How To Design A Transportation App For Cars And Bikes

You shouldn't have to own a car to get around your city. And you shouldn't have to open nine different apps to find the best ride for your next adventure, whether you're busing to work, biking to burritos, or sharing a ride with friends.

Starting today, when you open your Lyft app, you'll see all your ride options front and center on your home screen: scooters, bikes, public transit, car rentals, Shared rides, regular rides, big rides, and even more. It's the first in a series of changes that make it easier for you to choose the right ride for every occasion (and every mood).

Over the past year, we've added shared bikes and scooters to the Lyft app in cities across the country. Early user testing shows that the new design has more people scooting, biking, and taking public transit — our greenest ride options, and the ones most likely to help alleviate traffic. This summer, one in eight Lyft rides was a bike or scooter ride in the cities where they're available.

Seamlessly Switch Between Tabs to Choose the Best Ride for Every Trip

Quickly view all the options available in your city — and find the mode you want faster. And if you're biking or scooting, we're making it easier to find the safest route: You'll see bike lanes marked in green in the iOS version of the app (with Android coming soon).

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Make Smarter Decisions to Get From A to B

We know you want to compare time and cost across different ride types, and soon, you'll be able to. The app will surface trips that are faster or more affordable on bike, scooter, or public transit — whichever works best for you. We've seen record ridership across our bike share networks, like Citi Bike in New York, and it's all part of our vision to make our cities more livable and easier to get around.

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Mapping to Our Vision When you open the Lyft app, you're probably used to seeing a map of nearby vehicles. Soon, this view will include bikes, scooters, and nearby public transit vehicles.

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Building Cities Around People, Not Cars

We believe cities should be built around people, not cars. That's why we redesigned the Lyft app last year to make it easier to compare ride options, and why we continue to invest in Shared ride options and self-driving technology, and why we are working hard to add bikes, scooters, and public transit options in more cities. In our vision of the future, you'll subscribe to a transportation service just like you subscribe to your cell phone plan or your content streaming plan. You'll have more ways to get around every city, and it will be easier to choose affordable, convenient rides. Today is one more step in that direction.