Urban city dwellers! Lyft recently unveiled a national monthly subscription pass that allows riders to take up 30 rides in a single month for $299.
Each ride is constrained to a $15 value (adding up to $450 in credit for the month); riders will have to pay the difference for any ride that exceeds this limit. Once a user exceeds 30 rides, they will receive a 5% discount. Unused rides do not roll over; this is truly a case of use or lose those privileges.
There is no restriction on ride type somebody chooses to take.
There is also no reason to think that someone simply can't take two or more Lyft rides-building a "layover" of sorts-in order to get to where you need to get going and to avoid paying the overages if the ride exceeds the $15 limit.
Lyft and Uber has done similar things like this on a trial basis before, but this is the first time where it's not constrained to a small geographical area.
There are some particular cases where this can make a lot of sense: expensive rental car rates, frequent business travel, or for when a car is in the shop for an extended period. Beyond that, it should be an attractive alternative those who hate public transport or paying for parking downtown.
It *can* be a good deal depending on the particulars, since it does it takes out the cost of insurance and gas out of car ownership.
There are plenty of people who live in Santa Monica, Chicago, Manhattan, etc. that should eat their heart out on this one.
