Ride-hailing firms Uber and Lyft will shutter operations in San Antonio when the city’s new ordinance takes effect April 1 — but the new way of catching rides won’t be gone from the area altogether.

The City Council last week passed an updated ordinance that reduced some of the burden for Uber and Lyft, but the companies said the compromises weren’t enough.

The two sides failed to agree on exactly how background checks on drivers should be conducted. So, when the ordinance goes into effect next month, the firms will stop operating in San Antonio.

Uber, however, plans to continue operations in unincorporated Bexar County and suburban cities such as Alamo Heights. Lyft did not respond to an inquiry from the San Antonio Express-News on whether it will follow suit. The companies use smart-phone apps to pair drivers with passengers looking for rides.

“It’s just generally the right thing to do for all the partners using the system to generate revenue for themselves and their family,” said Chris Nakutis, Uber’s general manager for Texas.

Drivers here will be able to continue picking up passengers outside of the city and will be able to deliver them to destinations within San Antonio’s city limits.

Police Chief Anthony Treviño confirmed Tuesday that the ordinance does not prohibit Uber and Lyft drivers from dropping passengers off within the city, but they can’t pick up rides here.

He also confirmed that the firms’ drivers would be able to pick up riders at the AT&T Center because it’s county property.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff sent letters last week to Uber and Lyft saying that “it’s unfortunate” that they couldn’t reach an agreement with San Antonio leaders on a set of regulations that would both ensure public safety and work within the firms’ business models.

Wolff noted in his letters that the county doesn’t have regulatory authority over the companies but invited them to operate in Bexar County’s unincorporated areas “under the standards that other Texas cities have adopted.”

“If this is agreeable to you, then I welcome you to operate in unincorporated areas and the other 26 cities within Bexar County if you are able to come to an agreement with them,” he wrote.

On Tuesday, Wolff said he convened the mayors of the county’s suburban cities about a month ago, and there was overwhelming consensus that the firms should operate in the area.

Alamo Heights Mayor Louis Cooper said his city would welcome Uber and Lyft and wouldn’t regulate the industry, just as the city doesn’t regulate taxis that drive its streets.

Letting Uber and Lyft operate in unincorporated Bexar County and in the suburban cities may be a fix to keep the companies operating while the Texas Legislature considers passing a statewide bill. And absent passage of something that would override San Antonio’s ordinance, Cooper noted that San Antonio has municipal elections on May 9 and it’s possible the council make-up would be one this summer that would consider further rolling back its regulations.

Nakutis said a statewide law would also enable drivers to easily work in multiple cities because there would be a single set of rules that apply across Texas. A driver could work week days in San Antonio, he said, and then drive to Austin and work weekends there without an issue of different local ordinances mandating disparate regulations.

Wolff said he thinks the ride-hailing companies can help reduce the sobering statistics on DWIs in Bexar County.

“DWIs have just really proliferated in the last few years, and there’s good evidence that it makes a difference,” he said.

Nakutis sent a response to Wolff offering thanks on behalf of “Uber, thousands of driver partners, and 13,000 citizens who urged San Antonio to keep Uber.”

“With a staggering 8,500 DWI charges in Bexar County last year, local citizens need safe, reliable transportation options like ridesharing,” Nakutis wrote. “A study conducted in partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) revealed that when empowered with more transportation options like Uber, people are significantly less likely to drink and drive.”

jbaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh