Just because Lyft entered some cities before Uber did does not mean they eventually paved the path for legalization. Most of the battles that occurred once local governments realized the magnitude of ridesharing were led by Uber.
Yes! there was an a16z podcast which interviewed someone from Lyft. They commented that they were very conservative in their decisions, leaving other companies to push the legalization issues.
Sidecar invented the driver using their own car, leading the way to Uberx and lyft.