How Austin replaced Uber and Lyft almost seemlessly overnight, a lesson for other cities

sjoes006
How Austin replaced Uber and Lyft almost seemlessly overnight, a lesson for other cities

Uber and Lyft had shoot outs with other Texas cities before bringing down the hammer on Austin. They agreed to abide by Houston ordinance that was the exact same as the ordinance Austin passed. San Antonio caved to their demands.

But for some reason Uber/ Lyft chose to have a shot out with Austin instead of Houston. Houston being a larger market but less in terms of revenue for them compared to tourist heavy Austin.

Austin is known as Silicon Hills, second in tech only to Silicon Valley. And like it or not it isn't like the rest of Texas in many ways but never challenge a Texan to a showdown.

Peoole voted against the rideshares because they didn't give us any reason why this was a breaking point. The head of lobbying for Lyft told me at SXSW vote this way or we leave. That's not a reason, especially to an over educated populace motivated by "why" and expecting a reasonable answer. It felt like we were being bullied.

Austinites doing like being being bullied by powers bigger than them self as we regularly are by the State.

So May 9th 2016 leave they did voluntarily. 10,000 drivers were immediately put out of work without notice and the city quickly developed emergency response efforts to help them with immediate bills to a point and job placement.

As for riders it was chaos for a week but more than 5 platforms had stepped in before the big boys left to replace them. Drivers signed up with multiple platforms and after a month it was like they never left.

Riders and drivers decide the platform and the technology isn't unique.

Now over a year after their leaving it feels like it's just as easy to get a ride anytime of night of day. My drivers are paid better because Fasten only take a flat $1.00-$1.50 per ride as opposed to 28% taken by Uber who doesn't have anyway to justify that on top of the ride fee as they're expense doesn't change be it a mile or 100 miles but to the drivers responsible for maintenance it does.

No shocker, the day after Uber and Lyft left Austin state congressman started working on legislation to overrule city ordinance. We all knew it would pass. Maybe that's why Austin was picked, not because the companies didn't predict we'd replace them in the blink of an eye but because they knew the state would be happy to overrule Austin where they wouldn't be so inclined to do so in Houston do to voting districts.

So as of Monday Uber and Lyft are back. They're paying drivers from other cities guaranteed daily income and our streets are flooded with out of town drivers.

I've been so impressed with the rideshare apps that stepped in immediately and took on a city which such incredibly high peak demand.

These se companies were here for us when Uber/ Lyft abandoned us. Not only the drivers but people who relied on them to get to work everyday which was a large amount of my coworkers. It's hundreds of dolllars a month for a parking space downtown so it was just easier to take an Uber if you lived close and many didn't even own cars.

Austin was an important case study. If you find your city trying to take to bull by the horns I hope you put up the good fight. How can you market yourself as a community partner when your so. Willing to devestate your clients and contractors who depend on you?

They aren't the only option. We have over a dozen ridehailing apps in Austin and two that are as good or better than Uber/ Lyft.

David and Goliath sort out f thing I suppose. I can't believe the money they are paying to flood the streets with drivers at a loss but I'm sticking with the companies that bailed us out when those two losers left town.

It is so down played but anyone can do what Uber and Lyft do. The algorithm really isn't that fancy and Fasten out of Boston has them equally matched, better rates for riders and more net income for drivers.

Would you wait wait five minutes longer to get a ride from a company that bailed you out of a bad situation orngo with a company that left for a year and forced their way back in against the wishes of your people?

Is this who we are as Americans? Sometimes wrong is just wrong. Votes and the will of the people be damned?

How Austin replaced Uber and Lyft almost seemlessly overnight, a lesson for other cities
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