Lyft has begun testing a new ‘Shuttle’ feature that offers fixed route rides to users who need to travel the same routes to and from their destinations. Shuttle is part of Lyft’s Line Commuter ride feature and is aiming to be an alternative to traditional bus and train routes. At the moment Lyft only offers the new option to users who live in the San Francisco and Chicago areas, though they likely plan to roll it out to more cities at some point in the future should things be successful with it.
Since the Shuttle ride option is part of Line, users will only see the ability to request a shuttle when they’re inside the Line booking screen and are nearby one of the routes where the Shuttle travels, otherwise everything looks just as it normally does. Users will be able to see familiar information like the estimated time of arrival at the shuttle stop and how long it’s going to take to get to their destination so nothing should look any different to anyone who has already booked a Line ride option before. Like you would get with transit options such as buses or trains, the Lyft Shuttle follows a fixed flat rate that is unaffected by the busiest times of travel when other users tend to request a Lyft, meaning that you will always pay the same rate for the Shuttle even if it’s during a time when prices for regular Lyft rides will increase to accommodate the demand of ride requests.
This is good news for commuters who are using Lyft to get to and from work on a day to day basis and live near one of these shuttle stops, as it provides a way for them to bypass having to take standard public transit which is often used by numerous amounts of people which can cause things to feel crowded and uncomfortable. There’s no word on when or if Lyft actually does plan to expand the new Shuttle option to other locations where it already operates its other services, but if it does it will surely start in the larger cities where there are more people.