In 2015, almost 27 sexual assault and rape cases were registered in Austin where a driver of ride-sharing service was involved with a passenger. Meanwhile, nearly 9.2 per cent victims reported to the police in Texas whereas many were left undetected. Looking at the rate of crime increased by these drivers, many cities of the US had come up with strict regulations for the ride sharing companies and their drivers if they wish to operate in the cities. But looking at these strict rules, the companies were against it.The ride sharing companies then suspended their operations while the government decided to conduct a public voting against these companies.So, the Austin news is that the people then voted in favour of the regulation that was passed and in such a way that companies such as Uber and Lyft had to shut down their major operations in Austin.
What happened after the ride sharing services stopped
This left nearly 10,000 drivers without a job and many other people without these services. Therefore, Austin’s community and other transportation companies (TNC’s) announced a new non-profit crowd sourced ride-sharing service that made it easier for the riders to find drivers and vice-versa using this simple social media platform called Facebook. The name of the Facebook group is Arcade City Austin/Request a Ride which has more than thirty-three thousand members today.
Using this platform, the rider can now book a ride without any surge pricing at different hours along with an option to book a ride much well in advance. Once the ride is completed the driver can then round off the figure and receive the money without paying any commission to any other ride-sharing organization.Arcade City just recently launched their app which was in the beta phase of testing formed by 7 drivers and is now available without any issues.
Major ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft thought that Austin would shut down without them but in fact, this gave a rise to other startups such as Ride Austin, Getme, Wingz and Far that is much similar to the services offered by Uber and Lyft.
Ride Austin here is funded by the citizens of Austin and it hopes that its local roots will satisfy the resident’s specific needs.Being a non-profit app, it contains a round-up option where the drivers can round the cost of the rides to the next dollar and donate that amount to local charity partners. In this way, under served communities like this can be benefitted with the charitable amount that they receive from these drivers.
Looking at the success of RideAustin, another ride sharing app called Zipcar started its services for the university students of Austin where they had to offer fifteen dollars for renting cars and join more of them. This gave them a chance to earn something while they studied.
Hence, the students started getting into this and rented the cars for just none dollars right from Sunday to Thursday. Thus, the Austin news of Uber and Lyft shutting down the operations led to the launching of many other start-ups that are run successfully today by the local citizens of Austin.
