In recent debate, Lyft and Uber have been battling with the city of Austin on new regulations said to be passed in May. The lack of taxi use because of these cheaper safe-ride alternatives has led cab drivers to push Austin council into enforcing stricter laws that will limit these apps' use by the people of Austin and redirect the revenue back to the taxi companies. Regulations include fingerprinting, higher fees, unnecessary additional exception among other things. Both companies already do background checks, pay fees and require proof of car inspection for their drivers to operate. The problem with these new regulations is that they will cost a lot of money to drivers, some which only work for the companies 10-15 hours per week. These cost will be such a burden on drivers that they have say that instead they will opt out of working for the company altogether drastically reducing the amount of Lyft and Uber drivers in busy Austin. Not only are these services more affordable for the public than taxis, they have also been a great preventative to drunk driving especially in the areas of downtown/6th street and the UT area.

Please help Austin keep Lyft and Uber around!