Local bike-sharing service Nice Ride debuted 50 electric bikes in Minneapolis on Monday as part of a planned rollout to expand the company's fleet.
E-bikes have an electric motor that gives riders a boost when pedaling. That motor can help push riders up to 18 mph with less effort and less sweat than standard bicycles.
There's no additional cost to rent an e-bike. Using the Nice Ride app, cyclists can locate an e-bike by looking for a lighting bolt on the system map. The bikes have a power button on the handlebars, and riders can turn on the pedal-assist function by pressing and holding the button for three seconds while stationary.
E-bikes require less physical exertion and offer a sweat-free ride, making cycling a more attractive option for a wider range of trip types and individuals. By making longer trips easier, Nice Ride hopes e-bikes will also help shift travel patterns from cars to bikes – combating congestion and pollution.
"We are proud to build upon Nice Ride's legacy as a national bike-share leader with this e-bike pilot," said Caroline Samponaro, head of bike, scooter and pedestrian policy at Lyft, the operator of Nice Ride. "The extra boost from e-bikes makes it easier for more people to complete trips on two wheels rather than four, helping to make our streets more livable across Minneapolis."
Nice Ride first announced the addition of e-bikes in February, saying at the time that it planned to introduce 500 e-bikes to the city initially, then work toward adding more than 1,000 throughout summer 2019.
So what happened? Cory Epstein, a spokesperson for San Francisco-based Lyft, told the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal that the rollout was delayed due to ensure that the bikes were operating safely.
This spring, Lyft pulled hundreds of e-bikes off the streets in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., three of the other markets where it operates bike-sharing programs. That decision followed reports of injured riders who had been thrown over the handlebars while braking.
"Safety comes first, so we had to pause," Epstein tole the Biz Journal.
Epstein said that the e-bikes deployed in Minneapolis are a different model than the one associated with the braking problems in other markets.
After this summer's 50-bike pilot, Nice Ride plans to roll out more e-bikes in 2020.
