Big Star, Roscoe’s and Wrigley Field – those were the top destinations for diners, drinkers and sports lovers getting a lift from Lyft this year.
For the first-ever Lyftie Awards, the ride-hailing company tallied up their most requested drop-off destinations across the nation, including Chicago, and broke down the ride-share data into six categories to find out which local spots saw the most action in 2015.
Here are the 2015 Chicago Lyftie Award winners:
>> Most Visited Restaurant: Big Star
>> Most Visited Bar: Roscoe’s
>> Most Visited Event Space: Wrigley Field
>> Most Visited Transit Stop: Union Station
>> Only in Chicago — Top Deep Dish Pizza Spot: Pequod’s Pizza
>> Trending Destination: TCBY, a frozen yogurt chain, is the overall top requested destination in Chicago.
“I think the Lyftie Awards are a great way to celebrate the end of the year and to look back at all the amazing places that people went across the city,” Lyft Chicago General Manager David Katcher said. “It’s also a way to recognize and celebrate local businesses, providing a window into where Chicagoans are going on a daily basis.”
Between November 2014 and February 2015, Lyft surveyed more than 5,700 passengers and 2,600 drivers across San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C.
The Lyftie Awards are a way to recognize the importance of local spending by highlighting some of the popular local businesses that have been the destinations for Lyft passengers in the past year.
It’s also a way to try and grab some of the spotlight as Uber continues to be the top dog in global ride-sharing.
“The result of the survey showed a direct impact on local economies – 73 percent of passengers told us they go out more frequently and/or stay out longer because of Lyft and 45 percent spend more money at local businesses because of access to Lyft,” Lyft spokeswoman Amity Gay wrote in an email.
On average, Lyft gives one million rides per week in more than 195 cities across the U.S. Statistics on the amount of rides Uber gives were not readily available.
Some of the Lyft destinations may come as a surprise – who knew frozen yogurt was so popular in Chicago and that TCYB would snag the top spot? But some of the winners were no surprise at all. Others, not so much: The Cubs did play baseball into October, afterall.
Nationally, Starbucks was the most visited coffee spot by Lyft customers (you just can’t deny those pumpkin spice urges) and transit stops are where the most passengers were dropped off.
Lyft plans to make the Lyftie Awards a yearly tradition, and at this moment, it doesn’t look like Uber has comparable awards. Uber did, however, publish a blog post Tuesday morning highlighting their top 10 drop-off destinations in Chicago for 2015.
