Lyft cuts scooter service in several cities, lays off 20 people

Lyft has announced some cuts to its current scooter business, pulling out of six markets and laying off a handful of employees from its bikes and scooters division.

According to TechCrunch, Lyft is pulling its scooter service from Atlanta, Columbus, Dallas, Nashville, Phoenix (Mesa and Scottsdale, to be precise), and San Antonio, in addition to laying off around 20 people from the bikes and scooters division.

According to Lyft, it's mostly about low ridership. In a statement emailed to Mashable, a Lyft spokesperson said, “We’re choosing to focus on the markets where we can have the biggest impact. We’re continuing to invest in growing our bike and scooter business, but will shift resources away from smaller markets and toward bigger opportunities.”

Besides ridership numbers, there have been other hurdles to growing in certain markets. For instance, the service has run into several bumps in Atlanta. As noted by CNN, multiple deaths related to e-scooters resulted in the city declaring a No Ride Zone overnight and freezing additional "issuance of scooter permits."

A rider's death in Nashville also spurred debate about how many scooters would be allowed in the Tennessee metropolis.

According to reports on both of the aforementioned cities, Nashville will lose its Lyft scooter service on November 22 with Atlanta losing it on November 23.

Lyft's scooter service will still be available in 14 locations across multiple markets, including the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Denver, and the Washington, D.C. metro area.