A settlement announcement buries the lede, that public ownership exposed Lyft and Uber for being far less safe than Taxis.

Shareholders claimed that Lyft’s reputation suffered from the company’s inadequate training and background checks for drivers, including those with histories of sexual misconduct. They also said Lyft concealed the shortfalls before its March 2019 initial public offering…

Lyft has said the lawsuit was the last shareholder case arising from the IPO. Through Tuesday, Lyft’s share price had fallen 83% since the offering. Lyft shares were down 4% on Wednesday.

Many ride-share passengers have also accused Uber drivers of sexual assault. More than 300 lawsuits against Uber alleging such conduct have been combined into a federal class action pending in San Francisco. The number of plaintiffs could reach the thousands.

Imagine if the press had accurately portrayed Lyft and Uber as unsafe from their beginning, which wasn’t hard to figure out.

I used to live a block from Lyft HQ and wander into their offices to admire the giant “about us” mural they painted.

Basically Lyft was self-admittedly started by two young white guys who stole the name and concept of safety from a vacation they took to Southern Africa (admiring an Apartheid-derived parental Ride-Share “lift” for white children to avoid Black ones). The failed huge furry pink moustache should have been a tell. So how did anyone ever really think their move-fast ignore-history VC-run implementation would end well?