Would ‘free’ Citi Bike rentals sway you on Lyft’s Pink subscription service? That’s what the Uber rival is testing with a new pilot program in New York City. Starting next week, select Lyft customers — including those who are yet to try Pink — will be offered two-month access to Citi Bike’s blue two-wheelers. The experiment will include unlimited ‘classic’ Citi Bike rides with a 45-minute cap, which should be long enough to travel between Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge. E-bike enthusiasts, meanwhile, will get a 10-cent-per-minute discount during the trial. If you start an electrified trip outside of Manhattan, Lyft will also cap the first 45 minutes at $2.

The ride-hailing company launched Lyft Pink as a replacement for its All-Access Plan last October. It costs $19.99 per month and gives subscribers a 15 percent discount on all car rides throughout the US. In addition, members get airport priority pickups and — more importantly in the current climate — three ‘free’ rides on a ‘classic’ Lyft bike or scooter, capped at 30 minutes. In select markets, the company also offers three e-bike unlocks and discounted rates in New York City and San Francisco. Adding Citi Bike’s fleet to the mix could increase Pink signups and persuade a few more people to ditch cars and mass transit until the pandemic is over.

In New York City, Lyft will provide hospital workers, first responders and transit workers with a free, one-month Citi Bike membership. Those passes can be obtained through employers, who can email HeroBikes@Lyft.com to enroll their staff. The offer applies to anyone working in these fields who recently purchased a membership or has an upcoming membership renewal, too. After this initial trial, Lyft and its partners will determine ridership needs and reevaluate.

“Having seen higher demand for Citi Bikes near our critical hospitals, Lyft has arrived at a generous and creative plan that will help get first responders where they need to go,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.

At certain high-traffic Citi Bike stations — like those outside of hospitals — Lyft valets will dock and disinfect bikes. Lyft will expand its cleaning operations and continue to disinfect bikes every time they enter the depot or are repaired in the field.

Healthcare workers in Boston and Chicago will also have access to discounts, The Verge reports. In Boston, Lyft’s Bluebikes is offering hospital workers a free 30-day membership, and in Chicago, healthcare workers have access to free rides on the city’s Divvy bikes through April 30th.

Lyft tends to be the more altruistic of the major ride-share players. Previously, Lyft has offered free rides to voters and people traveling to job interviews. This latest move will help workers who still have to head outside during the pandemic.

The bikes use a pedal-assisted electric drivetrain that allows you to get some exercise on the flats but not kill yourself on hills. According to Lyft, each e-bike was used for 15 rides per day during the trial, triple the usage of classic bikes during the same period. They were particularly popular in winter (when classic bike usage plunged by 60 percent), and twice as likely to be used to cross an East River bridge.

Members on the $169 per year classic bike plan can pay an extra ten cents per minute for the e-bikes, capped at $2 for 45 minutes or less, according to Citi Bike. Non-members pay $3 per ride for a 30-minute trip on a classic bike and can upgrade that to electric for an extra $0.15 per minute — or a total of $7.50 for a 30 minute e-bike trip. Lower income New Yorkers pay $5 per month for a classic membership plus 5 cents a minute for an e-bike, up to 45 minutes.

The initial pilot didn’t go too well, as members had trouble with very touchy front brakes that reportedly caused “dozens” of accidents and injuries. At the same time, Lyft’s e-bikes also had battery issues that caused fires in San Francisco and elsewhere. Because of all that, Citi Bike was forced to redesign the bike’s brake setup and also find a new battery supplier. The company also decided to change its e-bike pricing structure by eliminating flat fees and introducing per-minute charges.

The e-bikes are now back in service and Lyft has over 2,000 in San Francisco with plans to expand to Chicago, Washington DC, Minneapolis and other US cities. In New York City, it will soon expand in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx, “with more neighborhoods to follow.” It had 1,000 e-bikes in NYC when they were pulled over the brake issues, and Lyft eventually plans to install 4,000 in the city.

This isn’t entirely surprising given that Lyft acquired Citi Bike’s parent company, Motivate, last year and immediately struck a deal to invest $100 million in New York City’s fleet. In a blog post, the company says it will expand this new feature to other cities soon — though there’s no estimated timeline for that.

Of course, Lyft isn’t the only one vying for a slice of bike-sharing’s success. Last year, Uber acquired Jump, and both Google Maps and Apple Maps can now help you find bicycles for rent. There are a few kinks that still need to be worked out, like e-bikes with “stronger than expected braking,” and it’s too soon to tell if scooter-sharing has any real promise. But Lyft’s commitment to Citi Bikes is a testament to users wanting more non-car options.

A new e-bike is on the way, Citi Bike said in a statement, but for the time being all three companies are replacing e-bikes with classic pedal bikes in their fleets. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively removing the pedal-assist bikes from service,” the companies said in respective statements. “We know this is disappointing to the many people who love the current experience — but reliability and safety come first.”

Lyft, which recently began trading publicly with a valuation of over $24 billion, acquired Citi Bike, Capital Bikeshare and Ford GoBike parent Motivate in November. At the same time, it announced a deal with NYC to expand Citi Bike through a $100 million investment. The plan sought to triple Motivate’s required 12,000 bikes to 40,000 within the next five years, and more than double the coverage area to 35 square miles. It also promised a fleet of conventional and pedal-assist e-bikes, and 12 new valet stations.

Citi Bike’s e-bikes arrived on the streets of New York in August, following the city’s approval of new rules on electric bicycles. The pedal-assist system on the bikes can reach a maximum speed of about 18 miles per hour, a Lyft spokeswoman told the NYT. Citi Bike had reportedly planned to have 4,000 e-bikes available by June.