UPDATED 13:13 EDT / APRIL 15 2019

APPS

Lyft recalls thousands of electric bikes after braking problems cause injuries

Lyft Inc.’s budding micro-mobility business has hit a bump in the road.

The company said today that it has taken its electric bikes off the streets in New York City, San Francisco and Washington D.C. after a “small number of users” experienced issues with the brakes. The recall affected about 1,000 vehicles in the Big Apple alone. According to the New York Times, dozens of riders in the city were injured over the past few months while using Lyft bikes.

The issue appears to be that the brakes stopped the front wheel too abruptly. One of the Lyft users who was interviewed by the Times said that his rented bike flipped over when he tried to bring it to a stop at an intersection.

Lyft’s bicycles feature pedal-activated motors that enable riders to comfortably cycle at a speed of up to 18 miles per hour. They’re based on a design originally developed by Motivate International Inc., the bike-sharing startup that the company acquired last year to enter the micro-mobility market. Lyft has reportedly reached out to the Japanese manufacturer that makes the bikes’ brakes and an external engineering firm to identify what’s causing the problem.

While the issue is being addressed, the company will substitute the faulty electric bikes with motorless models. That means the recall likely won’t have too big of an impact on end-users, though it may prove to be a complication for Lyft’s expansion plans.

The company is currently pursuing a $100 million initiative that will see the size of its New York bike fleet more than triple to 40,000 units over the next five years. The injuries caused by the recent braking issue may prompt local authorities, as well as regulators in the other cities Lyft has bicycles, to scrutinize its operations more closely.

Competitors will no doubt be watching the situation as well. Lyft currently has an exclusive license to provide bike-sharing services in several major cities, including New York, something that authorities may be more likely to reevaluate after the recall. That might create an opening for rivals such as Uber Technologies and LimeBike Inc., which are also rapidly expanding their bike-sharing networks.

Photo: Lyft

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