"The main issue for me is somebody jumping on a bike that for all intents and purposes looks fine to ride," said our mechanic. Plus: Paying subscribers can view an exclusive documentary of our test.
"The company told London Centric it is hiring 100 extra staff to check bikes on the streets of the capital"
Well I've not seen these roles being advertised. Are they really hiring skilled mechanics or just more contractors using the juicer app? I am doubtful.
Mad that there is zero regulation. You could literally kill yourself or seriously injure someone else if the brakes fail (along with the other things) but how can you test the brakes before you hire the bike as you can’t move the thing until you’ve signed in.
Mad that there is zero regulation. You could literally kill yourself or others by riding on the pavements, running red lights, not using designated bike lanes and riding against traffic on one way streets. I’m all for cleaner and healthier transport options and I run to work myself but I’m astounded by how many people are risking life and death on a daily basis on these like bikes. Mad that there is zero regulation!
This video is really well done! I use Lime bikes almost daily and I'd say the ratio of broken vs "perfect" bikes is higher than reported, at least in my personal experience.
Thanks for the kind words on the video! I'm still a regular user of Lime bikes myself... but my personal experience is that you can find some serious clangers. No one pretends it's easy to maintain them but it feels they might need to up the standards a bit.
So the privatisation of footpaths by Silicon Valley tech bros has made it to London too. Here in Sydney these things are an absolute menace to pedestrians and there is zero control or regulation of them. And the studies that have been undertaken show users predominantly use these bikes to replace walking or public transport use. "Micromobility" is a sham.
The solution is surely to conduct a massive London-wide expansion of the public bike scheme, which would be more affordable, safer and easier to regulate. Why should public transport be left to the market?
Do you think that once the faulty bike issue is fixed, the faulty rider issue will be attacked? There are far too many careless riders causing real danger to other road users. There is a disaster ready to pounce at any moment in London, even with non-faulty bikes.
Not sure how eco friendly having vans collecting and moving bikes around is. These sound like death traps. How is a missing saddle or handles not an immediate issue? Who is riding them in that state?
Missing saddles aren't an immediate issue - it's easy to spot and no-one will hire that bike. That bike won't be earning for Lime, but it will be cheaper to wait until several bikes in that area need to be collected for repairs than to rush out and get it at once.
I'd assume the service vans are electric - it's the perfect use case for an electric vehicle.
That said, I'd question the eco friendliness of the whole setup. Where they replace walking, public transport or non-electric bikes they are a less eco friendly alternative. Where they replace car journeys it's great of course, but I don't think there's much of that in (central) London.
Mindblown that there is actually an incentive to break the bikes, and it seems there is not enough measures to blacklist users...
"The company told London Centric it is hiring 100 extra staff to check bikes on the streets of the capital"
Well I've not seen these roles being advertised. Are they really hiring skilled mechanics or just more contractors using the juicer app? I am doubtful.
Mad that there is zero regulation. You could literally kill yourself or seriously injure someone else if the brakes fail (along with the other things) but how can you test the brakes before you hire the bike as you can’t move the thing until you’ve signed in.
That's such a good point - you've already hired by that point.
Mad that there is zero regulation. You could literally kill yourself or others by riding on the pavements, running red lights, not using designated bike lanes and riding against traffic on one way streets. I’m all for cleaner and healthier transport options and I run to work myself but I’m astounded by how many people are risking life and death on a daily basis on these like bikes. Mad that there is zero regulation!
This video is really well done! I use Lime bikes almost daily and I'd say the ratio of broken vs "perfect" bikes is higher than reported, at least in my personal experience.
Thanks for the kind words on the video! I'm still a regular user of Lime bikes myself... but my personal experience is that you can find some serious clangers. No one pretends it's easy to maintain them but it feels they might need to up the standards a bit.
So the privatisation of footpaths by Silicon Valley tech bros has made it to London too. Here in Sydney these things are an absolute menace to pedestrians and there is zero control or regulation of them. And the studies that have been undertaken show users predominantly use these bikes to replace walking or public transport use. "Micromobility" is a sham.
The solution is surely to conduct a massive London-wide expansion of the public bike scheme, which would be more affordable, safer and easier to regulate. Why should public transport be left to the market?
Do you think that once the faulty bike issue is fixed, the faulty rider issue will be attacked? There are far too many careless riders causing real danger to other road users. There is a disaster ready to pounce at any moment in London, even with non-faulty bikes.
Not sure how eco friendly having vans collecting and moving bikes around is. These sound like death traps. How is a missing saddle or handles not an immediate issue? Who is riding them in that state?
Missing saddles aren't an immediate issue - it's easy to spot and no-one will hire that bike. That bike won't be earning for Lime, but it will be cheaper to wait until several bikes in that area need to be collected for repairs than to rush out and get it at once.
I'd assume the service vans are electric - it's the perfect use case for an electric vehicle.
That said, I'd question the eco friendliness of the whole setup. Where they replace walking, public transport or non-electric bikes they are a less eco friendly alternative. Where they replace car journeys it's great of course, but I don't think there's much of that in (central) London.
I always consider Lime as a replacement for Uber/Cabs/Cars, not public transport.