Lyft operates New York City’s Citi Bike bike-share system. Lyft entered the business by acquiring Motivate, the company that operated Citi Bike, in 2018.
Citi Bike was proposed by New York City’s Department of Transportation and opened in May 2013. It began with 332 stations and about 6,000 bicycles, offering a privately funded way to make short urban trips without owning a bike. The name comes from Citigroup, the system’s lead sponsor, not from its operator.
Lyft’s acquisition of Motivate expanded the company beyond cars into bicycles and other forms of urban transportation. Citi Bike now serves much of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, as well as Jersey City and Hoboken in New Jersey. The system includes conventional bicycles and pedal-assist e-bikes.
The city’s transportation department helped create the program, but it does not operate Citi Bike. That distinction is why Lyft is the canonical answer rather than New York City or Citigroup.