July 4, 2022
PPG is providing a retroreflective powder coating to Lyft to make the company’s e-bikes—used in its DIVVY bike-share program in the US—more visible while the cyclists travel at night. PPG’s Envirocron LUM technology is designed to reflect maximum light back to the source. Inspired by the reflective properties of deer’s eyes, the single-layer coating refracts light and retroreflects it directly back to a vehicle’s driver to enhance visibility, using a formulation with embedded glass beads.
The coating delivers a non-solvent solution with high transfer efficiency. It provides exceptional scratch and mar resistance for the e-bikes to withstand a high volume of riders and meet Lyft’s goal for a durable and sustainable solution.
Lyft’s pilot program for its new high-visibility e-bikes debuted in the Bay Area in California in June 2021 and expanded to Chicago, Ill, in December. It launched in New York City earlier this year.
The new fleet of e-bikes are coated with an Abel Gray finish, which is a tribute to the late Abel Lopez, a Lyft engineer that was struck and killed by a vehicle while riding his bicycle in October 2020.