Lyft has announced that it is completing the acquisition of America’s largest bike-share service, Motivate. Headquartered in New York City, the company is responsible for the growth of America’s most ridden bike-share systems.
Last year, 80% of all bike-share rides in the US were completed on Motivate systems. And earlier today, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York City and Lyft will be dramatically expanding Citi Bike, powered by Motivate, tripling its size to 40,000 bikes.
Today, Lyft takes a large step forward in our vision to provide a more sustainable transportation experience that will bring together all your favorite ways of getting around into one unified Lyft app. We’re excited to introduce new and exciting mobility products in the months ahead for our city partners and riders.
Lyft Co-Founder and President John Zimmer
Bike-share is a natural extension of Lyft’s vision to improve transportation access, sustainability and affordability. With this acquisition, Lyft is poised to help take bike-share to the next level: adding thousands of bikes and stations in communities that haven’t had access to transportation; making bike-share membership more convenient and affordable than ever; and deploying new electric bikes, on a major scale.
Lyft’s overall work with bikes and scooters will help the company reach its goal of taking one million cars off the road by the end of 2019. Lyft is already seeing rapid adoption of its scooters that launched this Fall – in Denver alone, scooter trips account for 15% of Lyft’s total rides.
Lyft will work closely with local communities to invest in and expand their bike-share systems. This work is in addition to Lyft’s recent transit integration, where they’ve added public transit information directly in-app and are working closely with 50 transit agencies across the nation. Together with their new Chief Policy Officer, Anthony Foxx, Lyft will ensure that the future of our transportation infrastructure is more centered around people, pedestrians and cyclists, and less centered around cars.