Lyft puts brakes on e-bike-sharing in NYC

Citi Bike is withdrawing all 1,000 electric bicycles in New York City due to safety concerns regarding the brakes. Lyft, which owns Citi Bike, made similar arrangements for its bike-sharing services in Washington and San Francisco.

According to the New York Times, „dozens of riders“ have suffered injuries but not from failing to brake but from stopping too abruptly. The front wheel of some pedal-assist bikes just blocked, sending riders over the handlebars and onto the pavement. 

In a statement, Citi Bike said, “we recently received a small number of reports from riders who experienced stronger than expected braking force on the front wheel”.  While this may be an understatement in light of the above incident, Lyft took decisive action. The sharing service has removed all e-bikes for now and has replaced them with pedal-only bikes until a new e-bike model arrives.

nytimes.com, citibikenyc.com (Citi Bike statement)