Austin Conducting Sting Operations Against Ride-Sharing Drivers

Megalith

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Arcade City is a ride-sharing service that rose from the ashes of Uber and Lyft, but the city has determined that it is violating regulations. In response, undercover cops are posing as riders and impounding drivers’ vehicles.

…the city is cracking down on another ride-sharing service. This time, city officials said 'Arcade City' is not following ordinances. The service came into play after Austin voted 'No' to Proposition 1, and Uber and Lyft left town. Undercover detectives performed a sting operation Friday night: including one on Nueces and 3rd Street. There, they ticketed and impounded the cars of four Arcade City drivers. Most of the drivers used to work for Uber or Lyft. "When they left, I had no source of income, period," Cheri Hawes said. "'Arcade City' came in and thank God they did, because that was really what supplemented my income. That's how I take care of my family."
 
Maybe... or maybe drive sharing hasn't deposited any funds to keep them away, while drug lords, have.
 
Eh... Prostitutes are more like rental cars, you don't really share the experience with the owner, they let you take it for a ride.
 
Same thing happened in my city more or less. They just haven't figured out that because of technology we can have services like these now. There doesn't need to be a monopoly on taxi's.
So the sub-headline would be: "Crime in Austin so unbelievably low that cops have nothing better to do than bust people giving other people rides."
Considering that some drivers actually do have problems with passengers it would still give them something to do but i know what you're saying. Why today, I saw a cop car use his lights just to get across intersections when there was no emergency. Stuff like that is getting retarded.
 
It's much more profitable to prosecute tax paying professionals than it is criminals.
 
F Austin.. just another reason I would never move there. Just got back from a convention in Vegas and used Uber for the first time while there and will never take a cab again if I have a choice. Order a ride via my app, automatically pay, getting tracking on the driver to know exactly when they were going to be there. Clean and nice vehicles and the drivers used Waze for navigation so they avoided several traffic jams that a normal cab would probably search out on purpose. It was nice getting to the destination and just getting out and going without having to swipe a credit card or anything since it charges automatically. Definitely better than my DC experience where the cabby had one of those old card imprint machines.. just seemed like asking for my identity to be stolen :(
 
which is almost the opposite of what they should be doing. They should put the flipping sledge hammer to the people that are bad and "abuse/rape" their passengers.. Dont punish the law abiding, or atleast make it a way for them to "work".
 
so the city says they are not playing by the local ordinances and decide to clean them out? Who is surprised about this happening?
 
Seems if the people voted no to it the government is just enforcing the will of the people in that area.

Bad government
 
These so called ride share services could have decided to play by the exact same rules that ANY "for hire" livery service has to. Instead they decided they were special and got booted. Forget the term ride share because if you receive compensation in agreement to provide a ride, you are a "for hire" service.
 
These so called ride share services could have decided to play by the exact same rules that ANY "for hire" livery service has to. Instead they decided they were special and got booted. Forget the term ride share because if you receive compensation in agreement to provide a ride, you are a "for hire" service.

To complicated and confusing words for the voters.

/sarcasm
 
If i was one of these drivers and i knew that it was "illegal" to go about operating my vehicle in this manner, i wouldn't be doing it.

The law is the law, no matter the excuse.

In this particular case, the people of Austin voted "No" to this proposition. So, you can't blame the cops, you can't blame the city - you can only blame the people of Austin who voted.

Now, if the balloting was flawed or otherwise manipulated then you may have a case. That's tin foil territory though.

These drivers brought this upon themselves.
 
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If i was one of these drivers and i knew that it was "illegal" to go about operating my vehicle in this manner, i wouldn't be doing it.

The law is the law, no matter the excuse.

In this particular case, the people of Austin voted "No" to this proposition. So, you can't blame the cops, you can't blame the city - you can only blame the people of Austin who voted.

Now, if the balloting was flawed or otherwise manipulated then you may have a case. That's tin foil territory though.

These drivers brought this upon themselves.

Agreed. Yes it sucks for the people that were effected but the law is the law. Lets take something like smoking. Around me most cities (maybe even the entire state now) have laws that make it illegal to smoke in a building that services the public. So no smoking in a bar, restaurant, store... I don't think hotels can even have smoking rooms now. People might not like that but if they knowingly light up in the middle of TGI Fridays and get a ticket or thrown out, that is their fault. Same here. The people voted for this law, doesn't matter if they fully understand what they were voting for or not. It was still voted in. Anyone who tries to find ways around it are going to get in trouble, and that is their own fault.
 
The government makes a lot of money off of these crimes where they can confiscate the materials related to the crime. Usually drug bust are more profitable but if you can confiscate the car and sell it at auction that is easy money for cash strapped governments.
 
So the sub-headline would be: "Crime in Austin so unbelievably low that cops have nothing better to do than bust people giving other people rides."
Heh, beat me to it.

Now, if the balloting was flawed or otherwise manipulated then you may have a case. That's tin foil territory though.
City governments have a long and storied history of manipulating referenda in order to muddy the waters and tilt the scale in their favor. alxlwson is right--the ballot was very confusing. Houston tried the same thing with their HERO ordinance, and it took a court order to force the city to use plain language on the ballot.
 
The uninformed voter is the most dangerous thing out there :(

Uninformed =/= confused by ballot language.

I read the ballot, and the language was intentionally muddied to skew votes in an unfavorable direction for the ride services.
 
I wonder how Uber / Lyft didn't end up making it clear as day that this proposition was unfairly tilted against their/ / ride-sharing services side on this one.

In fact, i'm even more curious how this stunt got pulled off in some liberal-as-hell town like Austin where people look for every opportunity to thumb their nose(s) at authority.

On that angle, I could definitely see that it must have been some serious lawyer-speak.
 
I wonder how Uber / Lyft didn't end up making it clear as day that this proposition was unfairly tilted against their/ / ride-sharing services side on this one.

In fact, i'm even more curious how this stunt got pulled off in some liberal-as-hell town like Austin where people look for every opportunity to thumb their nose(s) at authority.

On that angle, I could definitely see that it must have been some serious lawyer-speak.

At the end of the day, it comes down to the language on the ballot.

Liberals don't thumb their noses at authority. They like laws, lots of them. Law for this, law for that. People are too stupid to take care of themselves-- liberal mantra. That goes hand in hand with their position on a politic chart.
 
Uber and Lyft drivers are notoriously dangerous and they need to have much more strict regulations as to who is hired as drivers. Good for Austin kicking them the fuck out. Hope the rest of the US follows suit.
 
Uber and Lyft drivers are notoriously dangerous and they need to have much more strict regulations as to who is hired as drivers. Good for Austin kicking them the fuck out. Hope the rest of the US follows suit.

Is that you, CUG?
 
which is almost the opposite of what they should be doing. They should put the flipping sledge hammer to the people that are bad and "abuse/rape" their passengers.. Dont punish the law abiding, or atleast make it a way for them to "work".
Soon the cars will drive themselves, then this will not be a concern.
 
Soon the cars will drive themselves, then this will not be a concern.


lol.. i was a little off, their not quite law abiding, but there is much much worse people doing much worse things..

10, 20 years? it will be a while before there is a significant amount of self driven cars on the road.
 
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