E-bike demand is reshaping how cities think about the infrastructure behind bike share, with charging-enabled stations emerging as an increasingly important part of fleet operations.
Among its six operated bike share systems across the U.S., Lyft Urban Solutions (LUS) brought nearly 1.6 million new riders onto shared bikes and scooters last year alone, recording a 13% rise in e-bike trips and nearly one million fewer personal vehicles owned, according to its riders.
Those findings are a snapshot of Lyft’s annual Multimodal Report. The report outlines the expansion, ridership trends, and social impact of one of the largest shared micromobility operators in the U.S., zooming in on its direct operations in North America and wider technology footprint extending across South America, Europe and the Middle East.
Now in its sixth year, the 2026 report draws on LUS’s trip data and rider survey responses across six directly operated markets in the United States and a wider cross-continental technology network. For the first time, responses from riders of Toronto’s bike share program, powered by LUS software and hardware, were included in this year’s survey.
“What speaks the loudest in the data is how central the station itself has become to a system’s success,” Miller Nuttle, LUS Director of Public Policy, tells Zag Daily. “Six years ago, stations were mostly thought of as parking, a place to pick up and drop off a bike. Today they’re the piece of infrastructure that determines whether a whole system actually works: whether bikes are where riders need them, whether the fleet stays in good repair and, increasingly, how to maximize the ridership potential of an e-bike fleet via in-dock charging.”
Bike share proves its staying power
The past year marked major longevity milestones for Lyft Urban Solutions.
Santander Cycles in London, Ecobici in Mexico City, and Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) in Washington DC each celebrated 15 years of continuous service, while networks in Toronto, Chattanooga and Guadalajara crossed the decade mark.
Ridership records were celebrated globally. Madrid’s Bicimad hit a record monthly peak in June with 1.3 million trips, a 53% year-over-year increase. New York’s Citi Bike logged over 206,000 rides on its peak day, 71% of which occurred on e-bikes. Montréal’s BIXI surpassed 100 million all-time rides while earning recognition from TIME magazine as one of the top 25 inventions of the last century.
Established bike share systems have proven that real viability comes down to staying power, surviving political shifts, budget battles, and tech upgrades over time. As Nuttle points out, that kind of proven endurance changes how city leaders view these investments.
“Being able to point to systems that have already answered that question is what gives other cities the confidence to treat bike share as permanent infrastructure rather than a discretionary program that gets cut in the next downturn,” Nuttle explains.
“The success of a program like Washington, DC’s CaBi, which has seen double-digit year-over-year ridership growth for several years, is further testament that long-term investment in station infrastructure and a robust e-bike fleet is paying off.”
Station-based systems also make each bike work harder, Nuttle notes. A fixed network concentrates demand at known points, so a smaller fleet can serve more trips per bike than a scattered one. That efficiency is part of what gives cities the confidence to expand: more riders served without a proportional increase in vehicles on the street.
Looking to BIXI, Nuttle adds: “Bike share done right becomes essential civic infrastructure on the same order as other systems the public relies on daily, not an amenity that gets deprioritised when budgets tighten.”
E-bike boom puts stations in spotlight
E-bikes remain the primary growth engine for U.S. systems operated by Lyft.
700,000 first-time e-bike riders were recorded last year, marking nearly half of all new riders who took a ride on a pedal bike, e-bike or e-scooter.
The 13% rise in e-bike trips continues to cement a familiar trend. In LUS’s 2025 Multimodal Report, e-bike trips surged by 47%, with nearly 100 million miles travelled across the LUS network in the U.S. in 2024.
LUS Senior Director Mark Roberts notes that 69% of members choose e-bikes when given the option across Lyft’s top U.S. systems, generating an important revenue stream that helps offset operating costs and fund expansion.
To keep pace with demand, operators are prioritising grid-connected charging infrastructure. Electrified docks let bikes recharge on site, improving availability while drastically reducing the need for operational crews to perform van-based battery swaps.
This shift in how cities view station hardware is reshaping policy and budget discussions globally.
