What You Should Know About Lyft If You Had A Lyft Injury Accident

Lyft s a ridesharing company or more technically referred to as an on-demand transportation company. Lyft, like its number one competitor Uber, is based in San Francisco, California.

Lyft developed and operates its own mobile app, called the Lyft car transportation mobile app.

Lyft was launched from San Francisco in June of 2012, and operates in about 300 cities across the United States, including in Los Angeles, Calabasas, Santa Monica, Simi Valley, New York and, of course, San Francisco.

Lyft also operates in the communities of Canoga Park, Granada Hills, Hollywood, North Hollywood, Van Nuys and Woodland Hills.

As of the end of 2018, Lyft was the number two ride sharing company in the United States (after Uber), with approximately a 28% market share across the U.S. See Lyft.

If you were injured in any Lyft collision or injured in any ride share collision in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills or anywhere in California, please call one of expert personal injury Lyft accident lawyers now at 1 866 INJURY 2 or use our contact form to receive an absolutely FREE case evaluation.

Potential passengers of Lyft (or Lyft riders) must first download the Lyft car transportation mobile app to their smart mobile phones. Then the potential Lyft customer must sign-up, enter a valid phone number, and then enter a valid method of payment. Such valid payment methods include a credit card, or a link to Apple Pay, Google Wallet or PayPal account.

Potential Lyft passengers can then request a ride from a nearby Lyft driver.

Once the ride is confirmed, then the Lyft app will show the Lyft driver’s name, helpful ratings from prior Lyft passengers and also identifying photos of the Lyft driver and car.

Drivers and passengers even have the opportunity to provide personal information to their personal profiles, including about their music preferences, hometown, and other information to assist with conversations during the ride. This is just one example of the many things Lyft has done to personalize its services.

Upon culmination of the Lyft ride, Lyft passengers have the opportunity to add a tip or gratuity for the driver, which is just added to the Lyft passenger’s credit card or other method of payment.

Lyft offers its riders via its Lyft app these five (5) different types of rides:

• Lyft—This is the most basic and most popular ride option offered by Lyft. Lyft simply matches potential riders with the closest Lyft driver.
• Shared Rides – These shared rides are Lyft’s least expensive rides. Lyft matches riders with other riders if they are traveling in the same direction. Shared rides are NOT available in all cities where Lyft operates.
• Lyft XL—In this option, Lyft matches potential Lyft passengers with a vehicle capable of seating at least six (6) passengers. XL refers to extra room for more passengers.
• Lux—Lyft matches potential passengers with a luxury vehicle able to seat at least four (4) passengers.
• Lux Black—Lyft matches potential passengers with a black exterior colored vehicle that is considered a luxury vehicle that can seat at least four (4) passengers.
• Lux Black XL—Lyft matches potential passengers with a black exterior colored vehicle that is considered a luxury vehicle that can seat at least six (6) passengers. Reportedly these are SUV vehicles with drivers who have received a higher rating from Lyft.

Lyft vehicles and drivers have their own California insurance procedures and laws. Although Lyft drivers are classified as independent contractors, Lyft still provides certain insurance coverages for its drivers. Here is how Lyft insurance basically works:

• During the time from when the Lyft driver is available for rides, that is when the Lyft driver’s turns on the Lyft app, but before a ride is accepted (i.e., before the Lyft driver has been paired with a rider), California law requires minimum bodily injury coverage of $50,000.00 per person and $100,000.00 for all injured persons per accident, plus $25,000.00 for property damage per accident. Lyft provides this liability insurance coverage if the Lyft driver does not maintain it
• During the time the Lyft driver has been paired with a rider and also when the Lyft driver is actually transporting a Lyft rider, then Lyft maintains single limits insurance coverage of $1,000,000.00 per incident.
• Lyft also maintains Uninsured Motorist (UM)/Underinsured Motorist (UIM) coverage of up to one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) if the driver of another vehicle and its owners were uninsured (UM) or underinsured (UIM) at the time of the incident. This coverage applies from the time a Lyft driver accepts a ride request in the Lyft app until the time the ride ends in the Lyft app.

For a more detailed summary about Lyft insurance requirements, please see our web article entitled, Lyft Injury Accident Insurance Information Guide.

As stated earlier, Lyft was launched in June of 2012 by John Zmmer and Logan Green. Lyft was a service offered by Zimride, a long distance ridesharing company that Zimmer and Green had previously started in 2007.

