As of January, a majority of Lyft trips in San Francisco use the ride-hail app's "Lyft Line" carpool feature, according to the company, meaning most passengers are looking to share rides with other people taking similar trips.
Lyft Line users aren't always matched up, and Lyft spokesperson Paige Thelen said she couldn't tell us how many Lyft trips are actually shared. But she did say that during a January promo called "Match Muni," when fares for many Lyft Line trips within SF were set at a flat rate of $2.25 -- the same as a Muni fare -- over 90 percent of Lyft Line trips were matched up. Lyft Line fares are advertised as always cheaper than regular Lyft fares, and the price doesn't change if a match is found or not.
The stats, announced yesterday by Lyft CEO Logan Green, show progress in the app's evolution toward functioning as a genuine "ride-share" service. Lyft and its rival, Uber, have long been given the "ride-share" misnomer when they are more accurately described as app-based taxi services with less regulation.
Lyft Line and Uber's competing feature, UberPool, both launched in August in SF before expanding to Los Angeles and New York City. UberPool is also now in Paris. Uber hasn't responded to a request for data on its carpool usage.
As Inc. noted yesterday, Lyft and Uber both say their goal is to make car ownership unnecessary.