Can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not with that "strangely", but yes - public transportation is a net good thing
Lyft isn't public transportation, and there was an article a few days ago which demonstrated that, in some cities, Uber and Lyft were causing a net decrease in public transportation use.
Darned consumer choice getting in the way of multi-billion dollar political handouts again [1].
[1] https://www.utrc2.org/publications/final-second-avenue-subwa...
I wasn't even advocating public transportation necessarily - just pointing out that Lyft doesn't qualify as public transportation.
But, since you're bringing it up, I'll point out that glibly referring to the Second Ave line as a "political handout" is reductive. The Second Ave project is[0] a disaster for a whole lot of reasons, not just "political handouts", and it's also not at all representative of public transportation either in NYC or in general.
[0] not was - is... Phase II and III have still not happened