Uber and Lyft in Austin

                                                                                     (Sriram, Danely, Alvin, Xeon)


In 2016, Austin voted 56% to 44% against Proposition 1, which allowed ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft avoid requiring fingerprint background checks for their drivers and other regulations regarding drop-offs and pick-ups in traffic. Uber and Lyft had spent around $8 million lobbying voters for their support in the vote, so the loss was a big blow. Voters against Proposition 1 believed that it was the company’s responsibility to keep their customers safe.
The majority of Austin resident voters decided that they valued their own safety over lower ride fares. Uber and Lyft both warned that they would leave if Proposition 1 wasn’t passed, and that the city would have much more drunk driving fatalities, arrests, and the city’s tech industry would falter. However, the reality of the situation was far from that. DWI arrests even reach their lowest in the last five years months after the companies left Austin, and the tech industry continued to grow at a steady rate. In this scenario, Uber and Lyft are the ones who lost, because the vacuum created by their departure from Austin was filled by other companies, mainly RideAustin and Fasten.
Uber and Lyft both failed to meet the public safety regulations of the city under shaky grounds. They claim that their reasoning is to avoid racial bias against potential African American drivers. Although it is true that fingerprinting disadvantages potential black drivers, Uber has complied to fingerprinting in Houston, and both Uber and Lyft comply in New York City. Some take this to be that the both companies only follow when the profit loss of moving out of a city is too great, yet they refuse to follow the same hiring standard that “provides the public with added protection when it comes to hiring bus drivers, teachers, security guards, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, nurses, government employees and many other prospective employees in sensitive occupations that involve interacting with the public”.
Saturday, On. “Uber and Lyft's Austin Battle over Fingerprinting Goes to the Voters.”  CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/2016/05/07/technology/uber-lyft- fingerprints-austin/?iid=EL
Solomon, Dan. “One Year After Fleeing Austin, Uber and Lyft Prepare a Fresh Invasion.”  Wired, Conde Nast, 3 June 2017, www.wired.com/2017/05/one-year-fleeing-austin-uber- lyft-prepare-fresh-invasion/
“Uber and Lyft's Arguments against Fingerprinting Make Little Sense.” The Washington Post,  WP Company, 2 Jan. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/uber-and-lyfts-arguments- against-fingerprinting-make-little-sense/2017/01/02/a0926aae-ce1b-11e6-b8a2- 8c2a61b0436f_story.html?utm_term=.7c3792da3bf5.


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