Lyft announced on Thursday that shared rides will return to San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, Las Vegas, and Atlanta in May, with the popular reduced cost service coming to other areas in phases throughout the year.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, it became evident that no one, let alone a Lyft driver, wanted to ride in a small, enclosed environment with other riders.
In the aftermath of Lyft’s first-quarter earnings report, which indicated decreasing revenue per rider quarter-over-quarter and a firm still trying to generate a profit, bringing back shared trips is an unusual move.
Carpooling has the potential to be a money pit in the short term, owing to Lyft’s lack of scale, which prevents discounted fares from achieving favourable unit economics.
