Lyft Brings Pedal-Assisted Bikes, New Branding To San Francisco

With its rollout of pedal-assisted bikes, Lyft is using its own branding in the San Francisco Bay Area. The bikes will be called Bay Wheels with the branding of Lyft noticeably displayed in lieu of Ford GoBike, and all of the fleet of Ford GoBike is said to become Bay Wheels, according to reports.

It was also reported that the bikes will be dockless as well as station-based. Customers in San Jose are said to have access to the bicycles beginning on Tuesday (June 11). However, the ridesharing company will need the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s approval to roll out the stationless bicylces in San Francisco.

In May, the agency announced that its program for stationless bikesharing would be grown to allow more firms to operate in the city. The application period is said to run until June 24. According to reports, the company is working with San Francisco to put out its eBikes later in June. At the same time, it was reported that the ridesharing company isn’t intending to rebrand New York’s Citi Bikes.

In other recent bikeshare news from Lyft, news surfaced in May that Citi Bike has now been completely integrated into its smartphone app. In July of last year, Lyft acquired Motivate, which is the parent company of Ford GoBike and Citi Bike as well as the largest bikeshare operator in the U.S. Lyft reportedly paid approximately $250 million for the company.

The company wrote in a blog post in April, “With a track record of more than 75 million rides and a growing fleet of more than 12,000 shared bikes, the Citi Bike system is a key reason we chose to acquire Motivate and become North America’s largest bikeshare operator. Making it easy for all Lyft users to access bikeshare will open up a world of possibilities and, we hope, get many more people riding Citi Bike.”