Uber and Lyft are expanding their vision of ride-sharing to include not just cars but bicycles, electric bicycles, and electric scooters.
Uber jumped in first, adding the electric bikeshare company Jump to its app earlier this year in San Francisco and then acquiring the company outright in March for an estimated $100 million.
Lyft earlier this month bought Motivate, the nation’s largest bikeshare company, with operations in such cities as Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. The value of the deal was estimated at $250 million.
And California-based Lime announced recently that its bikes and scooters would also begin appearing on the Uber app and that several investors, including Uber, Fidelity, and Alphabet, the parent of Google, had invested $335 million in the company. The investment suggested the company is now valued at more than $1 billion.
“Our investment and partnership in Lime is another step towards our vision of becoming a one-stop shop for all your transportation needs,” said Rachel Holt, an Uber vice president.
Lime is a dockless bike-sharing company that operates in 16 states and the District of Columbia. In Massachusetts, the company is in 15 communities, including Arlington, Belmont, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Milton, Needham, Newton, Waltham, and Watertown.
Scott Mullen, Lime’s director of expansion in the northeast, joined Josh Fairchild and Jim Aloisi of TransitMatters on the Codcast to talk about the business. He said 40 percent of trips connect riders to transit, while 28 percent start or end at local retail stores.
