Interview with Lime UK Policy Director

STORY: LONDON CYCLIST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2024

Lime’s UK policy director talks parking, costs, and cycle hire’s future…

What prompted Lime to initiate the Share the Joy community fund, a new £100,000 fund for cycling community groups in London?
The Share the Joy fund is about celebrating why we all cycle and sharing its benefits with new audiences. This new fund, open for applications until end-2025, will help local community groups and organisations spread cycling joy across London as we continue to work together to build a world class cycling city.

What role do you see Lime playing in the cycling culture of London?
More than 1.2 million cycle journeys are made in London every day and almost 50% of us already cycle here or want to start. London wasn’t always like this though. People used to think that cycling wasn’t safe or for people like them. TfL, London boroughs, community groups and campaigners have worked together to make huge progress to change this. At Lime we see ourselves as part of this transformation, and part of the fabric of cycling culture in London. 60% of our users are more likely, or much more likely, to cycle after using our service, and 49% of Londoners aged 18-34 reported using a shared e-bike at least once per week.

How important is the continued installation of cycling infrastructure to the success of shared bike schemes?
Quality cycling infrastructure is critical to the success of shared e-bike schemes. We’ve made huge progress in developing safe riding infrastructure across London, but investment in the number of places you can park a bike is lagging behind. We want to work with boroughs to identify and implement thousands more parking locations across London, helping to build a reliable and convenient network for shared e-bike users. We also want to fund thousands more cycle stands for shared and private cyclists. Please get in touch with us if we can work with your local LCC branch to submit a funding proposal to your borough.

What are your hopes for the community fund in three years time?
Just like our bikes, the community fund is made to be shared. We have provided an initial investment of £100,000, which will be distributed to community groups over an 18-month period. We can’t wait to see what the fantastic organisations we are working with, like Wheels for Wellbeing or Cycle Sisters, do with it. We hope to be able to make further investments in the fund after this initial period and welcome additional donor contributions to help even more community groups in London spread cycling joy.

In central London shared bikes now seem as common as buses. How much growth has there been in terms of number of bikes, users, trips and distances travelled and how much more growth do you expect?
Over the last six years we’ve worked with council partners to expand our shared e-bike scheme across 17 boroughs, building a network of more than 1.5 million people who rely on the availability and convenience of our service to make hundreds of thousands of trips a month. Users are now able to cycle from north-east Hackney to Hounslow, or, more likely, take a quick 10-minute trip to a nearby tube station, high street or office. The growth — in users, trips and partner boroughs — is only set to continue, and we look forward to working with TfL, boroughs and community groups to get even more people on bikes and making more active and sustainable travel choices.

Do you think that shared hire bikes are disrupting or changing perceptions of the need or desire to ‘own’ a vehicle? Can you see the model of shared use taking off in other industries?
Different people and trips require different modes — whether that is a shared e-bike, private bike, public transport or even car. I use shared e-bikes every day but still own my own bike. And while I might prefer to cycle a Lime around Richmond Park at the weekend, it probably isn’t the best mode for the purpose of that trip! Ultimately, any mode that can boost active and sustainable travel rates and reduce unnecessary car journeys in London should be encouraged.

How does growth in dockless bike use in London compare to other cities?
London is well on its way to becoming a world class cycling city and the usage of shared e-bikes here is reflective of that progress. We’re focused on working with our partner boroughs and TfL to continue that growth and ensure that we are able to deliver a network of shared e-bike parking locations that can keep pace with, and further increase, that demand.

Where are you seeing most usage of dockless bikes in London and what drives usage?
We see really high usage rates right across the city. The areas of highest usage include boroughs which have set up more flexible parking rules to make the service as easy to use as possible. This includes boroughs such as Southwark and Wandsworth.

What transport modes are dockless users switching from?
Shared e-bikes are one of the most convenient and enjoyable ways to travel in London. Over 30% of our trips are commuter journeys and 10% replace a motor vehicle. One in three start or end near a public transport hub.

While Londoners in inner London boroughs now have wide access to Lime, Forest and Santander bikes, outer London is still poorly served by dockless or docked bikes. What will it take to change that and are operators prepared to invest in less dense areas?
Lime runs successful services across a range of London boroughs, including less central areas like Hounslow, Ealing, Haringey and Lewisham. We welcome the opportunity to expand into outer London and work with boroughs to design services that are able to operate successfully in these areas. Key factors include high vehicle availability and flexible parking rules — which are critical to developing an easy-to-use and popular scheme.

