Lime bikes outside St Andrew's Church, Church Lane, Kingsbury
From Brent Council
Lime has agreed to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in the creation of hundreds of bike parking bays across Brent, as part of a comprehensive plan to tackle residents’ safety concerns.
The bike hire company was in the limelight after Brent warned that the dockless e-bikes would need to be removed from the borough if a number of concerns were not addressed by 31 October.
A plan to improve the way the bike rental service operates in Brent has now been negotiated following a series of constructive meetings, with a new operating model to begin immediately.
Lime Bike parking bay (not in Brent)
Under the new plan, which was launched today Lime will:
- Introduce and fund the creation of 200 new parking bays, in priority areas. These designated parking bays will be implemented and enforced in phases. All locations will be added before July 1 2025.
- Immediately reduce the size of its fleet in Brent by a third - from 750 to 500 bikes - while these other improvements are made, and consult closely with the council before increasing bike numbers again.
- Introduce zoning changes that prevent the parking of bikes in areas where parking has frequently been poor.
- Introduce automatic ‘slow zone’ speed controls in busy hotspots such as around Wembley Stadium and Wembley High Road, as well as a dedicated events plan for the stadium with the council.
- Increase the number of Lime cyclist patrollers and parking wardens on-the-ground in Brent by 78%, ensuring that any issues reported can be dealt with quickly.
- Remove inappropriately parked bikes within 2 hours of being reported via a newly created email.
- Reinvest the fines from poor parking back into the local community through the council’s Together Towards Zero grant scheme.
- Launch a new resident cycling forum to meet on a quarterly basis and provide a cycle training session each month for Brent residents.
Councillor Krupa Sheth, Cabinet Member for Environment and Enforcement, said:
Since raising our concerns with Lime earlier this year, we've spent considerable time at the table with them, communicating residents' issues, outlining our expectations, and closely reviewing their proposals.
We’ve squeezed a number of really important improvements out of Lime, and it is welcome that they have listened to residents’ feedback and are taking immediate steps to change.
This council supports active travel, but safety is non-negotiable. We hope that we have turned a corner with Lime and expect residents to see real, noticeable improvements from now on. We will hold Lime to these new commitments to ensure they are honoured.
Hal Stevenson, Director of Policy at Lime, UK, said:
We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Brent Council to continue offering our service to the tens of thousands of residents that rely on us daily across the borough.
Over the past two months, we’ve collaborated closely with the Council to establish an action plan that will deliver immediate, on-street improvements, while also funding the creation of a new network of mandatory parking locations by July 1.
Our significant investment in this network demonstrates our commitment to working alongside Brent to provide long-term solutions that address community concerns, while continuing to support their efforts to ensure more journeys in the Borough are taken by bike.
We are listening to our Council partners and taking action to manage the record demand for our e-bikes responsibly.
Residents should report badly parked bikes to Lime directly on their website or through their App or alternatively through a new email Brent@li.me or by calling 0800 808 5223.
36 comments:
Good news but comes on the sad day that a poor 2 year old was run over by a car driver. When will Brent treat all kinds of road violence as seriously as it does for cycle parking?
Pathetic. Brent are fully committed to active track and to tackling the climate crisis. Meanwhile they are reducing the number of available bikes by a third. Well done.
Hmm. Yes, that doesn't really answer it. It's fine to promise parking bays, but the one shown in the photo is an indentation of the road as with a bus stop, so how will that work even in high traffic areas like Wembley Park station? And the main reason I use them is to get to and from the station to my house, so are we going to get parking bays in all the residential areas? Most residential roads wouldn't be wide enough to take a chunk out for a parking bay. But there is usually, or at least often, room for one bike on the pavement.
Also what if the parking bay is full, as is. often the case in central London with motorcycle bays? With Santander bays, there is a docking station for each bike. That couldn't work with Lime bikes. So would it be allowed to add your bike to the end of the line?
And do we need to report every bike that we think is incorrectly parked? In NextDoor there are loads of photos of Lime Bikes, many of which are parked perfectly sensibly, but now it seems that any Lime bikes are considered evil.
Needs more thought.
Why not buy your own bike?
The money for this scheme woukd be better spent on public transport?
