Lyft jumps into the scooter fray

The cat may have been let out of the bag early, due to a convergence of Lime reprimands, a swift-moving city process (?) and time to kill on Twitter, but now it’s official: Lyft is entering the scooter population of Austin. A press release from the company explains that Austin is the fifth market in which the company will be offering scooters, under a one-year pilot program using the existing Lyft app. According to the release, Lyft is working with the city “to place docks for riders to park their scooters on streets in areas where there is high demand and near transit stations.” Lyft representative Mike Kilpatrick explained further, “Lyft views the successful integration of scooters in Austin as part of a bigger movement to design cities for people, not just cars. Lyft looks forward to working in coordination with the city and other stakeholders on this issue into the future.” Lyft joins Bird, GOAT, Jump, Lime and Spin (which has just one scooter) in Austin’s scooter landscape.