This London area is the next to crack down on Lime bikes

The days of whimsically riding through the city on a Lime bike and dumping your vehicle anywhere could be coming to an end. After Brent, Wandsworth and Lewisham have all cracked down on errant e-bike parking, another London area wants to bring even stricter measures into place for Lime users. 

The City of London Corporation wants to introduce mandatory e-bike parking bays to the City after councillors warned of Lime bikes causing blocked pathways and safety hazards. Soon, e-bike parking on pavements could be totally banned. But could users also be fined for parking them badly? The City of London Corporation is also lobbying for new legislation across London that would enable authorities to issue fines for poor use of e-bikes.

Shravan Jashvantrai Joshi, chair of the body’s planning and transportation committee, told the Court of Common Council at least 19 new parking bays would be installed before April, with potentially 50 rolled out in the coming years along the City’s carriageways.

Groves told the Court of Common Council: ‘Over the summer, there have been numerous times when major public footpaths in Tower Ward, most notably on Tower Street… have not just been impeded, but at times totally blocked by an impenetrable phalanx of dockless Lime bikes and Forest bikes.

‘This has resulted in the obviously unacceptable situation of large numbers of people having to walk in the street, just to get around them. The situation continues to get worse.’

A Lime spokesperson said: ‘We recognise that the huge growth in demand for e-bikes can lead to challenges with overcrowding and we are working to address this in partnership with the City of London.

‘It is welcome news that the City is committed to rolling out increased parking capacity as demand for e-bikes continues to rise, as this is the best way to improve e-bike parking. Lime already provides data and funding for parking bays in addition to identifying suitable parking locations.’

They added that Lime had had a ‘number of productive meetings’ with the City about the future of bike docks. 

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