It’s no secret that Londoners have become wheely rather fond of cycling recently. Last year’s Travel in London report revealed that there’s been a hefty 43% increase in bicycle journeys over the past six years. And with the capital city’s network of nifty cycleways continuing to expand and Lime bikes becoming as synonymous with London as Pret a Mangers and grumpy commuters; it doesn’t seem like the trend is set to be bucked anytime soon.
You will have to soon start being a bit more wary of where you’re riding your Lime bike, though – because the bougie borough of Richmond upon Thames is soon set to follow in Hounslow‘s footsteps tyre-treads and ban the use of Lime bikes.
Lime bikes could soon be banned in Richmond
Despite Lime currently being the sole trader of e-bikes in Richmond (and over 1.5 million Lime bikes journeys having been taken in the borough last year), residents of the royal borough could soon see the back of those vibrant vehicles as the council is set to sign an exclusive tender with Forest, following a ‘fair and competitive procurement process’.
According to The Times, Forest outbid Lime in a recent formal process, meaning that from this summer, Lime bikes are likely to be banned from being hired or parked in the borough. During the bidding process, Lime supposedly outscored Forest and Voi (an e-scooter operator) when it came to quality but lost out on pricing.
E-bike policies are currently decided on a borough-by-borough basis, meaning that there are no city-wide regulations. 25% of Richmond’s scoring system is based on a ‘concessionary free to the council’, and the rest is dictated by user pricing. Recently released council papers said that Forest’s submission represented the ‘best overall proposal’.
Next steps and final decisions will be discussed at a meeting between the borough’s transport committee next week (March 16). There’s a world in which the councilors choose to allow more than one operator in the borough, but officials have recommended Forest’s bid and this could well lead to the banning of Lime bikes in the borough.
A spokesperson from Richmond Council said: “Following a fair and competitive procurement process, Council officers have recommended Forest as Richmond’s preferred operator from this summer. All bidders demonstrated a strong level of service, but Forest scored highest overall against the council’s evaluation criteria – including service quality, e-bike user cost, and value to council taxpayers.”
A Lime spokesperson said: “We’ve served tens of thousands of residents in Richmond weekly since 2021, providing a hugely popular service that connect people to the rest of London. We submitted a strong bid in the hope of continuing to provide this service, which was rated as the highest quality offer by the Council.
“All other London boroughs are moving to systems with a minimum of two operators to give residents choice of shared e-bike services in the capital. We hope councilors in Richmond choose to follow that model. It is important shared e-bike schemes prioritise maintaining access to high quality, popular cycle options in London, rather than reducing them.”
