So I finally got to ride one and wow they can really go. My favourite feature is probably the worst feature and that's that you can leave them anywhere. However what I didn't realise until actually riding one, is that the app asks you to take a picture of where and how you parked the bike when you're finished and then potentially punishes people who don't park the bikes properly. They can clearly enforce that more. But now I'm of the opinion that the local councils need to provide more bike parking. One or two parking spots at the end of every road would be enough. Being someone that lives in a hilly area, I don't really bother with bikes, but with the electric motors on the Lime bikes, I would ride everywhere and happily switch from Ubers if they were officially operating in my borough. Anyway, they're really really fun and I'm really looking forward to them redressing the balance of cars in London. For short journeys, they're perfect and the more people that access them, the fitter the city will be.
Or, you know, at all...
I see far more Lime bikes sitting in the middle of the pavement than I do parked appropriately. Lime clearly has no incentive to punish bad parkers as all it does is lose them business for zero benefit.
The way to make the cost-benefit analysis work - and therefore to make Lime enforce against bad parkers - is for Lime to face a cost when their riders park badly. Local councils should just drive a van round and impound any Lime bikes thrown in the middle of the pavement and charge Lime £200 a pop to recover them - that would quickly get them to stop renting bikes out to hooligans.
Judging by what the app told me, I suspect they only punish bad parkers if they get fined. So yeah, they should definitely enforce it more, because if it hits people in the pocket, they'll quickly fix their behaviour. Imagine if you can save 25% by just not being a prick.
Hammersmith and Fulham impounded some bikes, Lime's contractors broke in to retrieve them:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/lime-bike-london-roads-hammersmith-fulham-electric-cycle-b1105622.html
Wandsworth impounded bikes too https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/2022-news/news-november-2022/lime-bikes-causing-obstructions-have-been-seized/
I think the legal problem is how to fine Lime when it's the end user who 'litters' the bike, and how to know whether the name on the payment method matches the end user. I'm sure if councils could legally seize and fine/destroy, they'd be doing it.
And I don't know if Lime have updated the security but it used to be quite easy to override the locking mechanism and ride without paying, you just had to live with the really loud clicking noise the bike made. So if it's been stolen and then dumped, Lime have no comeback against anyone.