Drunk driving skyrocket in Austin after the city bans uber and lyft

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However, after the city of Austin passed new burdensome regulations on the ridesharing economy last summer, Uber and Lyft both decided to cease operating within city limits. In the several months since their departure, driving under the influence (DUI or DWI) arrests have already spiked according to the Austin Police Department’s own data.

Before Uber came to town in 2014, Austin Police Department’s data showed that the city had an average of 525 drunk driving arrests per month. When these numbers were revisited a year after ridesharing came to Austin, drunk driving arrests had dropped by five percent. This trend continued the following year when the number of drunk driving arrests dropped by an additional 12 percent, bringing the average number of arrests to about 438 per month.

In May of 2016, the same month Uber and Lyft made the decision to leave Austin, the monthly rate of drunk driving incidents was down to an average of 358. However, within the first few months of Uber and Lyft’s absence, the number of DUI arrests increased by 7.5 percent from the previous year. In the month of July alone, the city had 476 drunk driving arrests.

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Sadly, what's NOT discussed in this brief article is the revenue lost by the city of Austin on DUI prosecutions when Uber and Lyft came to town. I'd be interested to see the numbers and discern who really benefits from driving these services from the city. Knowing how corrupt government works, I'd imagine that lost revenue was a major factor in enforcing such overreaching regulation. Thus, government does not, nor does it ever, have the public welfare in mind, but rather their own deep pockets. Austin should be ashamed of their "public servants."

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