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Lime bike on a pavement (Unsplash)“Pissed off” residents use angle grinders to chop up Lime bikes abandoned by “thoughtless” cyclists in private car park
The “frustrated” and “pissed off” residents of a building have declared war on Lime Bikes, taking to angle grinders and chopping up the popular London hire e-bikes after “thoughtless” cyclists kept abandoning them on the private car park.
Some of the residents living at 35 Coombe Road, Norbiton, just in front of the Norbiton train station have reportedly taken up arms, quite literally, as they argue that people going to the station often leave the Lime Bikes in the building’s car park, blocking its entrance.
A member of the group, who wished to stay anonymous, told Your Local Guardian that the bikes had become an “absolute nuisance” in recent weeks, with the people even confronting the cyclists. “It’s just getting out of hand. I’ve had confrontations with the riders themselves, but they’re just not interested. We’ve lost our temper with it,” the person said.
They added that they had regularly contacted Lime Bikes to inform them about the abandoned bikes over the last few weeks, but the private bike hire company only responded after residents resorted to dismembering the bikes and sending them pictures. One of the chopped-up bikes even had a note saying: “Result of continually parking on private property.”
“When we send them a picture of a cut-up bike, within 30 minutes a manager has phoned me up saying they will collect the bikes,” they said. “It’s fly-tipping on private property, that’s how we see it. I’ve just got to a point where I don’t care, I just need these bikes off the property.”
Lime did end up collecting some of the bikes, but the residents said that cyclists end up coming back to use the park as a “dumping ground”. They are now demanding that the company find a permanent solution to the problem and stop riders from leaving the bikes in the first place.
“We really are pissed off and we’ve had enough,” they said, adding that if Lime fail to resolve the issue, their message to the company is: “Come and collect your bikes, they’re in pieces.”
35 Coombe Road, Norbiton (Google Maps)
A Lime spokesperson told road.cc: “We are disappointed to learn about the criminal damage to our bikes. Poor parking in London is an issue we take very seriously, particularly as demand for our service increases.
“Norbiton station is a busy area with Lime bikes a popular choice for local residents travelling to and from the station. Overcrowding highlights the need for more designated parking locations, and we are eager to work in partnership with Kingston Council and South Western Railway to agree more places for cyclists to park. This would not only promote sustainable travel but create a more organised and tidy parking solution for the community.”
Lime also pointed out that there are a total of 250 team members working on London street to tidy up improperly parked bikes and overcrowded bays to improve its response time to any issues raised, adding that it’s planning to increase this number next year.
Besides, the company has also launched a parking infrastructure fund worth £1 million at the start of the year to help fund the creation of more designated parking bays for shared e-bikes, which has now been spent and resulted in hundreds of new parking bays.
This isn’t the first time locals have picked up a fight with the popular hire e-bikes which have become a staple of commuting in London for many. In July, residents of the Hounslow borough in London spoke out about what they thought was Lime e-bikes being “deliberately” left in “dangerous places”. Some locals calling for the trial of the bike hire scheme to be paused immediately, with one claiming it was only a matter of time before “somebody gets killed”.
And then in September, it was Brent Council that was on the forefront of trying to get rid of the Lime bikes, with council leader Muhammed Butt claiming they were “annoying” and were causing a “nuisance” in the borough.
“It’s their bikes, they need to start taking some accountability for making sure that their assets are kept safe and secure, and they shouldn’t be to the detriment to our residents Brent, people trying to work or go to school, walking down the street, going to our shops, going to our parks and that’s what’s happening at the moment,” Butt said.
However Lime was quite to fire back at the Labour-led council, saying that “local residents in Brent and across the capital use our bikes for essential journeys every day, with 11.5 million commuting trips already taken this year.”
The US-based operator added: “We can enforce mandatory parking rules in Brent, but first we need the council to build a functional network of parking locations. We can provide data and funding to support this process. We want to work with them on this. Banning bikes won't help anyone.”
Lime also said that, due to Brent Council currently having just 10 pilot e-bike parking locations across the borough, it is “not possible to enforce mandatory parking rules”.
