Hire bike company Lime has announced the launch of a £20m ‘Action Plan’ to improve e-bike parking in London – a seemingly constant source of discontent in the capital in recent years – and to deter its users from “illegally” cycling on pavements and riding through red lights, while also pledging to support efforts to encourage more Londoners to travel by bike.
Unveiled on Thursday, the five-point plan, Lime says, is the company’s biggest investment in parking improvements and safety in any city around the world, and involves creating at least 2,500 new dedicated cycle parking spaces in London, expanding its on-street team in order to deal more effectively with obstructive parking by users, and the development of new technology to prevent riders from parking poorly “in real time”.
The plan will also see Lime increase its investment in cycling education schemes which will focus on “deterring illegal behaviour, such as running red lights and riding on pavements”, while further funding will be directed towards projects which help to improve cycling accessibility.
The move comes as demand for e-bike hire in London continues to soar. According to Lime’s own research, 49 per cent of Londoners aged 18 to 34 say they use a rental e-bike at least once a week, with total Lime e-bike journeys increasing by 85 per cent in the capital last year.
Over 16 million Lime journeys were taken by Londoners during commuting hours in 2024, while the company’s e-bikes or scooters have been used by over four million people since the brand’s launch in 2018.
However, Lime says that this demand has increased at a rate which exceeds the current parking space available in London’s boroughs, leading to overcrowded parking areas and some poorly parked e-bikes.
> Lime calls for more parking spaces in response to new TfL e-bike enforcement policy
That parking issue has been a constant thorn in Lime’s side over the past seven years, attracting criticism from locals who claim the hire bikes – which, unlike their London rival Santander Bikes, don’t require a docking station – are constantly abandoned by users and left “strewn” across pavements.
In 2023, residents in the west London borough of Hounslow claimed the bikes were “deliberately” left in “dangerous places”, with some locals calling for the trial of the bike hire scheme to be paused, arguing that it is only a matter of time before “somebody gets killed”.
In September 2024, Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to complain that the hire scheme’s dockless parking system was causing a “nuisance” in the borough, and that the bikes were “just being dumped on the streets, parks, rivers and canals, outside the high streets”.
In November, the residents of a building in Kingston upon Thames used angle grinders to chop up a number of Lime bikes they claimed had been abandoned by “thoughtless” cyclists in a private car park.
“It’s just getting out of hand. I’ve had confrontations with the riders themselves, but they’re just not interested. We’ve lost our temper with it,” one resident said.
> Lime hire scheme under fire as residents claim e-bikes “deliberately” left in “dangerous places”
The following month, Transport for London (TfL) announced a new enforcement policy for dockless rental e-bike and e-scooter parking, which it said would help streets “remain safe and accessible to everyone”, a move Lime claimed “underlines the urgent need for increased parking areas across the capital”.
And now, Lime believes its new action plan will “accelerate change and improve parking” so that Londoners can get around the city “easily and safely”.
According to Lime, £5m will be invested in new parking infrastructure, including the creation of 2,500 further dedicated parking spaces for their bikes, 1,500 of which they aim to build within the next six months.
“This investment is available to be used by boroughs immediately. It follows Lime’s initial £1m investment in 2024 that funded the creation of almost 750 parking spaces across London,” the company said.
“Lime also hopes to use a portion of the new funds to contribute to the Mayor of London’s 40,000 new bike parking locations set out in his manifesto, as part of its commitment ‘to ensure that dockless e-bike and e-scooter schemes can continue to play an important role in a safe and sustainable transport network’.”
Additionally, Lime says it has established a dedicated Private Land Parking Task Force, aimed at identifying additional parking spaces in partnership with private landowners, businesses, and other organisations.
The biggest investment included in the plan, however, is directed towards bolstering the company’s on-street team by 60 per cent.
Lime says it has already hired over 100 street-based staff, growing its ‘Parking Patrol’ team tasked with removing and redistributing poorly parked e-bikes from overcrowded parking locations.
