First it was cars, now Lyft is taking on Uber with bike sharing

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Lyft has announced it’s buying the largest bike-share operator in the United States, Motivate, for $250 million. The move will once again put Lyft head-to-head against Uber, which also offers bike-sharing services around the globe.

In a deal the company believes will “revolutionize urban transportation,” Lyft expects to bring Motivate to new areas of the U.S.

As Digital Trends explains,

If you don’t know Motivate by name, you might know some of its bikesharing services, among them CitiBike in New York City, Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C., and Blue Bikes (formerly Hubway) in Boston. It also operates bikesharing services in Chicago; Portland, Oregon; Jersey City, New Jersey; and Columbus, Ohio. Data from the National Association of City Transportation Officials revealed that in 2017, Motivate’s U.S. bike schemes took care of almost 75 percent of the 35 million bikeshare trips taken in 2017.

According to John Zimmer, Lyft co-founder, and president,

Lyft and Motivate have both been committed for years to the same goal of reducing the need for personal car ownership by providing reliable and affordable ways to move around our ci

While Lyft seems focused on bike-sharing in the U.S., Uber has been concentrating mostly on Europe.

Just weeks ago, that company announced plans to bring its Jump electric bike rentals business to Berlin before heading to other European cities.

Uber’s move suggests the ride-sharing company is trying to make nice with a region where it has struggled recently. The company is fighting London’s transportation authority after it was banned from operating in the city. Previously, the company was forced to pull its service in European countries such as Bulgaria and Denmark due to taxi regulations.

It will be interesting to see where bike-sharing services head from here now that Uber and Lyft are involved. What say you? Is bike-sharing the future? 

For more ride sharing and tech news, see: 

Uber and Lyft drivers are selling candy and snacks now because the pay isn’t all that great.