Lyft Weighed London Bike-Sharing Deal Before Officials Said No

(Bloomberg) -- Lyft Inc. held talks with London’s main transport regulator about making an entrée into the European city through its bike-share program this summer -- a move that, had it happened, would have marked a significant departure for the ride-hailing company that has long focused only on the U.S. and Canada.

In June, Lyft approached Transport for London about allowing its users access to the city’s bike-share system, called Santander Cycles. The talks fizzled after TfL ruled out a potential tie-up, according to information obtained in a Freedom of Information request by Bloomberg. TfL credited the success of its own app as a reason not to seek third-party partnerships.

Although it didn’t come to fruition, the effort by Lyft sheds light on a potential push into international cities by the San Francisco-based company, which has lost more than 40% in the public markets since its initial public offering in March.

“While we currently have no plans to launch rideshare services in London, we regularly meet with cities around the world to discuss urban transportation,” a spokeswoman for Lyft wrote in an email.

Any entry into London

would pit Lyft against its major rival Uber Technologies Inc., which has long operated in the city and is currently working to improve its rocky relationship with TfL. The regulator in September granted Uber a two-month extension to operate in London.

“We haven’t rushed to do international beyond Canada in a big way, and those are all very thoughtful decisions,” said John Zimmer, co-founder and president of Lyft, at a conference in September. “We’re setting the stage to be able to have to more easily go to additional markets. We have not made a final decision on when and how we will do that.”

Lyft has kept up regular contact with TfL since 2016. Most recently its executives -- including Julia Haywood, a vice president -- met Michael Hurwitz, director of transport innovation at TfL, and Gareth Powell, managing director of surface transport, in July.

The meeting covered the “status of the transport market in London and an update on the range of Lyft’s business activities, from ride-hailing to bike-rental,” according to TfL. Lyft representatives also held regular meetings with TfL counterparts to discuss data-sharing agreements and the implementation of payments software, the information request revealed.

“We have considered the possibility of enabling people to hire bikes directly from third party apps,” Danny Price, TfL’s general manager of sponsored services, wrote in an email to Bloomberg. “But we have ruled this out at this time due to the popularity of hires made by contactless payment and our own app.”

Lyft acquired an existing relationship with TfL via its takeover of bike-sharing company Motivate in mid-2018. Motivate owns 8D Technologies, which provides point-of-sale products for bike-share programs, including TfL’s Santander Cycles. Over the past year, Lyft has increased user access to shared bikes and scooters. Via the acquisition of Motivate, it acquired New York’s Citi Bike system, which is now available via its app.

Lyft has also been building its presence in Europe with a new location and acquisitions. Early last year, the company opened its first European office in Munich, home to companies like BMW AG and Siemens AG. In October of last year, the company bought Blue Vision Labs, a London-based augmented reality startup.

To contact the reporter on this story: Giles Turner in London at gturner35@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Anne VanderMey, Edwin Chan

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