This expanded team – now consisting of over 400 employees – will enable Lime to increase its presence at certain “hotspots” in the busiest London boroughs at peak periods. Staff will be equipped with 15 cargo bikes, with each cargo bike capable of moving five poorly parked Lime e-bikes at a time, amounting to around 4,000 bikes a day, Lime claims.
Meanwhile, Lime also says it will utilise an improved AI-based photo reviewer to “block poor parking in real time”.
Up to now, Lime has only been able to retrospectively issue warnings and fines for inconsiderately parked e-bikes, or for those parked in unauthorised zones – something Hollywood actor Timothée Chalamet found out to his cost following his Lime-based red carpet ride earlier this month.
But the company says its new technology will ensure that e-bikes are parked “appropriately in real time”, by preventing riders from ending their trip if they abandon their bike or try to park it where they shouldn’t.
Additionally, Lime says it will fund a £250,000 ‘safe riding campaign’, which it hopes will counter many of the anti-cycling tropes hurtled at its users and “improve the safety of all London cyclists”.
According to Lime, the campaign will “focus on deterring illegal behaviour, such as running red lights and riding on pavements”.
The company continued: “Lime recognises this is a complex problem and wants to work with City Hall, TfL, London Councils, and other operators to deliver a successful campaign.”
While the safe cycling campaign appears somewhat inspired by the Daily Telegraph, Lime added that it has committed another £250,000 “to improve access to cycling for more Londoners”.
Following an initial £100,000 contribution in 2024, this reinvestment in the ‘Share the Joy’ fund sees Lime continue to support the London Cycling Campaign’s efforts to encourage more Londoners to travel by bike. The fund awards grants to projects that improve cycling accessibility, with previous recipients including London Bike Kitchen, Cycle Sisters, and Wheels for Wellbeing.
Finally, the hire bike company says it will gather feedback from non-cyclists to improve its service for local communities, including the installation of clearly signposted, scannable QR codes on wheel covers, which will allow the public to report direct feedback quickly and easily.
Lime has also committed to “regular and transparent” reporting on its action plan, and will provide updates on the progress that has been made to tackle parking and overcrowding.
> Lime contractor tracked seized e-bikes to council lock-up and took them back
“Since we launched in 2018, London has embraced Lime’s e-bikes. While demand has surged, infrastructure and our ability to ensure riders always have somewhere to park safely and considerately has not kept pace, leading to parking challenges across our industry,” Lime CEO Wayne Ting said in a statement announcing the plan.
“The feedback we’ve received from London residents, community groups, and elected officials is why we’re launching our London Action Plan. We recognise the need for meaningful investments to accelerate change and improve parking, starting with more funding for dedicated e-bike parking, and additional operational capacity and processes.
“This £20m plan brings together crucial changes across our business that will help improve our service so that all Londoners can get around the city easily, and safely.
“We’re not stopping here. We’re still working on more solutions to enhance our operations in London, and we’re excited to update our London Action Plan throughout the year with additional improvements we’re making.
“London is a world-leading city with ambitious active travel and climate targets, and we will continue to collaborate with London boroughs, TfL and the Mayor of London to make it not only more sustainable, but more accessible and inclusive too.”
Meanwhile, Tom Fyans, the chief executive of the London Cycling Campaign: “Lime bikes are changing the face of cycling in London, bringing joy to a huge and diverse audience new to cycling in London. But with that comes great responsibility, and LCC is pleased to see Lime taking the lead in improving its operations and ensuring this increase in people’s mobility is a win-win for all Londoners.
“With this new investment, Lime is helping ensure new riders cycle and park more responsibly. We now need all councils and TfL to get behind this revolution in mobility and ensure more Londoners have the chance to enjoy the benefits.
“The increased investment in the Share the Joy fund will also give a massive boost to those working in London’s diverse communities to ensure more people experience the freedom and life-transforming power of cycling.”
