Bad news for scooter riders: starting October 1, Lyft is pulling its dockless electric scooters out of Washington, D.C.
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An in-app message pops up for the app's D.C. users alerting them to the change. The rideshare company announced the move earlier in September as part of a narrowing of its product offerings and a refocus of its strategy.
"We are narrowing our product portfolio to focus on our best-in-class bikes and ebikes, scooters, electrified docking stations, and software, to better sell to, serve, and electrify cities," the release reads. "This means we will no longer operate standalone dockless bikes and scooters. We are discontinuing our dockless scooters in Washington, D.C."
Lyft launched its dockless scooters in Washington, D.C. back in 2018. Car rides and Capital Bikeshare bikes can still be reserved through the company's app (Lyft acquired Capital Bikeshare's parent company, Motivate, in 2018), and D.C. residents can still use the app to reserve car rides. And don't despair if an electric scooter is your transit of choice; scooters from Lime, Veo and Spin are still available to District riders.
Electric scooters have long been part of the fabric of local transit in the city. They're capped at a speed of 10 miles per hour, and cost about $1 to unlock and at least $0.29 per minute to ride. By law, scooters can't be ridden on sidewalks and have to be locked to signposts, bike racks, or another structure (they can't be left alone on a sidewalk).