Lyft, Uber Land E-Scooter Bids, Increase Mobility Options

Lyft and Uber received the top two ranked applications for a shared mobility pilot program in Santa Monica, Calif., surpassing e-scooter and e-bike operators Bird and Lime, according to Curbed Los Angeles.

In a memo released by the city’s planning director David Martin, Lyft scored first for both scooter and bike categories, while Uber-owned Jump — which connects users to scooters through a partnership with Lime— scored second in both.

Lyft acquired mega bikeshare operator Motivate last month, and announced the development of Lyft Bikes and Scooters for use in Santa Monica and San Francisco.

Uber secured bikeshare startup Jump in April to push for a more “multimodal vision” for users choosing e-bikes over car trips.

Despite not yet actually operating micromobility devices anywhere in the city, the two companies topped the pilot program application’s seven areas — including experience, public education, and parking and safety.

The city launched the program last month in hopes of limiting its number of mobility operators to four, two scooter and two e-bike operators, potentially curbing resident and city safety concerns that have led other Los Angeles area cities, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, to ban the devices.

While there are no current scooter bans in Santa Monica, Bird and Lime temporarily deactivated their scooters yesterday as an act of protest against operator regulations.

Contracts for the pilot program are scheduled to begin Sept. 17.