16 thoughts on “Lime launches £20m plan to clamp down on “obstructive” e-bike parking and deter “illegal” cycling on pavements and running red lights”
Never ridden a Lime bike and
Never ridden a Lime bike and probably never will. Yes, they can’t be an annoyance when they are on their side either on the pavement or road. However, I remember back when you’d see something like a bin on the pavement and would move it. Now everyone just seems to walk around (and then complain). If you see a bike on its side, why not pick it up? That is part of living in a functioning society.
As for their “education” attempts to deal with red light jumping, I’ve always assumed a key factor in that is their per minute charging. Maybe if they used a distance based model or something like that users would be less concerned about journey time.
When critiquing social
When critiquing social behaviour – what are the costs and benefits? I think things have changed in many places over the years (perhaps because more people / people are more mobile).
So people may be a little more wary in interacting with others e.g. in the streets (while there seem far fewer inhibitions online).
There are likely fewer positive feedbacks for doing something (“hey – thanks for that!”)
There may be negative feedback for “interfering” or doing something (“did you just knock over my bin?” / “What’s that got to do with you?”)
There may not be negative feedback for not doing something * (“why did you just walk past that and not pick it up?”)
* “Social coercion” / “shame and disapproval” – mustn’t be overlooked in human affairs. But that generally grows with the closeness of some ongoing relationship between people – as that weakens, people won’t be embarrassed to ignore or break rules.
Personally I do move Lime and
Personally I do move Lime and other hire bikes when they are blocking the pavement, often having to move three or more on the 500 metre walk to the bakery to pick up breakfast on a Sunday morning. However, I am relatively fit and strong, not everyone can move them out of their way and so is forced to use the road and put themselves in danger to get round them. And in some cases… Take a look at the two photos below that I took this Saturday on Dog Kennel Hill and in the car park of the adjacent Sainsbury’s (completely blocking the only dropped-kerb zebra crossing access to the store) when Dulwich Hamlet were playing a home match (it’s the same every match day). Who has the time and energy to move all this lot, and where are you going to put them? I took the photos to send to the football club to ask them to ask their fans to have a bit more consideration, but no response.
I move them too, but you’re
I move them too, but you’re right – they’re heavy beasts.
Indeed, and of course a
Indeed, and of course a wheelchair or mobility scooter user has no chance of getting them out of the way.
Arms race – they just need
Arms race – they just need Surron / Engwe mobility vehicles, with kW motors…
Or – the wheelchair user equivalent of yourself…
Rendel Harris wrote:
Seems to be space the other side of that bit of fencing.
The boroughs could help with
The boroughs could help with more marked parking spaces (and not have cars park in them like in some cases), even better if TfL take over and set consistent London wide rules.
But some of the Lime contractors seem to be at fault with leaving large numbers of well lined up bikes poorly positioned (either too many for the area or in a inapropriate space). Would be interested to know how Lime pay them and if there is incentive to just dump lots of bikes at the same place?
Still seems not too hard to hack the Lime bike for a free ride going by the ping sound as Lime bike go by in Brent.
There will still be the problem of people pushing over well parked Lime bikes (often it seems the same people that complain about them blocking pavements).
Maybe I am misunderstanding
Maybe I am misunderstanding this but…
If Lime have developed technology that can detect red light jumping by their own users and subsequently issue reports to the police etc…
Can the same tech be incorporated into motor vehicles…?
Lime need to do two things;
Lime need to do two things; they need to make their cycles more theft proof – judging by the number of young males cruising about click clicking it seems very easy to nick one and then dump it wherever. The second thing is to increase the number of patrols. Each London borough should have mobile monitors (on e-bikes) cycling between the parking bays and keeping them tidy and orderly. Any damaged cycles can be reported to the vans and collected.
