Lyft Partners With Baltimore Bike-Sharing Service

Residents can now grab a bike or a Lyft ride from the same downtown hubs.

byStephen Edelstein|
Lyft Partners With Baltimore Bike-Sharing Service
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Lyft is partnering with Baltimore Bike Share as part of an ongoing effort to integrate its ride-sharing service with other transportation options. A handful of Baltimore bike-share stations will now double as pickup and drop-off locations for Lyft cars.

The five "co-located transportation hubs" will offer the option of grabbing a bike or hailing a Lyft ride from the same location. The hubs will be located at the Baltimore Visitor Center, National Aquarium, Harbor East, Hopkins Place, and Shot Tower. Lyft is paying $270,000 to slap its logo on them for the next three years.

The partnership also includes some integration between the Lyft and Baltimore Bike Share apps. The Lyft app will point out where the bike-share stations are, for example. Through Feb. 28, Lyft is also giving riders 50 percent off up to two rides to or from one of the stations. However, it is not possible to reserve a bike using the Lyft app or hail a Lyft ride using the Baltimore Bike Share app.

Lyft's main rival, Uber, also recently launched a bike-sharing project. Uber is teaming up with Jump on a pilot program in San Francisco. Users can reserve a Jump bike using the Uber app, although only certain customers are being invited to participate in the pilot due to the limited number of available bikes.

Partnerships like these make combining ride sharing and bike sharing easier, which might encourage more city residents to use that combination. If people are more inclined to get out of a car and get onto a bike in downtown areas, traffic congestion could be reduced. That isn't necessarily the case when riders take an Uber or Lyft car the entire distance. But cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians don't always get along, so increased use of bike sharing could present problems of its own.

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