Citi Bike Pulls E-Bikes From Service Amid Safety Worries

NEW YORK — Fans of Citi Bike's electric bicycles will just have to pedal a little harder. Safety concerns have forced New York City's bike-sharing service to pull its popular pedal-assist e-bikes off the streets.

Citi Bike announced the decision Sunday, saying some riders had reported a "stronger than expected braking force on the front wheel." The move came fewer than two months after the service said it would roll out 4,000 pedal-assist bikes, which give riders a motorized boost.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively removing the pedal-assist bikes from service for the time being," Citi Bike wrote in a blog post. "We know this is disappointing to the many people who love the current experience — but reliability and safety come first."

Citi Bike did not immediately elaborate on the safety issues that led to the decision. But at least four people got medical attention after the bikes' front brakes threw them over the handlebars, the New York Daily News reported.

Citi Bike said it will replace the e-bikes with old-fashioned pedal-powered bicycles. The service is working on a new e-bike model that riders will be able to check out by scanning a QR code, according to its blog post. It's uncertain when those bikes will become available.

Citi Bike announced plans in late February to add 4,000 e-bikes to its fleet after a pilot program proved they were highly popular. The pedal-assist bikes got triple the number of average daily trips as the classic model, the service said at the time.

The bikes were taken off the streets just about two weeks before a $2 surcharge for e-bike rides was set to take effect for Citi Bike members on April 27. The fee had already been imposed on single rides.