Lyft will reach 100 more US cities by the end of 2017
And 40 of them are coming this week.
Lyft trails Uber when it comes to sheer coverage, but it's making up for that in style this year. The ridesharing outfit now plans to offer service in 100 more cities by the end of 2017, 40 of which will go live on January 26th. That's a sharp spike compared to the 40 added in all of 2016. All told, Lyft will cover 300 cities, or a full third more cities than it supported at the end of 2016.
Many of the new cities coming onboard this week are mid-sized urban centers like Baton Rouge and Wichita. You're particularly well-served if you live in California, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania or Virginia, as Lyft will be available in multiple new cities in each state.
The company will still have smaller coverage than Uber, which hit the 300-city mark in mid-2015. There's also no word on international expansion, which is Lyft's historical weak point. The firm has partnerships in other countries, but it's not nearly as ubiquitous as Uber outside of the US. With that said, the surge in expansion is important. This will increase the chances that you have real ridesharing competition in your corner of the US, and might increase pressure on Uber to match features and offer better compensation to its drivers.
