Lyft official rolled out its fleet of scooters today, making it the third scooter company to hit Denver's streets — and the first to ask permission before deploying.
Denver represents a first for Lyft, too — it's the first city where the company is deploying its scooters.
The ride-share company is one of seven companies given permits in the city's Dockless Mobility Pilot Permit Program. It's the only company to be permitted to deploy both scooters and bicycles. Its scooter fleet is 350 strong and its bike fleet will number 500.
To use the Lyft scooters, riders will need to download a new version of the Lyft app. There, all Lyft services will be in one place.
"We’re focused on markets that we think are really well suited to more bike and scooter trips, and Denver really stood out to us," said Caroline Samponaro, bike and pedestrian policy lead at Lyft. "We really were drawn to the fact that RTD is playing such a strong role ... working to connect people to transit through bike and scooter use."
The process will be methodical, Lyft Rocky Moutain region manager Gabe Cohen said. They're working closely with the city to evaluate how people are reacting to and using the scooters. They'll be doing a helmet giveaway at the Lyft hub at 1401 Zuni St. and aggressive safety education in the app, in an introductory email and on a dedicated landing site on the city's website.
"There are really compelling reasons why people should be taking bikes and scooters. Forty percent of driving trips in the U.S. right now are less than 2 miles," Samponaro said. "We’re excited to see how it plays out."
The addition of the Lyft scooters brings the total number of dockless electric scooters on Denver's streets to 1,050, and there are more to come. Spin and Razor are both still getting ready to send out fleets of 350. Lyft's 500 bikes will join the 200 Uber bikes, known as Jump bikes, already out in Denver. Jump will eventually increase its number to 500 and Zagster is expected to deploy 150 bikes.
For more on how all this is going so far, head right this way.
