[carljv]

This. During the period where Uber and Lyft weren't operating in Austin, there were several local alternatives that popped up right away, worked just fine, operated within local regs, and that I honestly preferred service-wise. If Austin can do it, I bet California can.

[nrmitchi]

Yes, but after that Uber and Lyft aggressively drove those local alternatives out of business by giving effectively-free rides for the next couple of months. The majority of my rides around the downtown area during that time cost me _maybe_ a few dollars out of pocket. That is if I even paid at all, vs using "credit" which seemed to be arbitrarily added to my account.

It is illogical to start up a new business when it is more than likely that the previous incumbent will just come back in X number of months and operate at a loss until you're gone.

[ntsplnkv2]

Should be illegal