“This is what has been most gratifying to watch: stations have moved from an afterthought in the budget conversation to the centrepiece of it,” Nuttle notes.
“Six years ago, the political question was whether bike share deserved a line item at all. Today, city councils and transportation departments are asking how many more stations they can add, how quickly they can upgrade existing docks with in-dock charging, and where the capital comes from to do it.”
As Nuttle points out, the debate for city leaders is no longer whether to electrify, as rider demand has settled that, but how to finance and roll out grid-connected stations as quickly as possible.
To achieve electrified networks at scale, cities and utilities are getting creative. In Chicago, the transportation department partnered with local utility ComEd to classify Divvy e-bike charging docks as electric vehicle infrastructure. By including bikeshare in ComEd’s broader rate case, the city got power routed directly to station meters at zero additional cost to municipal taxpayers.
In Pittsburgh, the POGOH bike share team used basic above-ground conduit to connect to light poles next to their stations, saving tens of thousands of dollars per site.
European cities like Zaragoza, Bilbao, and Rivas have launched fully electric systems from day one, showing how governments increasingly view charging as a baseline standard rather than a future retrofit. On the software side, LUS is leveraging its popular Bike Angels program to incentivise riders to return low-charge e-bikes directly to grid-tied stations.
As Caroline Samponaro, LUS VP and Head of External Affairs, points out, cities are embracing grid-connected charging infrastructure not just to modernise fleets, but to transform operational sustainability and ensure long-term efficiency for public agencies.
The access question
Survey data paints a detailed picture of who relies on shared micromobility.
Across Lyft-operated systems, 40% of riders identify as women, 22% as LGBTQ+ and 54% as members of a community of colour.
On what kinds of trips shared micromobility serves, commuting accounts for 42% of trips, while 81% of U.S. riders use shared bikes or scooters to connect directly to public transit.
Demographics in public bike share are influenced by both hardware design and targeted access programs.
Standardising low step-through frames across fleets aims to make bikes physically accessible to a broader range of riders. E-bikes, meanwhile, play a role in expanding access by easing physical demands like steep inclines, headwinds and longer distances.
In New York City, income-eligible members take more e-bike trips than standard riders (roughly 75% vs 71%), while network-wide rides taken through reduced-fare programs grew by 155% between 2021 and 2025.
Geographic placement remains equally decisive in who rides. Without enough stations in historically underserved areas, networks risk serving primarily the communities that already have the best transport options, rather than functioning as genuinely citywide transit.
To support adoption in these areas, local ambassador programs provide direct instruction and community group rides. LUS works with organisations such as Achilles International, Adaptive Adventures, and NYU’s Ability Project to design and staff recreational adaptive bike share workshops across major U.S. markets.
The social impact extends beyond access to the bikes themselves. In New York City, LUS’s Bike Path Program has trained and hired 58 individuals with criminal justice backgrounds as certified Citi Bike mechanics, creating employment opportunities alongside expanding access to shared mobility.
Beyond the bike: Lyft’s multimodal push
Micromobility integrates into Lyft’s broader multimodal portfolio, which reached over 51 million people last year.
Beyond bikes, Lyft operates rideshare services across North America and Europe, alongside 100+ public transit partnerships delivering paratransit, first and last-mile and late-night transport services.
This ecosystem is increasingly integrating autonomous vehicles (AVs) alongside human-driven trips. Through partnerships with May Mobility in Atlanta, Waymo in Nashville, and Baidu in London, Lyft is expanding access to driverless rides, noting that rideshare usage is growing faster in markets with active AV deployments.
As Lyft’s mobility ecosystem continues to expand across bikes, public transit, ride share, and AVs, the report points to a common goal of expanding access to mobility and the opportunities it creates. Whether it’s an income-eligible commuter riding an e-bike to work, a university student linking to the subway, or a local mechanic starting a new career path, LUS’s 2026 report demonstrates that investing in shared mobility is an investment in human potential as a whole.
