Austin sends decision on Uber, Lyft to voters

SAN FRANCISCO — Voters in Austin, Texas, will get the chance to decide in May whether drivers for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft must be fingerprinted and pay higher fees to the city than previously.

After a sometimes rancorous petition drive over the past few months, the Austin city council effectively punted the decision to the electorate in a vote last week.

How to regulate ride-hailing services has been an ongoing issue in Austin.

In 2014 the city council approved a temporary ordinance that said the ride-hailing services could operate in the city.

In December, the council approved an ordinance that included optional fingerprint-based criminal background checks for some drivers with what it termed transportation network companies, as well as a one-per-cent fee on local revenue to be paid to Austin.

The new rules are set to go into effect at the end of February.

An organization created by Uber, Lyft and other Austin-area organizations called Ridesharing Works for Austin circulated a petition in January and February asking the city council to roll back the rules to their 2014 version.

The group gathered 65,103 signatures in 21 days, it said.

A long line of speakers gathered to tell council members their thoughts at council’s vote last Thursday.

In a statement, Uber said the city council had missed an opportunity to listen to the voices of Austinites who had signed the petition and had thus prevent a costly election, but that it was optimistic the voters would support it during the May 7 referendum.

Austin is also where Google began tests of its autonomous cars this summer, which could eventually meld with ride-hailing services. Automating the task of driving is becoming a key effort by both technology and auto companies.