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news
Lime bikes Hounslow (@DynamacRtm/Twitter)Lime hire scheme under fire as residents claim e-bikes "deliberately" left in "dangerous places"
Residents of one west London borough have spoken out about what they say is Lime e-bikes being "deliberately" left in "dangerous places", with some locals calling for the trial of the bike hire scheme to be paused immediately, one claiming it is only a matter of time before "somebody gets killed".
Hounslow began its Lime trial at the start of June, with the e-bikes to be left and picked up in "mandatory parking zones", differing to other areas with the bike hire scheme where users can pick up and drop off bikes anywhere.
However, a glance at Hounslow Council's social media posts promoting the scheme will show a level of discontent with the trial from some residents, with pictures and videos of discarded bikes left blocking pavements or on roads often shared in reply.
Lime e-bikes will be available to hire in #Brentford amd #Chiswick from Monday in partnership with #Hounslow Council.
The bikes will be available from on-street parking bays via the Lime app, which can be downloaded from the App store or Google Play.https://t.co/82vkxIqZBR pic.twitter.com/cDoioKklBP
— Hounslow Council (@LBofHounslow) June 1, 2023
Speaking to the BBC, one local has called for the trial to be halted as teenagers are "deliberately" leaving the bikes in "dangerous places", such as in the middle of the road (as seen in doorbell camera footage the resident shared with the broadcaster), or on pavements, leaning against cars, or deliberately blocking driveways.
Sateesh Battas said he feared it was only a matter of time before "somebody gets killed" and recalled seeing "one of them put the bike at the junction, which is as far as way as possible from the bike bay as you can get it, and then the other teenager then put it horizontal so it was completely blocking the road and then they walked off".
"A very large car came around the corner, obviously saw the bike, climbed on to the kerb, you know, to get past it and almost clipping our car just to navigate around the bike. It's terrible," he said.
> Wandsworth says it may start impounding Lime e-bikes if pavement parking isn’t tackled
"The council told me twice now — and so have Hounslow Traffic and a councillor — that the trial will be until six months from the last designated rollout - so that's February. [The council] is not really doing anything, it just says to wait until February, but if somebody gets killed, whose responsibility is it then? Ultimately, it's the council that allowed this. These bikes just need to go. They're not working."
In reply to Hounslow Council's social media posts about the scheme, one response called the bikes a "blight", another saying it turned the borough into "a Lime bike rubbish dump".
"This trial is a failure," they said. "Hacked bikes are everywhere and left in the middle of the road blocking traffic and endangering people."
Lime uses a system whereby users photograph their bike in an appropriate place when they finish their ride. In December, we reported that one cyclist in the capital had been given a 'parking ticket' for leaving their bike in a car parking bay.
When we contacted Lime they said users need to "park like your gran is watching" and should "never leave your e-bike in a way that obstructs the pavement or could create an access issue for pedestrians, including those with disabilities or access needs".
However, with videos circulating on social media sites such as TikTok, showing how to 'hack' Lime bikes to use them for free, the fellow London council in Westminster has warned of users dumping bikes "with impunity" having not paid for their ride.
In Hounslow, Mr Battas said he had contacted Lime about the issues, with the company apologising for the "inconvenience" and saying it would send his concerns to the "operations team in your area for further review".
"Great take up"
Despite the criticism from some residents, councillor Katherine Dunne, Hounslow Council's cabinet member for climate, environment and transport said they had seen "great take up" with more than 40,000 trips in the first month.
"Our council staff along with Lime have been working hard to raise awareness around parking responsibly in the dedicated parking bays," she said. "This is a trial scheme and we value our residents feedback, which is why council officers are monitoring feedback on the scheme throughout the trial and working closely with Lime to address any concerns."
Cllr Dunne said residents could report " issues regarding abandoned bikes, suspected hacking attempts, noise and other operational issues to Lime".
Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.
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28 comments
Saying someone will be killed is ridiculous, but equally dismissing the issue is ridiculous. If you look at that bike laying on its side on the pavement and think that isn't a cause for serious concern to people, particularly the less able and visually impaired then you are a fool.
What a load of hysterical idiots - it's just a matter of time until someone is killed. Really? Well it's not a matter of time since motor vehicles have been killing residents (directly and indirectly) so let's start with banning those.
mind you, Lime do need to sort out the 'teenager hack'. There are a lot of bikes that are 'stolen' and abbonded by the yoof.
if the kerb mounting car had been a bike there would have been no issue.
Clearly the problem is a distinct lack of Lime bikes.
All these bikes parked dangerously where I want to park my car.
The anti-social parking of hire bikes is a major issue, and could scupper what are otherwise brilliant schemes. The 'someone will get killed' line is hyperbole, but the impact - particulary on the disabled - is real. The hire companies and local authorities really need to get together and work out a practical solution.
Make improperly parked bikes cheaper to unlock?
Of course this will be a huge money drain thanks to bike hackers but would go a long way to avoiding the backlash and would probably buy some goodwill from paying users.
Lime bikes need to fix their hacking issue. I've had to move bikes blocking pavements, roads and cycle lanes (of course, if I was in a large car I'd just drive up onto the pavement to get around a bike blocking the road).
I'm also not condoning it, but...
where's the criticism of the driver for this illegal and dangerous driving?
Not to mention that fact that they spotted a hazard to road users and decided to just leave it there!
