Electrifying just 20% of bike-share stations could drastically reduce emissions

Welcome to the latest edition of Rev , Lyft’s guide to the ideas, people, and technologies driving the transportation revolution.

IN THIS ISSUE

• Why adding charging to just a few bike-share stations is a big win for the environment?
• Urban planning influencer Mr. Barricade explains one simple trick for making intersections safer
• Bridges across the country are being updated to be more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly. Here are ten newly bike-friendly bridges you should know about?

E-bikes are fun to ride and good for the environment, but they still have one big weakness — an “Achilles’ pedal,” if you will. To function, they need to be charged on a recurring basis.?

But right now, vans drive around and pick up the bikes that need charging – a process that releases more emissions into the environment.

Jennifer Uang, former systems modeling engineer at Lyft, knew a better solution was needed to cut emissions.?

“The question I was trying to answer is: What would Lyft be able to do to optimize charging?” she says.?

She knew that Lyft has been developing a new Pillar dock, which allows stations to automatically recharge e-bikes out in the field. But she also knew that electrifying the existing docking stations is no trivial task.?

Uang wondered if the company could keep most of its e-bikes charged by electrifying only a few of the most popular stations and decided to run a data simulation based on real-world historical e-bike usage to find out. She discovered that deploying electrification at only 20% of Lyft’s bike-docking stations in a given city is enough to allow the company to keep 80% of its fleet charged, consistently.

Lyft calculates that the impact these solutions would have on the environment is powerful, reducing the total distance traveled by Lyft’s battery-swapping vans and trucks by 307,000 miles, saving 132 tons of CO2 emissions a year in New York City by 2025.?

Read more about the research and what comes next here .

A few seconds can make intersections safer

Intersections have a problematic design flaw: Pedestrians and vehicles get the green light at the same time, which can lead to dangerous conflicts. TikTok traffic and road infrastructure influencer Mr. Barricade, aka civil engineer Vignesh Swaminathan PE , explains a simple solution.

Introducing 10 newly bike-friendly bridges

Spurred by state, local, and federal funding, bridges in San Francisco, New Jersey, and across the U.S. have recently undergone significant upgrades that aim to promote sustainable mobility, reduce traffic congestion, and enhance the urban landscape.

Read Rev’s list of ten noteworthy bridges that have received bike- and pedestrian-path upgrades — including a bridge named for a famous neighborly TV character — here .

That’s all for this week. If you liked this newsletter, please share it!?

Until next time, ride safe,

~ Rev Staff?