DENVER, Colo. — Guide dog Rogue has only been in Dishon Spears’ life since July, but they’ve become fast friends.
“She’s learning me, I’m learning her,” said Spears.
While getting around is a lot easier with Rogue at his side, Spears said hopping in an Uber or Lyft with her hasn’t been as easy.
"I was denied three times for [having] a guide dog, just coming to work and going to a friend's house and just, you know, doing the things that I want to do as a blind person," he said.
Spears has heard similar accounts from the older adults he works with at the Colorado Center for the Blind.
Ride denials like these are one of the issues that the Colorado Public Utilities Commission hopes to get more feedback on as it develops a series of new rules to improve rideshare safety for both drivers and riders.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is the primary regulator in the state for companies like Uber and Lyft. According to the PUC, Colorado was the first state in the country to establish localized regulations for rideshares in 2014.
"An overall review of the Public Utilities Commission that was recently conducted, called the sunset review, took a look at a series of recommendations on what more we could do if there were statutory changes, so that would give us (the) ability to put in some additional measures," said PUC Director Rebecca White.
The 2025 sunset review yielded several recommendations, including a crackdown on "imposter drivers," where the driver of a rideshare vehicle is not the same person listed on the rider’s app.
"That is very much a behavior we don't want to see out there, and that is a lot of the focus for the rulemaking we have out now," White said.
Then there’s the legislative side of the issue — State Rep. Meg Froelich (D-3) is working to introduce new rideshare legislation this session after last year’s rideshare safety bill was vetoed by Gov. Jared Polis.
House Bill 25-1291 was introduced to the legislature after State Rep. Jenny Willford (D-34) came forward and shared her personal connection to the issue.
Willford was sexually assaulted by a man pretending to be a Lyft driver in February 2024, according to a lawsuit filed against Lyft.
The proposed legislation had a number of requirements, including regular background checks and banning drivers from distributing food or drink to their passengers.
The bill required audio and video recordings of trips initially, but eventually outlined an option for passengers and drivers who consent to recording the ride.
The governor said HB 1291 would impose "unworkable regulations" on companies like Uber and Lyft, shortly after Uber threatened to leave Colorado over the proposed law.
"We were hugely disappointed," Froelich said about the veto.
Following the veto, Polis directed state lawmakers to explore policy changes during the next session.
"The good news is, as we ask for some of these things, we can say, ‘Well, they're already doing this in this city or this country or this state, or these procedures are clearly implementable because they're already being done in other places,’" Froelich said. "So we've got that going for us."
The PUC is seeking public input as it develops new rideshare safety rules.
For riders like Spears, these changes represent something fundamental.
"This is freedom for us, and just remember that we all need freedom, and that's what America is about — is freedom for us," Spears said.
The Public Utilities Commission has a public comment section and survey available online for those who want to provide input on the proposed rideshare safety regulations.
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