How many of the people complaining about these hazards, have taken photos and then left them for someone else to deal with?
(Yes, I understand some people will not be physically capable of moving the bikes)
To be fair, in parts of Hounslow you're going to think the scenario is a set up to facilitate car-jacking. You might not want to stop, unlock your doors and get out.
Fair point! (although I don't know if that is an insult to Hounslow or not)
That's very common even here in Bristol or out in the surrounding countryside. If there's a plank of wood which has fallen off a lorry or something like that (you know, in the roadway) people will just drive around it. For some reason they expect the cyclists or pedestrians to actually move the damned thing...
(The above is based on anecdata, in that I have seen it happen multiple times).
post-storm-bin-collection day gets me. I watch people walk past their own bins lying in the path/road!
I've lost count of the number of times I've stopped to pick something out of the road that drivers are just driving around, sometimes the following day when I can't believe they are still there.
Last Monday I visited Heartlands hospital and saw an ambulance driving over some plastic barriers that had blown over next to the entrance to the maternity unit. On Saturday I was back and they were still there being driven over! Obviously I moved them as apparently they were invisible to everyone else.
Someone will be killed!
Yes by those vicous man-eating bikes. Do we really have to report on some first worlders exagerated comments?
No, by those bikes abandoned in the middle of roads or on pavements, on blind bends or in places where people with limited vision or mobility aren't expecting them.
There are a lot of them near me, placed where accidents are near-inevitable and a fatality isn't outside the bounds of imagination given that people can and do die stumbling on kerbs, swerving to avoid hazards etc.
Also, this is a UK-based website about cycling. We're all first-worlders here, albeit that the second world disappeared more than thirty years ago and we quite rightly don't call developing nations the third world any more.
I'll give you a similar example from NL. Someone parked a Felyx e-scooter (Quadrophenia scooter, not an Elon bird/X scooter) on the pavement outside my partners apartment. Old boy on his mobility scooter tried to get around it, dipped a wheel off the kerb (curb?) and tipped himself into the road. He was OK (those mobility scooters are heavy to right!), but could've ended up much worse.
Every Lime bike I see these days is making the clacking noise that indicates they have been "stolen". The whole scheme is a shambles - stolen bikes, being ridden badly by absolute scrotes, and then dumped in a wholly inappropriate spot. Yet it is another cross that "cyclists" will have to bear because, to the haters, we're all the same.
The Lime bike parking in Hounslow is noticably chaotic, but weirdly there's a tendency to take the bikes *near* to a parking bay before dumping them inconsiderately.
Unfortunately we are a country full of assholes.
I blame the parents, or lack thereof.
In fact, flowing Clem's point below, the scrotes are probably just copying what they see the grown-ups do - leave their wheels blocking the pavement or side of the road!
I'm not condoning it.
But it's not like I've ever seen, say, a car parked on a bend/opposite a junction/on the pavement/in a "cycle lane"/blocking a driveway or anything like that. No, never
That's actually a very good point - if these were cars left on the pavement or side of the road, nobody would be saying anything. You can see they've had to instal bollards along the pavement edge to prevent exactly that!
Yes - my comment was going to be "gosh these people are going to be very upset when they find out where people leave their cars" - ironically, if you follow Mr Battash's comments, he appears to admit to pavement parking notable:
1. we know that Driver A is pulling onto the pavement to avoid a bike that is in the middle of the road.
2. Driver A is therefore pavement side of the bike and on the pavement - the only way he could have come close to clipping Mr Battash's vehicle is if that was also already parked on the pavement
3. now either there are designated parking spots on the pavement (in which case I'd suggest that someone driving on the pavement isn't all too big a deal) or Mr Battash is parked on the pavement illegally and has a complete inability to realise that he has a) driven dangerously on the pavement to get there and b) is guilty of leaving his vehicle in a dangerous place presumably at least partially obstructing the pavement!
You couldn't make this level of cognitive dissonance up!
Or Mr Battash could have parked legally at the roadside, but the placement of the bike meant someone driving around it came close to his car. That seems feasible given this view from his doorbell cam
He appears to live within 25m of a junction and therefore if he was parked outside his own front door he would be illegally parked and causing just as much danger as any abandoned bike. I don't condone the dumping of these bikes / scooters etc in dangerous locations but why does society accept cars parked on pavements, in bike lanes, blocking sight lines at junctions and zebra crossings, across entrances etc. without so much as a second glance?
Not sure that's right due to the marked parking bay:
Rule 243
DO NOT stop or park:
... opposite or within 10 metres (32 feet) of a junction, except in an authorised parking space
EDITED to add: but I agree with you about parking generally. I have had a number of very unsatisfactory 'debates' with people about their parking but now usually just leave it for the sake of my own blood pressure.
You are right, I didn't spot the parking bay when I viewed the picture on my phone which reminds me I must get my eyes tested! I also got the distance wrong which means the bay may be just outside the 10m limit anyway. I would have sworn it was 25m.
Like you I have had a number of conversations, almost all unsatisfactory, with people who park like total funds. Many parents of kids at the primary school opposite who are willing to force other people's kids to walk in the road and or cross at a totally obscured zebra crossing because little Joanne / Johnny can't possibly walk 200m and if they parked on the road their car mirror might get hit. I continue to make the point, not that I seem to be making any inroad into the problem.