Despite this, Butt doubled down on his criticism of Lime’s hire scheme, issuing an ultimatum that all 750 of Lime’s bikes in the borough will be removed by 31 October, unless requests for improved safety measures are acted upon.
However, cycling campaigners in the capital were scathingly critical of Butt’s attack on Lime Bikes — which they believe was coming from a council that has done little to make cycling easier in the borough.
> Lime hire scheme under fire as residents claim e-bikes "deliberately" left in "dangerous places"
“Dockless cycle hire is opening up cycling to more and more diverse Londoners,” the London Cycling Campaign said in response to Butt’s statement. “Councils that have done nothing on active travel for years shouldn’t ‘ban’ bikes, but work with operators who offer funding for appropriately-placed parking.”
“Dockless cycling is an integral part of moving away from an overly car-reliant transport system in the suburbs,” added Tom Houston on Twitter. Chris added: “They’ve given me so much independence, especially seeing as TfL don’t have the money/will to expand the docked cycle hire scheme.”
Meanwhile, Kate argued that, if Lime parking bays are to become mandatory in Brent, “we should make sure that this parking replaces car parking – not pedestrian and parklet space”.
Echoing the LCC’s stance, another user said: “The lack of infrastructure to make cycling safer is noticeable in Brent, along with generally very poor driving standards.”
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after completing his masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Cymru, and also likes to write about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
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38 comments
Looks like yet another bike share service that's going to fold because of selfish idiots.
I don't think Lime are anywhere near folding.
Brompton however....
Maybe this is the answer - if they replaced all their bikes with folders they might take up less space when abandoned, and annoy people less.
Replace them all with Bromptons and they'd take up zero space within days or even hours, as they are all relocated elsewhere. To eBay or possibly out of the country...
That's quite the admission of criminal damage.
Lucky too - if they misjudge their cut and hit the battery... you'll be scraping their charred remains from the windows of next door.
I'm sure they'd ask Lime to do that too. Come and collect your bikes and my neighbour - they're in pieces.
Lime Bikes are useful. I've used them a few times, though they aren't cheap. But it does annoy me when people abandon them carelessly after riding them. Leaving them in the middle of the pavement so nobody can get past easily is just stupid and thoughtless, but it happens all the time.
That's a design feature of dockless bikes! People opt for "easy" a lot of the time. They'll park their own pride and joy (car) quickly or somewhere convenient for them. Of course they'll do so even more with stuff they don't even own and is "less significant" eg a bike.
It's tempting to get in to whataboutery. However, looking at Google maps I can't see why users would leave their Lime bike there. The one thing I did note was that despite plenty of space around the station including empty Sheffield stands there are 4 lime bikes in the middle of a pavement. There is an issue with inconsiderate use that Lime need to address as a priority.
Having said all of that it's criminal damage and the culprits should be prosecuted.
I'd say "inconsiderate use" is pretty much a working principle of dockless bike share. The whole thing.
Meanwhile, what the people would be calling for if they could see further than "car" (or possibly "some electric personal transport that's much smaller and cheaper than a car, that I can use on pavements etc.")?
Within cities - excellent street level public transport. (Tends to be "tram" but it relies on removing a lot of the private cars whatever. A non-NL example - Freiburg).
"My own cycle which I can store and park securely". And for longer journeys an integrated multi-modal transport system (excellent parking at transport hubs, seamless hire of rental bikes)
The linked article suggests that the station area is covered by an exclusion zone (presumably meaning Lime doesn't recognise it as properly parked if left there?) Don't know if that post-dates the Google streetview pics
Seems like a flaw. I wonder who decided that? Surely it's in everyone's interests to come up with an agreement that a portion of the car-park be set aside for Lime Bikes.
I had wondered if there was a regular user who parked the bike somewhere handy for the station, but not at the station to boost their odds of it still being available for their return journey.
The owners of the private car park made reasonable attempts to contact Lime and ask them to remove the bikes that were fly-tipped on their property.
My understanding of the legal position is that if Lime didn't respond in a reasonable time the owners of the property are entitled to dispose of and/or destroy the fly-tipped items.
