Lyft Line Carpooling Service Expanding To Six New Markets

Image courtesy of Ben Schumin

Sometimes, you might want a car to pick you up to get you where you’re going, but you may not necessarily want to pay for the whole trip. That’s why some ride-hailing companies offer carpooling options that allow passengers to share rides with strangers, and in turn, share the cost. More Lyft customers will have that choice soon, with six new markets slated to join the company’s Line carpooling service.

Lyft says it’ll expand its short-distance carpooling service to six new areas the week of April 11.

Passengers in Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, San Diego, Silicon Valley, and New Jersey will soon have access to the service, which lets passengers elect to choose their ride with other people in the same area who have a similar route.

“Today’s news means that we now offer 25% of Americans the option to affordably share their rides through Lyft Line, which means fewer cars on the road across the U.S,” said Logan Green, Lyft co-founder and CEO.

Lyft Line started in the summer of 2014 in San Francisco, and is now available in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Washington, D.C. All told, Lyft says it makes up almost 40% of rides in the markets where it’s available.

The company has another carpooling service, aptly named Carpool, but it differs in that it matches drivers heading to work with passengers in need of a commuting buddy.

Uber has a competing carpooling feature, called uberPOOl, which works in much the same way as Lyft Line and also debuted in 2014.

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