Don’t look now but Lyft’s doing numbers in NYC

Lyft, a pink-mustachioed competitor to a $50 billion company, might be able to make a real play in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
According to an article yesterday in Re/code, Lyft has four times more drivers and six times more weekly riders in the last nine months. The company declined to fork over actual numbers, however.
“The growth in riders is in part a result of the recent fare cuts Lyft implemented across 33 cities, including New York (following Uber’s fare cuts in more than 80 cities), but it also follows the company’s increased investment in its marketing efforts both in terms of staff as well as in promotions and ad buys,” according to the article.
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Over the summer, Lyft offered a $5 Lyft line, where riders could go to appointed stops along popularly traveled roads (like Bedford Avenue) and share rides with people going in similar directions. The program proved popular enough that the company extended the program into the fall, but at a rate of $8.
If the whole idea sounds like a little like the beginnings of a privatized version of public transportation, well, Matt Buchanan at The Awl has a lot of worthwhile things to say about that.