Lyft is jumping into carpooling Friday after its rival Uber unveiled a service last week to get taxi riders sharing cabs for cheaper fares.
Lyft Line, like UberPool, lets people get a cut on their fare by letting the driver pick up other passengers heading to the similar destinations. The company, which has a carpool service in San Francisco and Los Angeles, wrote in a blogpost that riders could save up to 60% of a ride. One difference Lyft noted is that its carpool service charges riders the discounted fare based on the probability of finding other passengers taking the same route, even if no other rider ultimately gets matched to the trip.
“Whether commuting, heading to or from the airport around the holidays, or getting stuck on a snowy afternoon, New Yorkers will find that a majority of the time, there’s someone else heading the same way,” Lyft wrote on its site.
