Uber and Lyft canceled rideshare services within Austin city limits on May 9 after a city-wide vote against the companies’ hopes.

Earlier in the year, the Austin City Council voted 9-2 to place regulations on rideshare firms to make them more like traditional taxi services. When faced with the regulation of mandatory fingerprinting of drivers, the Lyft and Uber argued that they conduct background checks on all of their drivers which tend to be more comprehensive than fingerprinting. The firms ran an $8.6 million media campaign to encourage app users to vote in their favor. However, they still lost to the opposition’s $200,000 campaign.

“The people have spoken tonight loud and clear,” Mayor Steve Adler said. “Uber and Lyft are welcome to stay in Austin, and I invite them to the table regardless.”

Uber and Lyft’s departure left former users to reach out to former drivers or anyone willing to drive them to and from their destination via Craigslist and Facebook. The use of social media to find drivers is a difficult way of communication for users due to the lack of serious inquiries and amount of ‘creeps’ that respond to the ads.

“A lot of people use Uber on the weekends,” junior Vivian Parker said. “Without Uber or Lyft, a lot of them will be left with no rides or fail to drive while fully in their senses.”

The gap left from the firms’ departure has encouraged other smaller ride-share companies including Get Me, Wingz and Fasten – a startup rideshare business based in Boston – to expand their services to Austin.

Fasten was not prepared for quick a expansion. However, after approximately 10,000 drivers were abandoned by Uber and Lyft, the company hopes to capitalize off the open market and launch their app later this month.

“We didn’t plan to launch in Austin this soon,” Fasten Inc., said. “But, Austin didn’t plan to lose their ridesharing options either. We’re reaching out to the drivers of Austin and signing them up as they come.”

Although Uber and Lyft would not comply to the new regulations, other ride-sharing services like Fasten are willing to abide by the law.

“The law is the law.” Fasten Co-Founder Vlad Christoff said. “The people have voted, so if that’s what the people want, that’s what we’ll end up doing.”