Lyft-owned bike-share company debuts new Bay Area branding

Details: Motivate's new electric bikes in the Bay Area (the company pulled a previous model off the streets in April because of brake problems) can be parked in street docks or left anywhere, making them so-called "dockless bikes."

• This is important as the firm's owner, Lyft, filed a lawsuit on Friday against the city of San Francisco over its plans to allow new dockless bike-sharing companies to operate.
• Lyft's argument is that Motivate was granted exclusive rights to operate a bike-share service in the Bay Area in exchange for its upfront investments into associated infrastructure, like bike docks.
• However, San Francisco officials told Lyft in a recent letter prior to the lawsuit that Motivate only has exclusive rights regarding bike docking stations — not bike-sharing as a service. (The city's grant of an 18-month pilot to dockless bike-sharing company JUMP might have sent Motivate a message .)