Lime Bikes give freedom to cycle, but their being left blocking pavements is greatly frustrating. Many people have raised this concern, and I’m pleased the City of London is trying to get improvements.
I’m assured that Lime are well aware of the issues with pavements littered with bikes and the multitude of issues that causes. Colleagues have therefore met with their corporate leadership.. As a part of their reaction to the problems we have been raising they are launching “Helping Londoners do London”. This is a campaign that includes a £20m funded action plan:
Importantly, there will now be a minimum of 70 more on-street patrollers, targeting the highest usage areas, to tidy up obstructive bikes and redistribute bikes to different locations
Additionally there will be-
- Real time AI end trip photos to block bad parking in real time, rather than retrospectively
- Improved GPS accuracy and new Bluetooth beacons
- Rider incentives to promote parking in less crowded locations
- In-app destination entry, to direct riders to the nearest available parking location
- Lime will fund new parking bays in the City through their Parking Infrastructure Fund
- A dedicated private land parking taskforce to work with building owners to use spare cycle parking capacity where this is underutilised
Alongside this, Lime are funding a safe riding campaign to encourage their users to obey the Highway code and ride responsibly.
All of this is welcome news and works in parallel to the legislation that the City is supporting through London Councils and TfL.
