Speaking in Tech: Uber and Lyft tell Austin: Hell no, we won't give you the finger

Lyft & Uber's still delivering passengers in Austin

Uber and Lyft are both apparently still delivering passengers in Austin. They simply pick them up outside, in the suburbs. Folks can try using Get Me to pick them up inside the city to take them back home. Uber Food, a delivery service, is still operating too. Your Get Me driver will probably also be an Uber/Lyft driver anyway.

Most Austinites who voted against Uber and Lyft weren't even customers. These were knee-jerk SPITE VOTES due to a deceptive campaign by the City of Austin to demonize the rideshare companies as "bullying the city" with "corporate threats", when actually, the City changed their terms after Uber & Lyft made agreements when they opened here for business.

Austinites are famous for voting against their own best interests because they're culturally vulnerable to fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) packaged as defending their right to choose. This only applies to certain "enemies" of course. People like to think themselves liberal here, but they have the southerner's "you can't tell me what to think" attitude which means they live and vote with such closed minds. It's an insult to them, to open a dialogue or try to educate.

Now, we've lost rideshare CHOICES and the corrupt taxi companies have their near-monopoly back. Hu-farking-rah.

That said, I don't think requiring fingerprints is too much to ask. I get fingerprinted for IT contracts. There are too few fingerprinting service offices here, though. I've driven to San Antonio to get fingerprinted because the local ones had no appointment slots! If I were a driver, I would pay for my own background check as long as my rideshare network refunded my money after a few months of active service.

Our public transportation isn't terrible, either, though I won't ride home during rush hour. Busses can be packed nightmarishly full. Also, despite a recent reorganization, busses still mainly just run along certain main roads and lots of the city is underserved. I bike whenever possible, though let me go on the record of saying that Austin's "bikeability" rating is an obscene farce. Motorists hate bikers, and the lay of the streets is very dangerous for biking. We do have a lot of bikers who don't obey traffic laws though.