Zimride was focused on ridesharng for long trips, usually between two (2) different cities. Zimride linked passengers with drivers, using a Facebook Connect application. Eventually, Zimride became the largest rideshare service in the United States.

Green had code programming experience and had the idea to arrange shared rides from the University of Santa Barbara (UCSB) to Los Angeles after traveling to Zimbabwe in 2005 where he saw locals sharing minivan taxis. Green apparently then developed the ride sharing site in just four (4) months.

Zimride started the first version of its rideshare system at Cornell University and after just six (6) months actually enrolled about 20% of the Cornell campus.

In May of 2013, Zimride finally changed its name to Lyft.

While Zimride had focused on college students and university campuses, including travel between cities, Lyft started as an on-demand ridesharing service for much shorter travel within cities.

Lyft drivers began attaching large pink furry mustaches to the front of their cars. And in January of 2015, Lyft developed a small, glowing plastic mustache for the Lyft dashboards. Lyft called his dashboard mustache – “glowstache”. The glowstache became an alternative for Lyft drivers to the large fuzzy mustaches placed on the front of Lyft vehicles. One reason for this change was for the Lyft vehicles to look more professional, especially when transporting drivers to business meetings.

In December of 2016, Lyft introduced its new color changing dashboard indication which it called the “Amp”.

Lyft added 24 new cities in April of 2014, thereby bringing Lyft’s total in the United States at that time to 60 cities.

In May of 2014, Lyft allowed its riders to schedule their rides up to 24-hours in advance of their ride; and in the summer of 2016 Lyft began to offer its riders the opportunity to make more than one stop during their trips.

Then in January of 2017, Lyft stated it would add 100 more cities to its list of cities in the United States, thus bringing Lyft’s total to 200 cities in the United States.

Lyft announced in November of 2018 its plan to add 28,000 Citi Bikes to its services.

When the Lyft ride is completed, then the agreed upon fare is deducted or debited from the customer’s payment source, e.g., the rider’s credit card or other previously selected payment method. Reportedly, Lyft keeps as its commission 20% of the fare from its drivers who applied to Lyft before January 2016; and Lyft keeps 25% of the fare from its drivers who applied starting January of 2016.

Like Uber, Lyft has faced many legal and other regulatory hurdles and Lyft has received much opposition and criticism from its competitors, including taxi and limo services.

The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) issued a cease and desist order to Lyft (and also to Uber and Sidecar) and fined each $20,000.00 in the Fall of 2012. Then in 2013 an interim agreement was reached that reversed this order.

Then the Los Angeles Department of Transportation served its own cease and desist order on Lyft (and again also on Uber and Sidecar) in June of 2013.

The California Public Utilities Commission made its order permanent in September of 2013, creating a new category of service called Transportation Network Companies (TNCs). Thus, California became the first state in the U.S. to recognize and regulate such ride sharing services. Since both Uber and Lyft both started and were based in San Francisco, California, it should not be any surprise to anyone that California was the first state to recognize and regulate ride share services.

In 2012, co-founder Logan Green wanted to raise funds to develop self-driving cars for Lyft. Reportedly, Green was trying to develop a network of self-driving cars, sort of like AT&T and Verizon delivering mobile phone services across the nation. The applications and benefits of self-driving cars to companies like Lyft are obvious, including not having to pay drivers! This is another example of automation trying to displace workers.

Lyft has announced various joint ventures or partnerships in this regard, including with General Motors (GM) using the Chevrolets Bolt, Ford Motors, GoMentum Station, and Magna (the largest auto parts supplier in North America.

As of August 2018, Lyft reportedly had completed about 5000 rides in Las Vegas, Nevada, using driverless cars. What happens next is open to ones imagination.

There are many procedures and rules, including time deadlines, when making claims against an innovative and wealthy company like Lyft. If you were injured in any Lyft accident or a family member tragically killed in any Lyft collision with a wrongful death claim, please contact one of our Lyft injury accident attorneys now – You can call us now at 1.866. INJURY 2 (after business hours just please press “1” for immediate help).

There is no charge for our initial consultation and case evaluation – It is FREE!

Also, if we take your Lyft accident case, our injury lawyers work on a contingency fee which simply means there is NO fee due to us until we win.

There are many procedures and time deadlines, including the California statute of limitations, requiring suit or settlement within a certain time period. So please do not wait and risk hurting your claim or even losing your entire case. Please contact us now—You will be glad that you did!