I presume that Lime bikes are dockless? So, how would Lime be able to stop someone just leaving the bike anywhere at all?
They've got GPS tracking information, so the app can not allow the journey to be "finished" unless the bike is left in an authorised parking location. That means that someone leaving a bike elsewhere would continue to be charged time for the journey (presumably capping out at some amount). However, by the sound of things, Lime can't enable this feature as there's only 10 spaces for bikes!
The obvious answer is to convert a few roadside car parking spaces into Lime parking spaces. It would likely need something to prevent drivers from trying to park there - maybe a Lime towing truck.
Thanks for clarifying
The Bristol Dott (previously Tier) dockless ebikes and scooters operate this way. Each space has an allocated capacity, if that is exceeded you cannot end the ride and are told to find another space. I hired one of the e-bikes a few weeks ago and the battery ran out (so I had to end the ride, the bike could not be moved) but the space was over allocation (so I could not end the ride). After 10 minutes of no motion the ride automatically ended (that cost £2). Tech support gave me a free go in compensation.
Tier scooters - When visiting Keynsham I found several apparently dumped (not all at once - could have been the same ones? )
Tried to report this but their website didn't make it seem like this was a priority for them (they did have a feature but you just put in the number, no more info IIRC).
There is a spot in the River Avon which seems to attract bikes and scooters that have been chucked in. At low tide it looks like an archeological record of Bristol dockless bike and scooter schemes. First we have prehistory, represented by shopping trolleys. Then the great invasion of the Yo Bike culture followed by the dark ages and then the arrival of pinkish Voi and the rate Big Issue ebike.
My area (Weymouth) has just had a new dockless ebike scheme implemented by Beryl, back in August this year, all going well it seems, other than the 3 bikes discovered in the harbour during the first 10 days... they allow bikes to be left anywhere, however there's a £5 fee applied if you leave it outside of a marked bay, and a £10 fee if you leave it outside of the operating area. The latter increases to £80 if it's still there in 24 hours.
I have suggested that they apply a £5 credit for any bike picked up outside of a marked bay and returned to one, but no response as yet. This might reduce the times they have to send a recovery team out and would provide an incentive for people to get on a bike they find on the street and ride it back to a bay.
NYC has something although for docked bikes. Although apparently now that has set up its own incentives which may not be serving the original purpose...
Is the front wheel also locked, to make it so difficult to move them a few meters away?
Anyway, there is just not enough space in the cities, at some point even if everyone is walking, cycle or use public transportation - which is already the case in many city centers, it is still overcrowded...
While there are bikes (or indeed cars and the UK's "war on the driver" ha) people will leave them pretty much anywhere right by their destination.
In NL they have this as a "problem if success" so they invest in giant, good quality "bicycle stables" around town centres and at transport hubs.
Dockless bike share though? Less of a "public good" than shops that use the public realm to stick up advertising boards... and as they say - follow the money.
I understand that, we have free e-bikes in my city, docks, racks, you name it, but a few people still leave them anywhere...
No, I was curious about the front wheel locked or not, because if it isn't locked, that would make it easier to move these bikes out of the way - instaed of using a grinder and complaining - when they are blocking the passage for residents or passerby.
Now if both wheels are locked, these bikes look quite heavy, making it almost impossible to move them out of the way (without using the app, etc)!
Move the bikes repeatedly - solves the problem, but at your inconvenience. Chop them up - gets the operator's attention and they might do something about it. I absolutely don't endorse the latter, but can understand you might get sick of clearing up other people's (the users' and operator's) mess.
Both options are lacking a bit of innovative thinking.
They should get someone creative to respray them as 'Lemon bikes'.
Looking at the pictures in the linked article, the bikes aren't actually inconsiderately parked. The only issue is that they're on private property. I can't imagine that if someone had parked a car in one of their spaces, they'd have taken an angle grinder to it.
It sounds like a question from Ian Walker's motornormativity paper. Is it OK to dismember a (car|bike) when it is left in an inconvenient location?
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