Uber and Lyft both protested, claiming that enacting stricter background checks, a measure passed late last year by the city council, would hurt their ability to recruit drivers and threaten current operations and the industry's "long-term path forward." Lyft said the rules, which require background checks and fingerprinting for drivers, would "make it harder for part-time drivers, the heart of Lyft's peer-to-peer model, to get on the road and harder for passengers to get a ride." "Disappointment does not begin to describe how we feel about shutting down operations in Austin. For the past two years, drivers and riders made ridesharing work in this great city," Uber said in a statement. "We hope the City Council will reconsider their ordinance so we can work together to make the streets of Austin a safer place for everyone."