Lyft Line comes to L.A., might be illegal
If you want to share a ride with another Lyft passenger, and happen to be in the greater Los Angeles area — you can. Lyft has started allowing carpooling in the L.A. area, in spite of the City District Attorney saying it might be illegal. Los Angeles is the second city Lyft is allowing carpooling to take place.
Lyft Line was announced for Los Angeles earlier in the month, which was quickly met with criticism from the DA's office. the service is already available in San Francisco, which has also deemed Line possibly illegal.
The reason both cities consider Lyft Line potentially illegal is that it could violate public utilities code. A section of that code prohibits transportation providers such as Lyft from charging multiple people for the same ride.
The cities sent a joint letter to Lyft regarding the matter. In equity, the same letter was sent to competing services Uber and sidecar. In response to the matter, a Lyft spokesperson had the following to say:
Ridesharing has been enthusiastically embraced by California residents and we have worked closely with the California Public Utilities Commission over the past two years to secure a future for this innovative option throughout the state. We are confident that we can work with the District Attorneys' offices to address the items outlined in their letter and look forward to discussing with them soon to do so.
In a blog post, Lyft cited all manner of reasons carpooling was great for Los Angeles. Everything from greenhouse emissions to a reduction in traffic (which L.A. desperately needs — stay off the 405) could be realized with Line and similar offerings from rival companies. So long as the pesky law doesn't interfere, that is.