Does Brent Council allow Lime bikes to be ridden on pavements? Are people using Lime bikes required to wear a safety helmet? What does the word "immediate" mean in the statement from the Lime representative? What consultation will take place about location of the "designated bays". Will Line Bike riders have to obey Red Lights like all road users? Will these proposals be forgotten about just like the Brent Council promise to consult about the provision of a wheelie bin in place of their Blue Bags?
of course Lime riders have to obey the Highway Code on pavements, red lights etc. If you insist on complaining at least say something constructive.
How much does this company pay brent to litter our streets with these bikes? Each bike should at least be the cost of a peddlers license.
So who ever upholds these regulations??? The Lime Bike riders don't for sure!!!!!
Should be the police not the council
Totally insufficient detail in the response.
Where will these parking bays be located?
What incentives or sanctions are there for users to use these bays, why should they bother?
How many spaces will be provided?
How many limit parking patrollers are there for the borough and how many will be added to gain the 78% increase?
How much road space will be removed for bays and how much congestion will that cause?
How can residents object to bike bays, will road traffic orders or planning permission be mandated to ensure proper representation?
It is unrealistic to expect that much detail at this stage.. People will have to use the bays because of geofencing. You can end the ride only in a permitted location. I presume you’ve never used one yourself. For goodness sake don’t be so negative.
Brent urgently needs to cycling infrastructure prioritise its car-free housing population growths zoned.
Instead that is of without consultation making South Kilburn Tall Building Zones existing three controlled parking zones into one giant (who cares ?) parking zone until August 2026 (and most likely beyond that? )- an extreme inconsiderate approach to 'car-free' housing population car ownership growth.
Because e-bikes start at over £700, and pushbikes are an option for those younger and fitter than I.
Policing in this country is by consent. Also it’s hard to force riders not to go through traffic lights or ride on the pavement as you couldn’t catch them even if you wanted to (unless you’re Usain Bolt)
Sounds good Andrew- geofencing.
Brent really does need that masterplan for South Kilburn car-free housing 51 metre tall building zone Local declared in 2019, but still no tall building zone masterplan offered by its public landowner nearing 2025!
Westminster has an excellent separated cycle network (by UK standards at least) in place/ ready made adjacent to SK. SK has some 00's cycle route fragments, but the market since 2010 doesn't support such investment as like green walkways it for them 'wastes' land. Car-free, green walk free, public open space free, public services infrastructure free - FREE MARKET SOUTH KILBURN needs a masterplan for its new since 2019 tall story.
Lime bikes can implement whatever they want but unless they educate their users to park them sensibly so as not to cause an obstruction, not to leave them in stupid places, i.e in Parks. strewn across the pavement, instead of parked against a wall, or in the middle of the road, nothing will change.
Cycle and movement land use needs strong policies and funding in car-free- housing tall building tenanted massive population growth public owned estate zones becoming new towns by 2040.
Massive increase in cycle use factor that in and allow the space obviously needed. Local, Regional and National planners prefer a site-by-site ad hoc chaotic policies approach to Local tenanted population Growth Areas zoned, rather than work to an overall neighbourhood plan such as happens in legally defined and protected in English law Conservation Areas.
Plan policy is failing badly when new Peel car-free housing high density flats in South Kilburn won't sell without parking permits. Vistry wants and gets new vehicle roads rather than new cycle routes/ green walkways to 2 stations and added to that has zero interest in supporting the 2ha park directly across the road finally achieving major green investment in regeneration year 23.
Mentioning fining people for bad driving or parking won’t work (also who will enforce it), because most bikes which are dumped around are used by kids, teenagers and young adults illegally (not paying). You hear it when you come across a bike which either makes a peeing sound or a “clicking sound”.
And when people talk about it being green or think that these bikes are part of an environmental agenda – it’s hypocritical because they are being driven around in vans. So whatever you thought that you offset in carbon emissions by using a lime bike, it’s just a lie.
Lime bikes problem…
What is your evidence that MOST bikes are used by kids?
Why do us hard up tax payers have to keep paying for infrastructure to help cyclists? If the money was instead spent on better public transport it would benefit all of us.
You've got it the wrong way round. Lime pays the council for the right to charge us to use the bikes, so they are helping subsidise public transport, as well as keeping some cars off the road. I now use the Lime bike and tube to get to the hospital instead of driving.
What is the value of their subsidy each year?
Lucky you are fit enough to ride a bike - better public transport supports people of all abilities.
Rather than spending £6.5million on renaming/branding the overground lines the Mayor of London could have spent that money on the actual transport system.
