Afternoon Briefing: City could force Uber and Lyft to hike driver pay
Rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber could soon be forced to pay Chicago drivers more if an ordinance up for debate Thursday moves ahead, a change the companies say would cause the cost of rides to skyrocket for passengers.
Ald. Michael Rodriguez, 22nd, said his measure would make sure rideshare drivers make more than minimum wage and get paid when they wait for and drive riders. But critics and the companies say the legislation will raise costs and could even put many drivers out of work.
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Federal prosecutors announced today that they will retry state Sen. Emil Jones III on bribery charges after a jury in April deadlocked on all counts, leading to a mistrial. Read more here.
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Illinois lawmakers ended their spring legislative session without finding a way to plug the gaping $771 million budget gap facing the region's mass transit systems next year. Thousands of jobs hang in the balance. Read more here.
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The longtime Sky star jokingly acknowledged her quiet exit in a Players Tribune column today as she formally announced her retirement from the WNBA — nearly three years after playing her final game for the Sky in September 2022. Read more here.
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Anthony Mateos, who lives in Evanston and has just completed his junior year at Evanston Township High School, has compiled and published a terrific book titled 'Who We Are: Stories From the Chicago StreetWise Community.' Read more here.
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The Marines that deployed to Los Angeles on orders from President Donald Trump have not yet been called to respond to the city's immigration protests and are there only to protect federal property, the Marine Corps commandant said. Read more here.
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Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Miami-Dade considers axing free ride service amid budget crisis. Riders protest
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Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Here's Why Investors Should Bet on Lyft Stock Right Now
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Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Ultimate Growth Stock to Buy With $1,000 Right Now
Key Points Lyft's stock trades nearly 80% below its IPO price. But it's still generating double-digit sales growth and its profits are soaring. It's also widening its moat with new features and acquisitions. 10 stocks we like better than Lyft › Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT), the second-largest ride-hailing company in America, hasn't impressed many investors since its public debut six years ago. It went public at $72, but it now trades at around $15. But after that steep drop, it looks like an undervalued growth stock -- and it might just churn a modest $1,000 investment into a lot more money. Why did growth investors lose interest in Lyft? Lyft, which initially only provided its ride-hailing services in the U.S. and Canada, is much smaller than its multinational competitor Uber (NYSE: UBER). Unlike Uber, Lyft doesn't provide any first-party food delivery services -- but it offers mutual perks for subscribers of other food delivery platforms like DoorDash and Grubhub. It also provides bicycle and electric scooter rentals in select cities. Lyft's number of active riders and total revenue surged in 2018, but both metrics cooled off in 2019 before plummeting during the pandemic in 2020. Its growth rates stabilized over the following four years, but it didn't exceed its pre-pandemic ridership levels until 2024. Metric 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Active Riders 18.6M 22.9M 12.6M 18.7M 20.4M 22.4M 24.7M Active Rider Growth (YOY) 48% 23% (45%) 48% 9% 10% 10% Revenue $2.2B $3.6B $2.4B $3.2B $4.1B $4.4B $5.8B Revenue Growth (YOY) 103% 68% (35%) 36% 28% 8% 31% Data source: Lyft. YOY = Year-over-year. Lyft's recovery was throttled by stiff competition from Uber, driver shortages, regulatory challenges for gig economy workers, and the challenges of balancing its cost-cutting strategies with the expansion of its platform. Its co-founders, CEO Logan Green and president John Zimmer, also stepped down in 2023. Green was succeeded by David Risher, a former Amazon retail executive who focused on streamlining its business. Lyft's business gradually stabilized, but it didn't impress too many growth-oriented investors because its recovery seemed fragile. Uber, which controls roughly three-quarters of the U.S. ride-hailing market, still generated nearly eight times as much revenue as Lyft in 2024. What's the bull case for Lyft's recovery? Lyft struggled with some post-pandemic growing pains, but it also increased the stickiness of its platform with popular features like its Lyft Pass service for businesses, its subscription-based Price Lock service for recurring trips, its rebooted Lyft Pink membership tier, and its Women+ Connect feature (which matches female and non-binary riders with female and non-binary drivers). Its number of active riders rose to a record high of 26.1 million in the second quarter of 2025. To address its previous driver shortages, Lyft raised its incentives and offered more benefits. To offset the pressure of those higher costs, it provided more high-margin Lyft Black and Lyft SUV services, pared down its lower-margin bicycle and electric scooter rental services, expanded its higher-margin Lyft Media segment (which streams sponsored media content and digital ads across its app and in-car tablets), and pruned its workforce. That's why its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) turned positive in 2023, and why its generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) earnings and free cash flow (FCF) both turned green in 2024. It's plowing a lot of its cash into big buybacks to boost its earnings per share (EPS) and offset its dilution. That might make Lyft seem like a slower-growth, cost-conscious company, but it still has plenty of ways to expand. Its acquisition of Freenow, which closed on July 31 for about $200 million, will nearly double its total addressable market, add about $1 billion to its annual gross bookings, and diversify its business beyond North America. It's also been testing out autonomous vehicles with Mobileye and May Mobility in select cities, and those vehicles could eventually replace its human drivers while widening its moat against Alphabet's Waymo, Tesla's Robotaxi, and other driverless ride-hailing services. Why is Lyft a great place to park $1,000? From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect Lyft's revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow at a CAGR of 13% and 29%, respectively. With an enterprise value of $5.05 billion, it looks like a bargain at less than one times this year's sales and 10 times its adjusted EBITDA. Uber trades at 4 times this year's sales and 22 times its adjusted EBITDA. Therefore, Lyft's stock could easily double or triple within the next few years if its growth strategies impress the bulls again. We should take those estimates (which don't fully account for its takeover of Freenow) with a grain of salt. But if you expect Lyft to continue growing in Uber's shadow while balancing its disciplined spending and expansion strategies, it could be a great place to park $1,000 over the next few years. Do the experts think Lyft is a buy right now? The Motley Fool's expert analyst team, drawing on years of investing experience and deep analysis of thousands of stocks, leverages our proprietary Moneyball AI investing database to uncover top opportunities. They've just revealed their to buy now — did Lyft make the list? When our Stock Advisor analyst team has a stock recommendation, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor's total average return is up 1,077% vs. just 185% for the S&P — that is beating the market by 892.55%!* Imagine if you were a Stock Advisor member when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $671,466!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,115,633!* The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025 Leo Sun has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, DoorDash, Tesla, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Lyft and Mobileye Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The Ultimate Growth Stock to Buy With $1,000 Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
