In London, scarcely a week goes by without a negative media story about badly parked Lime bikes obstructing sidewalks, the dangers posed by riders or the struggle to regulate them properly.Betty Laura Zapata/The Globe and Mail
Silently and swiftly swooping along London’s streets – and often through red lights – the white and bright green battery-assisted Lime bikes with their distinctive front baskets have rapidly become an everyday sight, almost equal to black taxis, red phone booths and grey pigeons as symbols of the city.
On a recent sunny August morning, Sophie Palmer jumped off her Lime bike, parked it on the sidewalk, and snapped and uploaded a photo to the app to close her ride. It all took seconds.
“I’m a huge fan of the Limes,” said the 29-year-old personal assistant. “They are a bit grubby, but they are really, really easy and riding to work takes so much time off my commute.”
For riders, Lime bikes are a blessing, providing a relatively cheap, convenient and near effortless means of getting around. In 2024, 16 million Lime rides were taken during commuting hours in London, England, an 85-per-cent increase from the previous year. The bikes, from a California-based startup now partly owned by Uber, only arrived in London in 2018. Yet for many in the city, they are a blight and a hazard that the authorities are inexplicably failing to come to grips with.
One advocacy group says that requiring e-bikes to have docks would prevent them from toppling over and remove a safety threat for blind pedestrians and wheelchair users.Betty Laura Zapata/The Globe and Mail
Scarcely a week goes by without a negative media story about badly parked Lime bikes obstructing sidewalks, how easy they are to steal, the dangers posed by riders or the struggle to regulate them properly.
The veteran Hollywood actor Joan Collins – still going strong at 92 – captured the mood of a frustrated non-riding public.
“I’ve recently been almost run over twice by Lime bikes. I’ve also tripped over a bunch of discarded cycles on the streets of Belgravia. Everyone I know has experienced the rudeness and sloppiness of most of these bike riders,” she fumed in the Spectator magazine.
In a public debate that often divides along generational lines, Ms. Collins has been joined by another luminary from the 1980s. Robert Powell, 81, star of the movie Jesus of Nazareth, complained that as many as 100 bikes were left outside his front door. “Last year, we called the police about the bikes. They just laughed,” he told the Camden New Journal.
Q&A: What’s the point of e-bikes?
The company doesn’t reveal how many of London’s estimated 30,000 rental e-bikes are part of its fleet, but Lime is streets ahead of rivals Forest and Transport for London’s Santander scheme.
For the National Federation of the Blind of the UK, the key problem is that Lime and Forest bikes are dockless. It wants all bikes to be docked. This would stop them toppling over – a common sight anywhere in the city – and remove the threat to the blind or wheelchair users.
A new bill currently in Parliament would hand regulation for e-bikes to the local government body Transport for London to create one set of rules for the city.Betty Laura Zapata/The Globe and Mail
“Rental e-bikes are out of control in London. They are causing misery and danger to people who need to get around on the pavements using mobility aids,” said Sarah Gayton, the federation’s street access campaign co-ordinator.
“For blind and partially sighted pedestrians, they mean daily trip hazards and obstructions, causing painful injuries, shock and sheer frustration.”
Safety is also a significant issue for Lime bike users themselves. Tom Gilbert, 24, a development researcher at a podcast company, came off a bike with a flat tire that didn’t corner properly. Luckily, he was uninjured.
“The personal gripe I have with them is safety,” he said. “You report something on the app but as far as I’m aware not much happens. I once reported a bike with faulty brakes, but I could see it was still on the app and someone could have picked it up.”
Apart from flat tires, regular complaints anecdotally include missing pedals, missing bicycle seats or seats jolting downward mid-ride, and unreliable brakes.
'They are a bit grubby, but they are really, really easy and riding to work takes so much time off my commute,' says personal assistant Sophie Palmer.Betty Laura Zapata/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Palmer, the personal assistant, said the strength of the bikes’ brakes can vary. She’s learned to adjust her riding technique, but it’s not unusual for her to bump into the back of a vehicle. Her only concern is whether she leaves a dent.
Even when the bikes are working properly, their weight of 39 kilograms and a maximum speed of 25 kilometres an hour arguably expose riders to new types of risk compared to pedal bikes.
Serious leg injuries on Limes have become so common that orthopedic surgeons refer to “Lime bike leg,” according to an investigation by the London Centric website. The break – a tibial plateau fracture – is caused by the bike’s heavy central strut and battery falling on riders’ lower legs. Sometimes requiring metal implants, the injury is usually associated with motorcycle accidents.
Lime responded in a statement: “We take safety seriously at Lime. Over 99.99 per cent of Lime trips in London last year ended without a reported incident.”
It added: “We carry out regular inspections and preventive maintenance on all of our vehicles, including those receiving reports of issues. Any bike reported to have a brake issue for example is immediately removed from service.”
There’s no denying that rental e-bikes have opened up cycling to a new, mostly young audience. They serve to complement public transport and offer an alternative to cars.
In 2024, 16 million Lime rides were taken during commuting hours in London, an 85-per-cent increase from the previous year.Betty Laura Zapata/The Globe and Mail
But there is also a consensus that stronger regulation is essential. At present, Lime and other operators must seek permission from each London borough separately. Riders can therefore be pedalling happily on battery power only for geofencing technology to stop it working when they cross into a borough where Lime isn’t licensed.
Some boroughs do have designated parking bays, even if they are often overflowing with bikes. Yet in others there is free-floating parking, with bikes left anywhere.
The confusion is likely to end before too long, according to Christian Wolmar, an author and leading transport expert.
A new bill currently in Parliament would hand regulation for e-bikes to the local government body Transport for London to create one set of rules for the city. The approach is officially welcomed by Forest.
“It has been a bit chaotic but that is sort of how things are done here in the U.K., and maybe that is what urbanism is about,” says Mr. Wolmar. “Edgy things are tested by people to their limits. You have new technology and ideas and then kind of sort out the mess. Other companies will join in, the bikes will get better, and the technology will become more rigorous. These bikes are here to stay.”