Uber Hawaii is a member of the local community. Uber employees live and work in Honolulu. So do drivers who partner with Uber to help ensure their families are supported and cared for.

And let’s not forget the tens of thousands of riders in Honolulu who know that when transportation options are scarce, they can rely on Uber to get home safely, any time of the day or night.

Taxicab companies have had an almost three-quarters of a century stronghold on the transportation ecosystem in Honolulu. Their influence is powerful, and their roots run deep. Now that they are faced with competition in the marketplace, they have resorted to rhetoric claiming that the very existence of ride-sharing companies in Honolulu is “profoundly unfair.”

Worse, they’ve articulated on the record that Uber does not perform background checks and does not have insurance. Taxi companies are lying to City Council members and the public.

These are the facts.

All Uber drivers are subject to a screening process that includes a seven-year criminal background check that searches county, state and federal databases, including the National Sex Offender Registry, as well as a Motor Vehicle Record check. In comparison, Honolulu taxicab background checks only go back two years and limit searches to the county level.

In addition, Uber maintains end-to-end $1 million liability insurance coverage for all Uber rides — that’s five times the amount required of Honolulu taxicabs.

We continue to push back against incumbents’ efforts to eliminate competition because we know the issue at hand is bigger than just Uber’s ability to remain in the market.

Uber’s technology has created new opportunities for people to earn money as drivers. And every day, locals depend on Uber’s flexible work model to help boost income in a city with a remarkably high cost of living.

And with on-demand, affordable transportation options like Uber, residents and visitors are making better choices that save lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2012 Impaired Driving Report, the annual rate of self-reported alcohol-impaired driving episodes in Hawaii was the highest in the country. This makes safe ride options like Uber critical.

In jurisdictions across the country, Uber has worked hand-in-hand with legislators and regulators to create legal frameworks for ride sharing — operational structures that promote competition and innovation. While this is still a work in progress in Hawaii, we have had some wins.

Recently, state lawmakers recognized that Uber’s insurance policies are sound and passed a bill that classifies stringent insurance requirements that Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) like Uber must meet to operate in the state. This bill recognizes that the TNC business model is distinctly different from that of taxicab companies.

When it comes to city regulations, let’s take a step back to see what we’re trying to solve. The city’s position has been that regulations are necessary to ensure consumer and driver safety while also creating a level playing field for incumbents. TNC regulations in municipalities across the country were written and passed with these very principles in mind. Let’s look to those regulations for guidance. There’s no need to struggle to find a workable framework for TNCs in Honolulu, because a workable framework has already been established in 31 states and many municipalities across the country.

There are currently four bills at the Honolulu City Council seeking to regulate Uber. None of these bills resemble TNC regulations passed anywhere in the country. While we are hopeful the Council will listen to the more than 22,000 people who have signed their support for Uber Hawaii over the past few months, none of these bills in their current form would allow Uber to operate in Honolulu.

These bills would impose upon TNCs, requirements written decades ago for taxicab companies, most of which are outdated and onerous. Regulatory frameworks should be forward-thinking, not reliant on the status quo. Making regulations that are overly burdensome comes at the expense of consumer choice and earning opportunities for drivers. Honolulu deserves better.

Let outdated voices say what they will. Lawmakers in hundreds of other cities have worked hard to ensure that the public has access to a marketplace that thrives on innovation and change. We encourage local lawmakers to do the same, to refrain from adopting burdensome regulations that do nothing to create a level playing field, and to instead, continue to promote competition in a city and state that deserves it.