Bike rental firm Lime is planning a £25m expansion in London after the company’s scooters were banned from Paris last year.
Lime hope to expand their cycle hire services to three further boroughs and open a new warehouse in north London.
Lime’s e-bikes are currently available to rent in 16 London boroughs. The firm has previously claimed that 97 per cent of the population in the capital is never more than two minutes from a Lime bike.
The planned expansion will only apply to e-bike rentals, Lime said.
However, concerns have been raised over public safety with residents complaining that the devices have been dumped on pavements, posing a particular risk to people with disabilities.
As part of the expansion in London, Lime will spend a further £1m on dedicated parking areas. Last year, the firm backed calls for 10,000 parking spaces to be created across the capital to allow its devices to be safely deposited.
It comes after Paris became the only major European capital to ban electric scooters last year after the public voted to remove them from the streets in a referendum.
In 2021, 24 people died in scooter-related accidents in France, including one in Paris.
E-scooters provided by Lime and Voi have been available to rent in ten London boroughs since June 2021 as part of a trial run by Transport for London (TfL), but they are limited to a speed of 12.5mph. TfL say the trials will enable Londoners to "use new and greener forms of transport" and reduce road congestion.
The latest UK Government figures show that there were at least 1,269 collisions involving e-scooters in the year up to June 2023, a fall on the 1,462 reported in the previous year.
Wayne Ting, Lime’s chief executive, said: “On the heels of another record-setting year, Lime is poised to continue our growth in 2024, with new vehicle options and plans for expansion to new cities.”
Last month, Labour accused the Government of “ducking” its responsibility to regulate electric-powered bike and scooters.
Labour MP Matt Rodda said there needed to be a “sensible approach to these new vehicles” which encourages the use of more environmentally-friendly transport, but also “keeps them off the pavements and avoids people being scared to walk down the street”.
