All that's standing in between Uber and Austin is a signature.
On Wednesday, the Texas Senate approved HB 100, a bill that overrides local ride-hailing laws and one that would allow Uber and Lyft to bring their businesses back to Austin. Now all the bill needs is a signature from Governor Greg Abbott—and considering the governor tweeted this message, it's all but a done deal:
Buckle up. Coming soon. https://t.co/AF34IVISL2
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 17, 2017
HB 100 will do away with multiple state- and city-specific ride-hailing ordinances and instead require that companies be monitored by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. One major change: Rideshare companies will no longer have to follow Austin's requirement that drivers be fingerprinted during background checks, instead letting the companies pay a fee that covers industry regulations and allows them to use a background check provider that they prefer.
Uber and Lyft are, of course, thrilled. Local rideshare companies? Not so much. According to the Statesman, RideAustin CEO Andy Tryba says that his company will have to shut down if it averages anything less than 20,000 rides a week. "Obviously, we have to continue to get more efficient on the operations side of things, but that’s our floor," he says. "We need the Austin community to support something north of that number.”
Of course, there are plenty of Austinites that view RideAustin and Fasten (another local rideshare service) as considerably safer options than Uber and Lyft, largely due to the fact that a more strict background check for their drivers is required. We'll find out soon if that's enough to make a difference.
HB 100 is on its way to Governor Abbott's desk—check back with us for updates.
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