Lyft

We’ve moved our blog off Tumblr. The Lyft blog will still live at the same URL, but it’ll be better than ever.

Want to know about community stories, the Lyft movement, product updates, and #LyftLove events? Our new blog is your one-stop shop that includes all these updates, so you’ll never miss a thing.

Spring training has wrapped, and after weeks of fistbump drills and mustache marathons, we’re ready to get our season underway. It’s opening day for Lyft in Tampa!

From the glittering waters of its namesake bay to the beautiful spires of UT’s Plant Hall, Tampa is one special stunner. We think our trademark pink mustaches offer the city’s best vantage point to see every angle and detail, so we’re celebrating Lyft’s first Florida city with a video that explores the city’s neighborhoods from Lyft’s unique perspective. Hit play above to see what Tampa looks like in the eyes of the ‘stache.

We started Lyft with the hope that transportation can bring people together and in just 20 months, drivers and passengers have brought this dream to life in countless ways.

In just the last week, a Lyft driver travelled to Africa to shoot photos of budding musicians because of a ride he gave to the executive director of PeaceTones, a nonprofit empowering Kenyan musicians. Another driver witnessed an elderly woman having car trouble and dropped everything to help get her home, while in Los Angeles a group of passengers invited their Lyft driver to lunch after their ride.

Today we’re excited to announce we’ve raised $250 million that will help create more of these incredible experiences. Since launching our second city one year ago, Lyft has grown to 30 cities across the country, and this investment will help us continue to grow in the United States and around the world. We are thrilled that existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and Mayfield participated in this round, and proud to have great new partners on board that support our long-term vision, including Coatue and Alibaba Group.

Lyft’s passionate community of drivers and passengers is what makes us who we are — as artists, as entrepreneurs, as students, and above all, as friends. The next time you take a Lyft, ask your driver what their story is and thank them for sharing a smile and helping make your day a little better.

Thanks for being part of this journey with us!

John & Logan

Lyft Co-Founders

Together, we have sparked a revolution in transportation, and have seen ridesharing fulfill a longtime need in Seattle. 

City Council recently passed an ordinance that places new limits and regulatory restrictions on mobile app ride services in Seattle. This new ordinance, if allowed to take effect, will make it impossible for drivers to serve Seattle riders, eliminating rides for those who rely on them and financially crippling thousands of drivers.

We are proud to support a newly formed coalition that has launched a referendum campaign to afford Seattleites the opportunity to have their voices heard directly – through their votes – so they cannot be ignored again.

Referendum petitions are currently being circulated to gather voter signatures to refer the ordinance for a citywide vote. If the referendum qualifies for the ballot, the ordinance will be suspended from taking effect until Seattle voters weigh in.

We have heard from all corners of the city that residents want action to protect the thousands of small businesses created by the ridesharing economy and maintain this safe, reliable and innovative transportation option for both visitors and locals. The referendum puts that action directly in the hands of voters. 

You’ll be seeing petitioners at work with pens, clipboards and signs, gathering signatures all across the city over the next three weeks. Join the effort here to build support in your community or follow along #SignToRide @OurSeattleRides.

Ride on,

Henry Ford unveiled the Model T here 105 years ago, and now Lyft introduces another new model for transportation in Detroit. Featuring a fuzzy, pink mustache on the grille and friendly, background-checked community drivers, Lyft is now driving into the Motor City!

Lyft provides an alternative transportation option that makes our big cities feel smaller by bringing people together and fostering a sense of community. Take a Lyft in Detroit, and you could meet the founder of an alternative summer camp for kids, a former pro soccer player, a fitness model and body builder, several elementary school teachers, and many more safe, friendly drivers happy to be your new friend with a car.

As frigid as New England winters may be, we just couldn’t keep ourselves away. We’re excited to bring friendly, affordable Lyft rides to Providence, beginning tonight at 7pm.

Lyft will make it even easier to get around the Creative Capital, from College Hill campuses to the restaurants of Federal Hill, or from a game at McCoy Stadium to a residence in Warwick. Commuters can use Lyft to catch the T or the Amtrak to Boston, while urbanites itching for some summer sun (summer is coming, we promise) can catch Lyft all the way out to Newport*.

Providence’s tight-knit community makes it the perfect place for the pink mustache. Among the amazing group of founding drivers, you’ll find a women’s ice hockey player, a firefighter, a winemaker, a flight attendant, a Brown grad student, and many more. We hope you’ll hop in a Lyft soon to meet them!

Lyft is already the most affordable ride in town when you need it most. Starting today you’ll save even more, thanks to Lyft Happy Hour, the newest way to enjoy the friendliest ride at an even friendlier price.

Here’s how it works. During slower times on the road, you’ll receive from 10% to 50% off your ride, so a trip that normally costs $14 would be as low as $7 when Happy Hour is in effect. You’ll be able to see when it’s Happy Hour as soon as you open the app!

We created Happy Hour as a straightforward way to keep Lyft busier for drivers and more affordable for passengers. For instance, a driver who would normally have one ride per hour at $12 may now see two or more rides per hour at $9. On the passenger side, users will know that Lyft will always be the most affordable option since Prime Time is capped at 200% and prices go down during slower hours. With Happy Hour, Lyft’s prices are fully dynamic, which is the way it should be.

Remember the daily ritual of recess when you were a kid? That ruled.

To share the fun and freedom that Lyft is all about, we brought recess back at SXSW. We selected six drivers from around the country to bring their talents to Lyft Recess parties in Austin. From beatboxing to parkour to stilt walking, Lyft drivers left the crowds in awe. Festivalgoers delighted in the performances and nostalgic games, jumping into Skip-It races and pog throwdowns.

