is. Lyft partnered with EO Products, makers of Everyone, to distribute more than 200,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and other cleaning supplies to drivers (for free).

While there are efforts to sanitize vehicles, I would rely on my own supply of hand sanitizer if possible and consider riding with the windows down just in case virus particles are circulating in the car from a prior rider. (Full disclosure: no idea if that works).

Something else that is encouraging to see is an emphasis on not discriminating against people. People can be so stupid when it comes to prejudice in times like this and so it’s good to see reminders from companies like Uber and Lyft that state that discrimination will not be tolerated.

As for food deliveries, Uber is encouraging users to leave a note for UberEats deliveries if they don’t want to come face-to-face with a delivery person. 

 If you prefer, you can leave a note in the Uber Eats app to ask your delivery person to leave your food at the door.

Personally, if they are already touching my food packaging then I’m not really worried about them delivering it to my door. (I guess this would be more useful if you were the one harboring the disease.)

Final word

In my opinion, Uber does not have a very good reputation even though they have attempted to turn things around over the past couple of years. But it does seem like they have started to get their act together a little bit and with acts like this I’m starting to feel a little bit better about the company.

Personally, I would not be afraid to drive or use a rideshare vehicle right now unless I lived in the heart of a place like Seattle but I would also take extra measures to sanitize my hands and avoid touching my face after a ride right now.