Lyft has withdrawn a total of 3,000 electric bikes from the streets of Washington, D.C., as well as from New York and San Francisco, in response to complaints received from customers that the bikes were braking too hard, it was announced on April 14.
In a blog post, privately owned public bicycle sharing system Citi Bike stated that it recently received a “small number of reports from riders who experienced stronger than expected braking force on the front wheel.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively removing the pedal-assist bikes from service for the time being. We know this is disappointing to the many people who love the current experience — but reliability and safety come first,” the company said regarding its decision.
The ride-sharing company also informed that they were currently at work on a new pedal-assist bike that will be introduced soon. “The new bike model will be accessible just by scanning a QR code and overall will be more fun to ride,” the company explained.
In the meantime, regular pedal bikes will be offered as substitute for electric bikes, according to the company’s decision.
The majority of electric bikes, which can go up to 18 miles per hour, were withdrawn by Lyft from three cities on Sunday. The company is working with an engineering firm to investigate the cause of the braking problem.
Motivate, owner of Citi Bikes in New York City and the largest bike share operator in the U.S., had designed the electric bikes in question. Lyft had acquired the bikes operator in November last year. In Washington, D.C., Motivate operates Capital Bikeshare.
Lyft has a bigger share in the U.S. ride-share market as the company now owns about 39 percent of the market, beating its rival Uber to an initial public stock offering this month.