Motivate
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You can now rent a Citi Bike through the Lyft app in NYC
Lyft users in New York and Jersey City can now rent a Citi Bike on the app. After some beta-testing with 20 percent of users, Lyft has now fully-integrated Citi Bike onto its mobile app. Lyft users won't need a Citi Bike account to locate or rent a bike. The announcement comes nearly a year after Lyft bought Motivate, the company that owns Citi Bike, in a bid to become an all-purpose transportation company with options for cars, bikes and electric scooters. Lyft already operates bike-sharing programs in Washington, DC and the San Francisco Bay Area, so app integration with those cities is likely forthcoming.
Lyft will 'more than triple' Citi Bike's size in $100 million deal
Lyft has just completed its acquisition of the company behind Citi Bike, and it's not wasting any time ensuring it's a force to be reckoned with in the bike sharing world. The company has struck a deal with New York City to expand Citi Bike through a $100 million investment. The plan will "more than triple" Motivate's required 12,000 bikes (it's not currently meeting that goal) to 40,000 within the next five years, and more than double the coverage area to 35 square miles. This will include a mix of conventional and pedal-assist e-bikes, and should include 12 new valet stations.
Lyft buys the company behind CitiBike, announces Lyft Bikes
Just as we expected, Lyft is moving beyond cars and into the world of bike sharing with its next big acquisition. The company announced this morning that it has bought Motivate, the firm behind NYC's CitiBike and Chicago's Divvy. It'll be rebadged as Lyft Bikes, while portions of Motivate will stick around to help take care of those bikes, the New York Times reports. We don't know how much Lyft paid for the company, but earlier reports pegged the deal around $250 million.
Uber may try to buy Citi Bike parent company Motivate
Lyft might have thought its plan to buy bike-sharing company Motivate was a done deal. Uber, it seems, has other plans. Reports last week suggested that Lyft had struck a deal for upwards of $250 million to buy Motivate. But Uber is considering muscling in with its own offer, Axios reports.
Lyft is reportedly close to buying the company behind Citi Bike
Lyft might not sit idle while Uber leaps into the bike sharing space. The Information sources have claimed that Lyft is close to acquiring Motivate, the bike sharing behemoth responsible for New York City's Citi Bikes and San Francisco's Ford GoBikes. Neither company has agreed to comment on the move or how it would affect service, but it supposedly wouldn't affect Motivate's existing agreements.
Ford's electric GoBikes have arrived in San Francisco
Bike-sharing company Motivate is expanding its San Francisco offering to include electric versions of Ford's GoBikes. They'll be available at no extra cost in the same way as Ford's regular GoBikes, which can be unlocked with the accompanying app or via the Clipper card. The roll out will initially include 250 bikes, which are designed to give riders an added boost while pedalling -- up to 18mph in fact -- so you'll still be able to ride in bike lanes.
Earn It Stars: a motivating little app
I came across a very simple little app that I felt would be useful -- at first thought, just for small children, but after thinking about it for awhile, realized that it could be helpful for just about everybody who tends to procrastinate (guilty!), or wants to reinforce or change a behavior. The app is Earn It Stars [iTunes Link] which sells for $.99 US and runs on iPhones and iPod touches with OS 3.0 or better. This app is all about motivation and is really very simple; in this case, that's a good thing. Let's say you want to get your kid to clean her room and no amount of hectoring is getting the job done. Earn It Stars works on a reward basis, which some may call bribery, but I'll just call it positive reinforcement. Negotiate what the pay-off will be and how many times the room will be cleaned before the the prize is awarded. Let's say 20 cleanings before the kid gets to go to the movies to see something that will probably make the parent gag and retch. I'm looking at you, New Moon. The app lets you designate what the task will be and how many times it needs to be done before it pays off. Then each time the room gets checked and you can see that the color of the carpet isn't laundry, someone gets to tap on Star Earned which plays a nice sound and increments the counter. When the counter hits 20, a badge is displayed that says: Earn It Stars. You did it! That's Great!! Enjoy (your) New Moon, or whatever the reward might be. That's about it. It's really nothing more than a fancy looking counter, but sometimes simplicity is a good thing. Having grown children, I know that I could have used this years ago and that it would have worked. It would have eliminated the circuitous discussions based upon: Yes I did. No you didn't, Yes I did. No you didn't etc. Once you get into one of those, getting out is never easy, or fun, and if you don't think that kids like getting stars, ask any first grade teacher. Given the app's meager aspirations, I think it's fine, and the only thing I would add is a big audio flourish when the goal is reached. Earn It Stars can be used for anything and can be used by anyone. Right now, I have it set that if I write 10 posts I get to eat. Simple. TUAW is commonly provided with not-for-resale licenses or promo codes to permit product evaluations and reviews. For more details, see our policy page.
