Some of the inconsiderate parking of Lime e-bikes in London has reportedly been down to people hacking the bikes to ride them without power. The micro-mobility firm says it has now developed a hardware solution to prevent this.
In Camden, the City of London, Hackney, Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham, Lime users are obliged to leave e-bikes in designated parking bays.
Riders are asked to submit a photo of the parked e-bike at the end of their ride. Lime says: “We review all photos to check how you parked your Lime. If you haven’t parked correctly, we may warn or charge you.”
Despite this, parking remains an issue. We know this firstly because a surprisingly large number of people email ebiketips in the mistaken belief that we are Lime, but also because we’ve reported on it a bunch of times.
Most recently, Wandsworth Borough Council said it could start impounding Lime e-bikes if pavement parking weren’t tackled.
The Telegraph has previously reported that videos have been posted online instructing people how to disconnect e-bikes and e-scooters from rental networks. It seems that one of these hacks is to bypass the motor so that the bike can be ridden unassisted.
The Camden New Journal reports that this has led to many e-bikes being dumped in prohibited places.
Lime said it was, “aware of a limited issue related to unlocked bikes being ridden without power, and have now identified a hardware solution to prevent it.”
A spokesperson said other measures to combat inconsiderate parking included GPS-based no parking zones and an increased workforce to move bikes that were in the way.
“Lime also has extensive measures in place to prevent our bikes from being tampered with, this includes wheel locks, tamper alarms, and enhanced cybersecurity for our cloud operations system,” they said.
