As a Baltimore resident, it can sometimes feel like the city can’t get out of its own way. I say that after a week when the police commissioner was suspended for not filing his taxes, the city hit 100 murders for the year, and the first of the gun trace task force officers were sentenced.

Baltimore also has suffered with inadequate transportation systems, from the cancellation of the Red Line, to the maintenance backlog that eventually shutdown the subway. We even struggled to operate a bike share system, in no small part because of theft and vandalism.

Despite theses issues, Lyft is ready to double down on Baltimore.

Mike Heslin — Lyft’s Market Manager for Lyft — says that Lyft is looking to extend their partnership with the Bike Share system. In February, Lyft announced they were sponsoring five of Baltimore Bike Share’s docks. The cynic among us would be excused for assuming that Lyft was simply using the Bike Share docks as a billboard, or that they were looking for a response to Uber’s partnership with JUMP Bikes.

However, Heslin said Lyft entered into the partnership because they are interested in complementing the city’s transportation system, not competing with it. While the centerpiece of the partnership is the five branded docks, he said Lyft is also developing programming as their partnership expands. He would not disclose details, but said that there would be more announced in a month or two.

Despite seeming to be in competition, Heslin says that Lyft sees the two transportation methods as being complementary. “We expect people to use these stations to have multiple options when they are commuting or going out to special events, or when county residents want to take Lyft into the city then use Bike Share to get around.” They are looking closely at the last mile data of users to get a better idea of how Lyft and Bike Share are being used together, but noted “its still early; we launched in February when there is not a lot of Bike Share usage, so we are still collecting data.”

One part of the partnership is the designated pickup zones around each of the branded docks. Users that hail a Lyft from the zones around these docks are given a specific spot to meet their driver, which translates to 65% lower cancellation rates, according to Heslin. These are safe places for drivers to pull over, and keep the cars from stopping in bus lanes.

Its easy to be cynical about this partnership, and assume that Lyft would ultimately like people to use Lyft — instead of Bike Share or mass transit — to get around. Studies have shown that Lyft and Uber are contributing to the congestion in our cities because of the additional vehicles on the road. However, Heslin expressed that the ultimate goal is to reduce the number of personally owned vehicles. This will push people to use Lyft, but will also create a new pool of people that will use Bike Share, bus, light rail, subway, Uber, and Zipcar to get around.

The face of transportation is rapidly changing, which Lyft and Uber are quickly embracing. Lyft appears to be partnering with Bike Share, not because they want five new billboads, but because they see the value in a thriving transportation system in Baltimore.

First, they needed Bike Share to be a functional system again. “We came into this with open eyes.” He said that Lyft had seen my article about there only being four bikes in the system last September, but that “Lyft wants to partner with the system as it grows and gets healthier.”

Sometimes its nice to have other people love your city as much as we do.