Lyft and Motivate will work together to advance the future of bike-sharing

Motivate and Lyft have entered into a transformative agreement with the aim to collaborate with cities, grow and improve transportation and encourage more people to ride bikes.

John Zimmer, Lyft co-Founder and President, said: “Lyft and Motivate have 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 cities. Bringing together Lyft and Motivate will accelerate our collaboration with cities and deliver even better experiences to our passengers and riders.”

As part of the agreement, Lyft will acquire Motivate’s technological capabilities and corporate functions. Motivate will continue to focus on its core operational and customer service offerings, prioritising safety, rideability and a best-in-class customer experience. Motivate will provide these services to Lyft, which will invest additional resources in technology and innovation and shape the future of bike-share in partnership with cities.

Lyft announced this partnership in a blog post on its website, which stated: “Together Lyft and Motivate will revolutionise urban transportation and put bike-share systems across the country on a path toward growth and innovation.

“We will invest to establish bike offerings in our major markets and pursue growth in the markets where Motivate currently operates. We are particularly excited to work with cities on delivering innovation, including providing dockless and pedal-assist electric bikes to riders around the country. 

“As part of this agreement, Lyft is acquiring Motivate’s technology and corporate functions, including its city contracts. Motivate’s bike maintenance and servicing operations will remain a standalone business and will continue to support bike-share systems across North America.

Motivate operates many of the largest bike-share systems in North America, including Citi Bike (New York), Ford GoBike (San Francisco Bay area), Divvy (Chicago), Blue Bikes (Boston metro area), Capital Bikeshare (Washington, D.C. metro area), BIKETOWN (Portland metro area), CoGo (Columbus, Ohio) and Nice Ride (Minneapolis). In 2017, 80 per cent of the bike-share trips in the United States were on Motivate-operated systems.”

Motivate Executive Chairman, Steve Koch, said: “How we get around cities is changing rapidly and the combination of Lyft and Motivate will bring tremendous new resources to making sure that bike-share plays a fundamental role in the new urban mobility. We believe that integrating our services in partnership with the public sector will transform the urban transportation landscape, increase bike ridership and improve our cities.”