Lyft In Negotiations With Region’s Cities and Towns to Renew Bluebikes Operating Contract

The municipal owners of the Bluebikes bikesharing system are in negotiations to renew a contract with Lyft to continue operating the day-to-day operations of the system for the next five years.

Lyft currently handles the day-to-day operations of the Bluebikes system – things like processing rider payments, providing customer service, and conducting maintenance on bikes and stations. Lyft does that work under contract with the city governments of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and other participating cities, who collectively own the bikes and stations.

Lyft’s current contract with those cities is due to expire early next year, so earlier this spring, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), a regional planning organization, issued a “request for proposals” for a new operating contract.

Officials from MAPC told StreetsblogMASS on Wednesday that two bikesharing companies responded to their solicitation: Lyft and Drop Mobility, a company that operates several smaller bikesharing systems, inlcuding ValleyBike in the Connecticut River Valley region.

Based on those two proposals, the Bluebikes system’s municipal owners decided to enter into negotiations with Lyft.

“We are honored to have the opportunity to continue operations of the Bluebikes system,” said Dominick Tribone, Head of Market Operations for Lyft, in a statement to StreetsblogMASS this week. “We look forward to working with the municipal owners of the program to modernize the system, ensure equitable access, and continue breaking ridership records.”

Key details to be determined in contract negotiations

As we reported earlier this spring, the MAPC “request for proposals” asked prospective operating companies to propose operating models that would increase ridership and add more stations, while also paying for day-to-day operations without subsidies from municipal governments.

MAPC officials told StreetsblogMASS that those financial and operating details are still under negotiation.

But they declined to share a copy of Lyft’s proposal with StreetsblogMASS this week, citing ongoing negotiations.

Under Massachusetts Public Records Law and state procurement laws, private companies’ bids for government contracts are supposed to be considered public records after an agency closes the bidding process and opens the sealed bids that it has received for evaluation, even if negotiations continue after that date.

According to the state’s procurement database, MAPC opened these bids on June 30.