Lyft Gives 1 Billionth Ride

As the summer draws to a close, Lyft just announced that it has given its 1 billionth ride. Rough back of the envelope calculations suggest they could top 500 million rides this year alone.

Lyft has been riding the wave recently, achieving 35% market share, while almost doubling its share of the business rideshare market. They’ve been able to achieve this while becoming the only carbon-free rideshare company.

Topping off the good news, Lyft’s most recent funding round valued the company at $15.1 billion, double its value from a year ago. They’re also closer to profitability than arch rival Uber.

To capitalize on this growth, Lyft recently announced infrastructure investments in new driver hubs, along with key new hires to oversee design and implementation.

The company also announced a new rental partnership with Avis that will make many of their 600,000 vehicles available through the Lyft Express Drive program. This marks a massive expansion of the program, currently available in about 30 cities.

Lyft Is Giving Out Free Gas To Celebrate

To celebrate, Lyft will give a little something back to 3500 drivers – a free tank of gas.

Every single day, millions of people connect in Lyft rides across the country helping to demonstrate that people from all backgrounds, neighborhoods, and walks of life can come together — even if just for a short trip. We are incredibly motivated knowing that each individual ride can make a difference in people’s lives, and appreciate the community of drivers and passengers who made this possible.

– John Zimmer, Co-founder and President

Along with the announcement came some pretty interesting factoids about those first billion rides.

• Almost half (47%) of all Lyft rides are given in winter.
• One Lyft driver has given over 31,000 rides.
• One Lyft rider has taken over 9,000 rides.
• 15% of all Lyft rides occur between 11PM and 2AM
• One Lyft rider took 2500 rides…just during happy hour!

The announcement also confirmed that Lyft is going full throttle when it comes to Lyft bikes, Lyft scooters, and public transit integration. “Our new multi-modal products will ensure that bikes, scooters, and public transit play a large role in the future of transportation.”

Lyft has already begun pilot programs integrating the Lyft rider app with public transportation systems in Santa Monica and Marin County, CA. The company also recently purchased Motivate, the largest bikeshare company in the United States.

Expect to see more Lyft partnerships with municipal transportation providers in 2019. And get ready for Lyft branded scooters and bikes, because they’re definitely on the way.

The Future Is Shared

Lyft also seems to be making progress in its quest to increase shared rides. Out of the first billion rides, over 233 million were shared rides. And in cities where shared rides are available, they now account for 30% of all rides.

Eventually, the company hopes that about half the rides it gives will be shared rides, which will further the company goals of reducing traffic congestion and pollution.