With no Uber or Lyft, a Texas city is crowdsourcing rides on Facebook

After the ride-sharing firms pulled out of Austin in a battle over background checks, drivers and riders needing a lift now contact each other peer-to-peer

It was less than one week after Uber and Lyft pulled out of the city of Austin - and a crowdsourced ride-sharing alternative began to emerge.

In May, voters in the Texas capital rejected a proposal that would have overturned a city council measure forcing ride-sharing companies to require fingerprint-based background checks for drivers. Uber and Lyft lost despite a vicious $9m lobbying and publicity campaign by the two ride-sharing companies, which included a recall effort against the legislator who proposed the measure.