Foot and wheel bridges/ tunnels over and under electrified railway line severances count as public transport capital spend. With its tenanted car-free housing towers mega population growth towards 2050 Brent has yet to be woke as to how its enormous new population growth without car use moves around this 9 million city.
The time of decision-makers pretending that West London Tower Hundreds is not Docklands 2 should be over with Labour now in power? Every Journey Matters has to start to mean something.
If Brent want to improve walking and cycling why not work with Network Rail to replace the rusting bridge old bridge that goes over the railway tracks between London Road and Lyon Park Avenue in Wembley with a state of the art modern bridge which would create a perfect short cut between Apperton and Wembley Central away from busy traffic and an ideal way for parents to get their kids between all the local schools.
The current bridge is rusting, filthy, covered in graffiti, has no proper lighting and has a couple of turns in the middle which create a muggers paradise as you lose sight of the route in front of you!
Yes transport infrastructure decision-makers need to get on with capital investing in smart ways that car-free housing towered tenanted working people can move direct around Docklands 2 Maga City even during rail and tube strikes.
Brent car-free housed economy vital that Alperton to Wembley Central foot bridges high quality/ to scale required and that Harlesden to Old Oak Common new station (HS2/ Elizabeth/ Great Western) has a new tap-in footway tunnel, taking in Willesden Junction on its 500m direct new public transport route. Foot tunnel built Moorgate to Liverpool street for Elizabeth Line connection, so when does Harlesden get its new foot tunnel direct link from Tubbs Road Pocket Park south?
Yes agree - see piece here about a new Network Rail bridge in Dalston replacing one that was rusting over there - why aren't Brent Council working with Network Rail to get improvements here
https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/job-done-in-dalston-bridge-for-pedestrians-and-cyclists-reopened
So because you can't catch them that's okay is it???
If cyclists are using our roads they should be required to wear a high vis jacket with bearing an idenyifying number and have insurance.
Yesterday we got off a bus on one of the imcredibly dangerous floating islands, we tried to cross the cycle lane via the zebra crossing but were completely ignored by several cyclists charging at us at full speed - they could clearly see us and should have stopped to let us cross - if a car driver had done something similar to them there would be uproar but as us pedestrians are not valued in the same way.
We need more investment in designated bus lanes and proactive enforcement of existing bus lanes and red routes to keep traffic moving for the benefit of everyone ...
“We want to see TfL working more closely with London boroughs to speed up the roll out of bus priority measures, thus improving journey times and protecting this vital service ... Last week The Standard revealed that TfL issued more than 460,000 parking tickets in 2023/24, mostly for parking or stopping on Red Routes."
https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.standard.co.uk%2Fnews%2Ftransport%2Faverage-london-bus-speeds-travelwatch-tfl-sadiq-khan-b1192576.html&utm_campaign=aga&utm_source=agsadl1%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4
So is the Mayor of London going to provide more public transport to carry for all the drivers who have to give up their cars because they cannot park because car parking spaces have been changed to bike parking places???
"Car parking spaces need to be reallocated to cyclists to help tackle problem of bikes dumped on pavements, says Lime policy chief.
London’s biggest e-bike hire firm wants councils to convert more on-street car parking bays into dedicated spaces for bikes to help it tackle the scourge of pavement parking."
https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.standard.co.uk%2Fnews%2Ftransport%2Flime-electric-hire-bikes-london-expansion-b1195109.html&utm_campaign=aga&utm_source=agsadl1%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4
You've got that the wrong way round. Each bike bay with provide, say, 7 bike spaces, so if people use bikes instead of cars, we need 6 fewer parking spaces. Though, of course, this will mean less parking revenue for the council, but set against that bikes don't wear out the road so fast. And especially near the stadium we are not short of public transport, as we have enough trains to fill a 90,000 seat stadium on event days, which are a small proportion of the days of the year. So for most of the year we have plenty of excess capacity. Sorry, you'll have to find another way to attack the scheme. Why not stick with moaning about bikes being pushed over, like everyone else?
Don't forget that cars can carry up to 5 people, a slightly larger people carrier can carry up to 7 people and a minibus about 20 people - all of these vehicles could park in the single parking bay that you reckon takes 7 bikes.
How often do Lime vans drive around moving bikes???
Also buses, which often get stuck trailing behind a single bike, can carry around 80-90 people in one vehicle.
Surely better public transport is the answer.
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