Lyft donates $700,000 to Oakland after quietly battling city taxes

Donation will aid transportation in low-income neighborhoods, but tax could have generated far more money

Lyft's announcement this week that it is donating $700,000 to expand transportation options in Oakland's low-income neighborhoods was hailed by the city's mayor, Libby Schaaf, as a way of "undoing the wrongs of the past".

According to the company and the mayor's office, Lyft's grant will pay for a participatory design process for the creation of new parklets and bike share stations, and a bike lending library. It will also provide subsidized local transit passes and Lyft rides in cars and on scooters for qualifying low-income residents in areas of Oakland where transportation infrastructure is chronically underfunded.