After a long hiatus due to COVID, Lyft and Uber have finally put the ‘share’ back in rideshare, letting users save money just by allowing co-riders through UberX Share and Lyft Shared. Just by selecting the option, you save money—even if you don’t end up matching with another rider. As always though, there’s that looming question: What’s the difference?
To answer that, we need to get into what exactly each service does.
UberX Share
Compared to the huge savings of Uber Pool, its predecessor, UberX Share falls a little behind, but its price is still a good deal. Choosing the option automatically grants a small upfront discount, followed by up to an additional 20% if a co-rider is found, depending on how far you travel together. The other major change from Pool is that, for now, only two separate riders can be in an UberX Share, and only one seat can be reserved per ride request, though riders can sit in the front seat if needed. Only UberX economy vehicles are available for shared rides at the moment.
The service is also designed for trips to take no more than 8 minutes longer than a typical UberX. To support that, drivers will only wait 2 minutes for pick-ups. A shared ride will never take you out of the way, though they’ll be dropped off before you if their destination comes first along the route.
Using UberX Share is just as easy as getting any other Uber. All you need to do is:
- Open the app
- Enter a destination
- Scroll down until you see “UberX Share”
- Select it and confirm!
UberX Share runs in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Portland, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh, but it’s expanding to more cities as time goes on.
Lyft Shared
The cost for a Lyft Shared is always shown upfront on the app, and that number is what you pay, regardless of whether you match with a co-rider. That price can depend on city, driver availability, and rider match likelihood. Like UberX Share, only two riders can be in the vehicle at a time for now, and only one seat can be reserved per request. The front seat is also available depending on your location and whether you and your driver are comfortable with it. Only the standard economy Lyft vehicles are available for shared rides at this time.
Lyft Shared offers the unique ability to request a shared ride up to 30 minutes in advance for a discount, the trip getting cheaper the further in advance you schedule it. When using this feature, there may also be a “No surprise pickups” label, where all other pickups on the route are shown to you beforehand.
Though Lyft doesn’t offer Uber’s “no more than 8 minute” guarantee, drivers will only wait 1 minute for your shared ride pick-up, so don’t be late!
Using Lyft Shared is also very simple:
- 1 Open the app
- Type in your destination
- Scroll down to “Shared”
- If you’re scheduling in advance, tap on “Pickup in X min”
- Select your preferred time and confirm!
Lyft Shared operates in Miami, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Jose, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, Washington D.C., Boston, Portland, and San Diego, though Lyft is also expanding to more locations.
So Which Should You Use?
At the end of the day, both companies offer about the same experience, since pricing and availability really depends mostly on your location and time of day—but if you’re not in a hurry, you can save some extra money with Lyft by scheduling the trip beforehand. On the other hand, if you’re the kind of person who takes a little more time to get to the car, maybe choose that two-minute wait time on the UberX Share. Better safe than sorry!