Another highlight: After Dustin, one of our drivers, sang an original song at an impromptu performance, Justin Bieber told him he was “dope.” Though we never expected to say this, we agree with you, Biebs.

Lyft rolled into beachy, beautiful Santa Barbara last weekend – a city especially near and dear to our hearts. Lyft co-founder and Gaucho alum Logan Green created the first on-campus car-sharing program and was the youngest director of the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District while a student at UCSB, so we know firsthand the benefit peer-to-peer transportation will bring to Santa Barbara’s close-knit community. Between Isla Vista and Summerland and from fiestas to farmer’s markets, a friendly, safe ride is now just a tap away.

Santa Barbara is our 7th market in California and our 24th across America. So far in 2014, we’ve also expanded into the great cities (and college towns!) of Pittsburgh, Houston, Columbus, Minneapolis and Madison. It’s not too late to join the Lyft Pioneer program in most of these metros, so download the Lyft app and get moving with free rides for your first two weeks!

Brrring — there’s the bell! This year at SXSW, Lyft’s bringing recess back and you’re invited. Take a break from the festival action and join our #LyftRecess crew for a different kind of SXSW party. Enjoy Skip-Its, fierce games of four square, Capri Suns, and special appearances by talented members of our driver community. Spoiler alert: There will be parkour.

Come out for an opportunity to play this Saturday and Sunday from 2-6 p.m. We’ll send you off with nostalgic swag and tons of free ride credits for any Lyft city.

What do hand-knit mittens, surprise hot chocolates, and a ukulele jam session have in common? The spirit of #LyftLove, of course! For us, Valentine’s Day is about showing appreciation for your fellow Lyfters with acts of kindness, whatever they may be.

Today, do something extra nice for your driver or passenger, and share your stories on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #LyftLove.

With Lyft in just two cities this time last year, we collected 101 #LyftLove stories. With 10x the number of cities today, can we show the world ten times the love?

We appreciate the thousands of community members who have expressed their support for keeping new transportation options in Seattle. The City Council's current draft ordinance attempts to apply a regulatory structure from decades ago to a new model that simply does not work.

While safety is often brought up as a reason to apply an old regulatory model to an innovative transportation solution, the truth is that new technology provides an opportunity to increase safety above and beyond what has been done previously. In fact, Lyft’s safety criteria are far more strict than what is required of taxis or limos as seen in the attached comparison. Additionally, Lyft holds a $1M commercial liability policy, which is more than three times the $300,000 requirement of Seattle taxis.

There are councilmembers who claim new transportation services hurt existing industries, while the City of Seattle’s taxi usage data shows that taxi companies reported higher revenue in 2013 than ever before as Seattle residents can now more easily live car-free. Also important, new models are providing drivers with greater economic opportunity as 80% of earnings go directly to the drivers themselves, which is often double what drivers of existing models keep. We will continue working with the local community to defend their rights to provide safe and affordable transportation in Seattle.

Following the announcement of the Peer-to-Peer Rideshare Insurance Coalition last week, we are pleased to announce the list of members slated to attend the first meeting during the last week of February. We will keep the community updated on the progress of the Coalition and look forward to a productive discussion around this important topic.

Mission: To build a foundation of insurance best practices, policies and information for P2P Ridesharing. The Coalition will work to drive additional partnerships between insurance carriers and P2P ridesharing participants, while providing information resources for regulators, drivers, and riders to ensure a safe and trusted future for the emerging peer economy.

Members:

John Zimmer, Co-Founder and President, Lyft

Amy Fox, Partnership Development, Lyft

Beth Stevens, General Counsel, Sidecar

Corey Owens, Public Policy, Uber

Phil Recht, Former Chief Counsel, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for US DOT

Bill Vainisi, Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Allstate Insurance

Chuck Wallace, Business and Operations at Automatic, Previously an Esurance Co-Founder (No Current Affiliation)

Kedar Deshpande, Strategic Initiatives, Farmers Insurance

Marzia Zafar, Director of Planning & Policy, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)

At Lyft, safety is our top priority and we’re always working to go above and beyond for the community. Since launching a year and a half ago, Lyft has successfully increased transportation safety in three fundamental ways:

Established background check and driving record standards that are more strict than taxis, limos and black cars and the most stringent in our industry.

Used technology to create more accountability and trust through in-app feedback, ratings and photos as the only company in the space to have all these elements for both passengers and drivers.

Pioneered the first-of-its-kind $1,000,000 excess liability policy in 2012.

Today, we’d like to announce our part in the newly formed Peer-to-Peer Rideshare Insurance Coalition. This working group of transportation companies, regulators, insurance providers, and other stakeholders has come together to address how the insurance industry can continue evolving to support the growing peer-to-peer economy. With the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as a founding member, the coalition’s mission is to build a foundation of insurance best practices, policies, and information for P2P ridesharing. The group’s first meeting will take place in February, and a full list of members will be shared later this week.

In addition, we have worked with leading insurance carriers to now provide additional insurance solutions for drivers on the Lyft platform. Today, we’re excited to be the first company to announce three additional coverages now live:

Collision (Contingent policy - $2,500 deductible and $50,000 maximum applicable to drivers who have purchased collision coverage on their personal policy)

Uninsured motorists (Added to $1M Excess Liability policy - covering drivers if they are hit by an uninsured motorist that is at fault)

Underinsured motorists (Added to $1M Excess Liability policy - covering drivers if they are hit by an underinsured motorist that is at fault)

We had a great time at Sundance, spreading smiles and #LyftLove in the snow! Hailing from across the country, ten Lyft Creatives joined forces at the festival to share their off-the-charts creativity.

Check out this video to learn more about these inspiring drivers.