On-demand Rideshare Service Lyft is Expanding to New Orleans

Lyft

Image from Lyft.

Lyft, the taxi-like rideshare service, allows local community members to become drivers. Lyft is “your friend with a car,” and it’s coming to New Orleans.

Drivers are screened and then matched with passengers through the app available from iPhone and Android.

Despite controversy in other cities, especially following Lyft’s cease-and-desist letter from Los Angeles, the San Francisco-based startup will continue to operate in other cities, including a New Orleans post-launch.

In many cities, private operators bring about 50% savings compared with government run services. However, other rideshare companies have yet to venture to New Orleans.

Lyft received an investment of $60 million earlier in 2013, which helped them launch in a number of new cities, taking ridership from 14,000 rides a week, to more than 30,000 (according to a May 2013 report).

“By the end of 2014, we have definite plans to go international,” said John Zimmer, Lyft’s Co-founder. “We need to capture the hearts and minds of new communities, and we need to win over regulators too. This investment will allow us to do all that, and a lot more.”

More information is available at lyft.me.