I’ve used Lime bikes a few
I’ve used Lime bikes a few times and they can be very handy. My sons use them regularly. But I often see people riding them who have very minimal cycling skills. Last week I was walking home from the local Sainsburys and watched as a young woman took a Lime bike from the bay beside the supermarket and promptly fell off it. She cycled slowly past me and managed to fall off it twice more in the space of about 100m.
The house next to ours is rented to four young guys who often rent Lime bikes and leave them in the middle of the pavement, with no thought that they’re blocking it for the disabled lady in the wheelchair down the road or any parent trundling their kids along in a buggy. This is a really common fault amongst Lime bike users, a complete disregard for where the bikes are left. There are only a couple of motorcycle only bays in our street, not really enough, and thye’re often cluttered up with Lime bikes as well.
Totally agree with all of
Totally agree with all of that; I would add to it the problem of drunk riding, unfortunately their easy availability make them a very tempting option for people coming out of the pub compared to waiting for public transport. I’ve particularly noticed around Elephant and Castle, but not only there, late at night on Fridays and Saturdays it’s a death race of people clearly alcohol impaired swerving all over the road on them. I expect Lime would say it’s impractical or economically unviable but some form of alcohol interlock device for riders would unquestionably be a good thing.
I’d say this is built in to
I’d say this is built in to dockless bike share, in the way that “parked on the footway” is built in to mass motoring…
However some of the problems described are also features of “mass cycling” – which can be seen where it exists (e.g. in NL). I suspect that includes drunk riding as Rendel mentions. So perhaps we’re actually seeing the start of “problems of success”?
All these issues are definitely “harm minimisation” compared with the the ills of mass motoring. They do need addressed – just as we need to have (more) policing of driving.
The UK doesn’t yet have a “mainstream cycling culture” (no mass cycling) so perhaps some of the social prohibitions / expectations are lacking here? Where cyclists are an out-group anyway perhaps there’s a “don’t care what people think as we get unreasonable criticism” attitude?
As the Dutch have found the way to reduce “bikes left everywhere” is by having a very convenient cycle hire system working from fixed locations. (In their case a nationwide system tightly integrated with public transport). And by making very attractive public parking options, plus mandating bike storage for new residential buildings.
Such an interesting situation
Such an interesting situation. Great that the Lime project is encouraging people to use bicycles for their transport and that the company benefitting has a plan to improve the experience for users and society more generally. I am not sure if this is reflected in the car world. In car world, manufacturers produce bigger vehicles, create new power platforms but contribute nothing to the wider infrastructure to enable their users to store their vehicles at public destinations. In this scenario it is the “council” that is called on to provide more parking or on-road charging facility!
Hmm… not up-to-date with
Hmm… not up-to-date with the funding / business model of Lime but most previous dockless bike systems I’ve been aware of were seem to be at best running off council funding / advert revenue. Or “venture capital”. The “service to the public” part seems to be more like “packaging”.
Not saying it can’t be done but a) schemes based from fixed docking stations seem to last longest b) I’m not aware that any actually make profit from the riders (I could be wrong now) c) I think notjustbikes’ comment that in many countries these are an attempt to compensate for missing or inadequate street-level public transport in urban areas has some merit.
Something more like NL’s system (OV Fiets)* may ultimately be the way. But in most places we’d first need a) far better public transport and b) a network of safe, convenient and genuinely attractive cycle routes (with widespread secure cycle parking)!
* First encountered this when Abelio tried to bring this to Scotland – I didn’t understand it at all then! I didn’t use a lot of public transport at the time (even being based in Edinburgh it’s not terribly convenient…) and they only had this at a few train stations (only one in the city). Plus the rental process was far from “seamless”. Finally their bikes were heavy (based on the Batavus Personal bike I believe) and my mental model for cycling was still more “ramble in the hills” rather than “getting to a given destination”.
No, Lime pay the councils to
No, Lime pay the councils to operate in the borough, not the other way around. They will also pay for the infrastructure – how much will depend on the individual contract with the borough / council.