This afternoon, the Metro board Operations Committee unanimously approved a Metro staff recommendation for a five-year contract with Lyft to operate Metro Bike Share [staff report]. The final approval will be on the agenda at next week's full Metro board meeting, where the board generally affirms decisions made by committees.
Metro staff regularly note that these contract approvals are subject to resolving protests, and today staff noted that Metro had already received a protest on this item.
In January 2024, Metro staff proposed contracting bike-share to Lyft, displacing the current system operator Bicycle Transit Systems. BTS challenged irregularities in that process; the decision was postponed. Ultimately Metro canceled that procurement. BTS's contract was extended, while Metro regrouped for a new selection process.
Lyft operates several large bike-share systems, but has a record of bike-share taking a back seat to its car business. Lyft also has a track record of fighting against transit and labor.
Metro staff are touting various anticipated benefits from contracting with Lyft. But many of these benefits are just the specifics of the new procurement, so they would be realized equivalently under Lyft or BTS.
For example, due to labor concerns, bike-share docks have not been placed on Metro station properties. Since BTS staff is now represented by TWU (Transit Workers Union of America) new docks are allowed at stations. Lyft has agreed to honor the TWU contract, so under BTS or Lyft new docks will finally be sited at stations.
On of the deciding factors that Metro leadership points to is cost savings.
Metro is retooling some of the ways the bike-share system works, making abrupt shifts in things like station siting, who owns the bicycles, the percentage of electric powered bikes, etc.
Metro anticipates that these changes would reduce costs by roughly 30 percent, compared to the current operations.
Even under a new model that essentially favors a wholesale retooling of the system, Metro's cost savings are nearly identical under either Lyft or BTS. Lyft's contract would cost $198.2 million, and BTS would cost $201.9 million. Contracting with Lyft would save Metro less than a million dollars per year.
In January 2024, it appeared that the Lyft contract was inevitable, a done deal. But things didn't quite work out that way. After today's committee vote, it appears Lyft has the upper hand, but there are still a few more chapters left to be written before this story concludes.
