Lyft Just Made It Even Easier To Get A Ride When Public Transportation Screws You Over

Business InsiderZimride/Lyft cofounders John Zimmer and Logan Green

Crowdsourced transportation app Moovit just partnered with ride-sharing startup Lyft.

Somewhat like social mapping app Waze, Moovit helps you find the fastest, least crowded route by tracking the movements of its users and then syncing that up with official transit data. But Waze helps you find the fastest routes if you're in a car.

Thanks to its new partnership with Lyft, Moovit commuters can request a Lyft driver to pick them up in the event that public transportation can't get them to the final destination fast enough.

"We're proud to partner with the Moovit community to help people navigate their cities," Lyft CEO Logan Green said in a release. "Especially if they need a Lyft."

Moovit users who have never used Lyft before can use the promo code "MOOVIT" for a free ride worth up to $25.

Moovit is available in more than 350 cities. Since Lyft is live in only 60 markets, only Moovit users in those 60 markets will see the option to request a Lyft ride.

Why pick Lyft over apps like Uber and Sidecar?

"We both leverage the crowd to improve our offering, routes and view of the public transportation situation at the current time," Moovit President Omar Téllez tells Business Insider via email.

Moovit

This news comes about a month after Google Maps integrated Uber into its mobile apps to let people hail an Uber car straight from the Google Maps app.

It's unclear whether Uber and Google have some exclusive partnership, but we've reached out to Google to learn more.

With Moovit and Lyft, however, Lyft could theoretically partner with other mapping services.

Meanwhile, Lyft and Uber are in a full-on battle to dominate the transportation space.

Last month, Uber drove around a mobile billboard in San Francisco with the message "Shave The 'Stache." In response, Lyft parked a truck with a sign that read, "Be More Than A Number," outside Uber's office in San Francisco. Uber is also raising a massive round of funding.

Moovit is available for both iOS and Android, but only the Android version will get the update today. Moovit is still waiting on approval from the Apple App Store.

Last December, Moovit raised $28 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital. The app has raised $31.5 million to date.