Almost six months have passed since Lyft, the company that owns Citi Bike, removed its entire fleet of new pedal-assist e-bikes from service, citing a "stronger than expected" braking force that sent some riders careening over the handlebars. Further details about the malfunction were scarce. In a short statement, Lyft promised a new model of e-bike would be redeployed on city streets "soon."
Now it is 170 days later, and still our precious e-bikes have not returned. In the time that it's taken Citi Bike to give us an update, Mayor Bill de Blasio has mounted and subsequently abandoned a campaign for president. The Earth has completed nearly half a rotation around the sun. The MTA has repaired an entire tube of the Hurricane-ravaged L train tunnel. The MTA, for Christ's sake.
What gives? Back in May, the company told Streetsblog that the e-bikes would return come fall. And while it may not feel like it outside right now, it is most definitely fall. Technically, meteorological autumn began on September 1st, meaning we're more than a third of the way into the supposed deadline. Perhaps Lyft, like the caribou, have been thrown by this zombie summer?
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Citi Bike told Gothamist nothing had changed, and that the bikes were still scheduled to return this fall. But it is fall, we whined, the beads of sweat trickling down our backs as we climbed the Williamsburg Bridge without the help of a motor.
A Citi Bike spotted at Riverside Drive and 120th Street earlier today
For a brief moment, there was hope. On Wednesday afternoon, an eagle-eyed cyclist spotted a bike with an e-signifying lightning bolt sticker at a dock on Riverside Drive near Columbia University. A sign! Maybe?
Unfortunately not. According to a Lyft spokesperson, the bike was merely labeled wrong. A jarring reminder of a bygone time, like momentarily mistaking a stranger for a long lost friend.
"I loved the electric assist when it first rolled out," the cyclist, who goes by Ollie Oliver, told us. "When they first pulled them, I thought, OK, technical difficulties. They'll be back in no time...I don't understand why it's taking so long."
Be patient, Ollie. The fall will come soon enough.
