State Legislation Forces Austin to Lift Ban on Lyft and Uber

On Memorial Day, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 100, which effectively ends the ban on ride-hailing enacted by the Austin City Council in December 2015 and supported by voters in May 2016.  

Uber and Lyft put restrictions such as finger print requirements to a ballot test on May 7, 2016 with Proposition 1, but 56 percent of voters rejected the measure to overturn the regulations. The two companies suspended service in the city the following morning. [See Planetizen: "Op-Ed: Why Uber Wasn't Welcome in Austin."]

HB 100 "will override local provisions and provide regulatory certainty, creating a consistent framework across the state for popular ride-hailing companies, while still enforcing important customer safety standards," states the governor's office on the bill signing. 

"It requires ride-hailing companies to have a permit from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation [TDLR] and pay an annual fee of $5,000 to operate throughout the state," reports Alex Samuels for The Texas Tribune. "It also calls for companies to perform local, state and national criminal background checks on drivers annually — but doesn't require drivers to be fingerprinted."

According to the department's FAQs on Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), they anticipate "publishing rules for the TNC program in the Texas Register on July 28, 2017, and adopting rules no later than September 29, 2017. Based on this timeline, we expect the TNC rules to take effect on November 1, 2017."

However, the ride-hailing companies need not wait for the publication of the rules. "Uber and Lyft said they resumed operations in Austin on Monday," adds Samuels. "Lyft also said it would relaunch in Houston on Wednesday (Uber is already operating in Houston.)"