In the great 2016 battle over ride-hailing, a City Council majority stoutly defended Austin's authority to regulate transportation network companies, but as chair of the transportation committee, Council Member Kitchen took far more than her share of heat. Uber and Lyft tried viciously to turn her into the face of counter-tech-revolution, and through it all she maintained her equilibrium and her determination to uphold public safety and find a rational way forward, despite the attacks. Kitchen never wavered and never flinched – and the overwhelming vote to uphold city regs arrived as a vindication.
