If you’re in a city with a Lyft-owned bikeshare program then you can use its two-wheelers for free on April 22 as part of the company’s Earth Day celebrations.
The app-based services include CitiBike in New York City (NY), Divvy in Chicago (IL), Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C., Nice Ride in Minneapolis (MN), Biketown in Portland (OR), and CoGo in Columbus (OH).
Each one has slightly different terms for Monday’s free rides, so be sure to check Lyft’s website for links to each provider where you’ll find all the information you need. In Chicago, for example, you can score a free day of unlimited Divvy rides using an Explorer Pass, which offers up to three hours of usage in a single go. To keep cycling, simply dock it to restart the clock.
“The benefits of bike riding are evident,” Lyft said in a blog post announcing the promotion. “It’s healthier. It can be faster. And it’s better for our planet.”
Earth Day is marking its 50th anniversary on Monday, with the organization working year-round to “solve climate change, to end plastic pollution, to protect endangered species, and to broaden, educate, and activate the environmental movement” around the world.
Lyft’s own efforts to boost its green credentials include its 2018 decision to buy carbon offsets for all of its rides globally, as well as the ongoing addition of electric cars to its ridesharing service, though the company it admits that “it’s not there yet.”
Its stated plan is to take a million cars off the road by the end of this year by getting people to switch to its rideshare offerings over vehicle ownership. Lyft president and co-founder John Zimmer said last year that in 2017, some 250,000 Lyft passengers gave up their cars.
The company’s long-term ambition is to play a major role in making car ownership a thing of the past, with its 2018 acquisition of Motivate, which operates the bikeshare programs mentioned above, helping it toward its goal.
In Lyft’s blog post, the company reminded its community that if there’s no bikeshare program available, or you prefer four wheels to two, then its shared car rides can also help ease the burden on the environment by filling empty seats with riders heading in the same direction.
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