There are numerous complaints about Lime bikes littering pavements. What is the company doing to stop this and has there been progress on a London-wide shared bike parking regulation with designated parking spots?
We understand the importance of preventing pavement obstructions across London and have made a number of investments in our technology — such as GPS to control where a vehicle can be parked or mandatory end trip photos, and an on-the-ground team to help improve this. The most frequent complaint we now receive is about overcrowded parking locations, rather than individual vehicles being left where they shouldn’t.

We are working with boroughs to address this by identifying and funding new locations, including the proposed use of under-capacity cycle stands to provide additional parking. We don’t want to take space away from private bike users so for every cycle stand our bikes are able to be parked at, we will fund two more for that borough. It makes sense for London e-bike regulations to be simplified and for bikes to be required to be left in designated locations in central London. However, city-wide proposals won’t work unless there is flexibility regarding different parking rules for more and less central boroughs. It doesn’t make sense for the same parking rules to apply in Westminster as Merton.

Can so-called ‘corrals’ or mandatory parking zones for shared bikes work both in inner London and outer London, or do we have to have different regulations in different zones?
Mandatory parking rules can only work in areas with very high parking density to ensure the service is still convenient and easy to use. If mandatory parking rules are enforced in areas without sufficient parking density people will either not use the service or abandon bikes out of agreed areas because they need to walk too far to pick up or park bikes. Transport consultancy Steer and thinktank Centre for London recently published a report on shared e-bike parking. They recommended a minimum density of 25 locations per square kilometre for central London boroughs that use mandatory parking rules and flexible parking in less central areas. Flexible parking means that dedicated locations are still provided in high footfall areas, like transport hubs and high streets, but users can park non-obstructively elsewhere.

An obvious part of the problem is vandalism — people are knocking over bikes that have been parked correctly. How can operators deter such vandalism?
Actually we see very low rates of vandalism across London. Of course, with any 24/7 on-street service there can be issues with poor behaviour, but we have robust hardware mechanisms and an extensive on-the-ground team to help prevent it.

How ‘sustainable’ and durable is the current generation of Lime bikes?
We are the only shared e-bike operator to independently design our vehicles. Lime’s Gen4 e-bikes are manufactured using more than 45% recycled materials. They have an independently certified lifetime of more than five years and are 97% recyclable at end of life, which helps us achieve nearly 100% landfill diversion. Our London warehouses and swappable battery charging is also powered using only 100% renewable energy.

Users of dockless bikes complain about the high cost of trips — often more than a tube fare — can operators make bikes more affordable yet run a profitable business, or are current prices as low as they will ever be?
Shared e-bikes are one of the most affordable ways to travel in London. You can travel for 30 minutes for as little as £3.99, and an hour for £6.99 via our ride passes (available to purchase in-app). We also offer 50% off our pay-as-you-go rate to emergency service workers and other concession pass holders via our Lime Access scheme. Our pricing is set up to deliver a well-managed, long-term and financially sustainable service, which we can continually re-invest into. Initiatives such as our £1 million parking infrastructure fund, or our new Share the Joy fund, would not be possible without this.

Do you think a city like London can sustain more than one dockless operator?
Demand for cycling and shared e-bikes in London is continuing to grow. We are focused on working with TfL and our partner boroughs to continue that growth and ensure that we are able to deliver a network of shared e-bike parking locations that can keep pace with, and further increase, that demand.

You currently only offer one style of e-bike — do you think there’s scope for shared cargobikes and is it something Lime is considering?
Lime’s mission is to help build a future of transport that is shared, affordable and carbon-free. As part of this, we need to work together to prevent as many unnecessary car journeys as possible. Some of the reasons people might not be able to use shared e-bikes at the moment include needing to carry additional passengers or cargo. We are constantly reviewing our vehicle offering and want to ensure we are able to cater for as many different journey types as possible.

Does dockless technology allow you to limit bike speeds in shared pedestrian zones and are you doing that in London?
Shared e-bike operators have the ability to change how a vehicle can be used, including enforcing go-slow zones, as well as no-go zones. While this technology exists, it is important it is only implemented where absolutely necessary to avoid the mode becoming difficult to use. Generally, people using shared e-bikes should be able to ride wherever a private cyclist can. As per national regulations, Lime e-bike pedal assistance is also limited to 15.5mph.

This article was originally published in London Cyclist autumn 2024, London Cycling Campaign’s exclusive member’s magazine. Join as a member today for quarterly copies of London Cyclist delivered to your door, free legal advice, discounts in independent bike shops across London, and much more…