On May 9, residents of Austin, Texas, accomplished what many New York City regulators and legislators have tried in vain to achieve: They forced Uber and Lyft out of their city.
Over the weekend, a mere 17 percent of the voters went to the polls and a majority voted in favor of retaining restrictive and burdensome taxi-like regulations that city officials imposed on ridesharing companies in December.
In response, Uber and Lyft made good on a joint pledge to shut down their operations, leaving Austin with the dubious distinction of being the only major city in America without ridesharing services.
The motto of the Texas capital is “Keep Austin Weird,” and anti-ridesharing voters and cartel-like taxi interests have done just that.