In one more indication that the U.S. is over the covid-19 pandemic—though health officials state it’s under no circumstances over but—Lyft introduced on Thursday that it was bringing again carpooling to 5 cities this month: San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. The experience hailing firm plans to relaunch the service to much more markets later in 2022.

In a blog post, Lyft mentioned that shared rides, which provide a few of its most inexpensive fares, will look a bit of totally different than customers bear in mind. Shared experience requests will likely be restricted to 1 passenger, the corporate defined, which signifies that customers received’t be capable of e-book a carpool for 2 folks on the similar time, as was once the case. Each carpool could have two passengers max. In addition, customers can now e-book a shared experience upfront, which may decrease the fare.

Lyft said that carrying masks in shared rides is non-obligatory, stressing that customers ought to respect whether or not drivers or different riders select to masks up.

“As one of our most in-demand and affordable ride options, we look forward to gradually bringing Shared rides back,” Ashwin Raj, the corporate’s head of ridesharing, mentioned within the blog post. “We recognize the world has changed and our offerings need to evolve with it. That’s why we are bringing Shared rides back in phases and listening to feedback along the way–all so we can continue to deliver the best possible service for our riders and drivers.”

Besides the 5 new cities introduced on Thursday, shared rides will even be out there in Philadelphia and Miami quickly.

The firm’s announcement was made two days after it offered blended first quarter results, which resulted in a plunge of its inventory. Lyft reported a 44% improve in income year-over-year but skilled a slight drop in lively riders (from 18.7 million final quarter to 17.8 million). Lyft additionally launched a lower revenue guidance for the following quarter than anticipated. The firm mentioned it deliberate to extend spending in an try and woo extra drivers, including that these prices would weigh on its backside line. By distinction, its principal rival Uber reported excessive Q1 earnings.

The new model of shared rides is little question a welcome change for Lyft drivers, lots of whom hated them due to low buyer scores and inefficient instructions that aggravated riders, the Verge reported. Lyft mentioned that shared rides will likely be “completely optional” for drivers for the remainder of 12 months, which might permit them to reject the multiple-rider fare with out getting penalized.