Rideshare company Lyft on Wednesday announced it’s cutting public-access bicycles and scooters from its lineup in certain cities and laying off employees this year.
The firm said it would discontinue its dockless bike and scooter service in the District of Columbia and Denver as part of a greater restructuring effort. Lyft doesn’t operate its own bikes and scooters in most cities but lets customers ride third-party electric scooters and bikes through the Lyft app.
Lyft also said it would be consolidating its bike and scooter business into a new division called Lyft Urban Solutions. Under the new regime, Lyft will focus on e-bikes and scooters with docking stations.
Lyft is selling off $34 million to $46 million worth of e-bikes and scooters as part of the restructuring effort.
The restructuring includes cuts of 1% of Lyft’s 3,000 employees. According to the company, the layoffs will help shift Lyft away from research and development and toward sales.
Despite cutting back on scooters, Lyft remains dedicated to e-bikes, and the restructuring effort won’t affect Lyft’s profitable Citi Bike program in New York City.
“One thing has become abundantly clear: Bikes and scooters are core to our purpose and make our company stronger,” the company said in a statement. “Millions of riders every year rely on our bike and scooter systems to get to work, to school, to go out to dinner, to visit their friends — in short, to connect with the world around them.”
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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