Everyone keeps forgetting that Lyft has first-mover advantage. Lyft basically created ride-sharing, Uber was a black-car company and had to play catch-up to Lyft.
lyft somewhat had first mover advantage in SF. Uber had first mover advantage in every other city. Uber already existed in SF and was doing black car rides and a lot of people in NY/SF knew of it - which Uber used to leapfrog Lyft's first move advantage.