Competition seen off? Urmm...what?
"Result: Victory. Well victory for the taxi drivers anyway. Competition seen off. "
Very inaccurate. We still have GetMe in Austin.
http://austin.curbed.com/2016/5/9/11641390/austin-uber-lyft-vote-getme-wingz
And we can also walk up to a Smartcar, swipe a credit card, and simply drive that.
https://www.car2go.com/en/austin/
There's even a free shuttle service, should you be too drunk to drive after a night partying on 6th.
For students:
http://www.utexas.edu/parking/transportation/uride/safe_ride.html
For non Students:
https://tipsytaxiaustin.wordpress.com/
We have competition and options here.
Also, traffic is bad in Austin, and getting worse due to growth; the fewer cars on the road idling about waiting for a customer to flag them down, the better. You also don't see a whole lot of cabs on the road here either; a good amount of people prefer to take the bus/rail, or simply take a bike to where they need to go. This is a college town after all, with most things being within short travelling distance. You only really need a car if you're headed out to the suburbs or beyond.