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posted by chromas on Tuesday April 16 2019, @06:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the I've-never-had-functioning-brakes,-I-don't-oil-my-chain-and-my-derailleur's-out-of-adjustment dept.

Brakes that are too effective have led Lyft to remove thousands of its electric pedal-assist bicycles from New York City (Citi Bike), San Francisco (Ford GoBike), and Washington, D.C. (Capital Bikeshare):

A month ago, Jordan Wyckoff was riding an electric Citi Bike to work in Brooklyn when he slammed on the brakes to avoid a minivan that swerved in the bike lane. But when he hit the brakes, the front wheel locked up, sending Mr. Wyckoff over the front of the handlebars and onto the pavement.

The same thing happened to Dominik Glodzik when he tried to brake before a stop sign in Astoria, Queens about two months ago.

William Turton flipped over the front of an electric Citi Bike while trying to brake before an intersection on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn.

In recent months, dozens of riders have reported injuries while riding electric Citi Bikes, prompting the company on Sunday to pull all of the approximately 1,000 electric bicycles from New York City's streets amid safety concerns about the brakes. Lyft, which owns Citi Bike, took similar precautions with its other bike-sharing services in Washington and San Francisco.

Motivate, a subsidiary of Lyft since 2018, operates bicycle sharing systems in several cities.

Also at BBC and Engadget.

Previously: Uber May Try to Buy Citi Bike Parent Company Motivate
Lyft Acquires America's Largest Bike-Sharing Company, Motivate

Related: New Electric Bikes, Scooters, and Dockless Bicycles Hitting U.S. Streets
Uber Buys Electric Bicycle-Sharing Startup JUMP Bikes


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Coward, Anonymous on Tuesday April 16 2019, @10:58AM (1 child)

    by Coward, Anonymous (7017) on Tuesday April 16 2019, @10:58AM (#830357) Journal

    This is a recipe for problems.

    With rental ebikes, you can add speed to incompetence. I'm pretty sure I know how that story ends. With regular bikes, inexperienced people tend to be slower.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Tuesday April 16 2019, @12:09PM

    With rental ebikes, you can add speed to incompetence. I'm pretty sure I know how that story ends. With regular bikes, inexperienced people tend to be slower.

    Yup. What's more is that those renting the ebikes rather than regular bikes are likely less athletic too. Which makes them more likely to be less experienced bicyclists. So the likelihood of issues becomes even larger from that perspective as well.

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr