Shared e-bike giant Lime is committing nearly £1.5m to hundreds of new parking bays across London to address growing complaints about pavement clutter.
The company has already awarded £886,857 to nine boroughs, including Greenwich, Lambeth and Hackney, to create or expand 586 parking bays this year.
Lime is now offering a further £1m to councils to ease overcrowding at existing bays and manage the rapid spread of rental bikes across the capital.
Over one million cycling journeys are now made in London each day, according to Transport for London figures cited by Lime, with one in 10 taken on a shared e-bike.
The surge in demand has left councils struggling to accommodate the growing number of bikes, particularly in busy parts of central and inner London.
Alice Pleasant, Lime’s deputy regional head of government relations, said: “More people than ever are choosing shared e-bikes to get around London.”
Pleasant added: “That’s bringing clear benefits, but it also means we need to work with our borough partners to cater for the increased parking demand.”
Lime has now helped fund more than 3,400 bays across London, with total parking investment in 2026 expected to reach around £1.5m once initial projects are completed.
Unlike some exclusive borough contracts, parking spaces delivered through Lime’s fund are open to bikes from all rental operators, including rivals Forest and Voi.
The £1m funding round forms part of Lime’s wider £5m parking fund, itself a component of the company’s broader £20m London Action Plan.
Councils have until 22 October to apply for the latest round of funding as competition for resources intensifies across the capital.
Parking has become a thorny issue in an industry that has rapidly embedded itself into London’s transport network, with borough-level agreements creating a fragmented patchwork of rules.
Richmond earlier this year awarded Forest an exclusive three-year contract after it outbid Lime, despite Lime recording around 1.5 million journeys in the borough in 2025.
Lime retains “ride through” rights in Richmond but cannot park or hire bikes there, raising concerns that riders could leave bikes around the borough boundary instead.
Similar disruption emerged in Hounslow after Lime was initially excluded, with bikes abandoned around Chiswick Bridge and Shepherd’s Bush as geofencing prevented journeys from continuing through the borough.
The government is now preparing a London-wide licensing system that would give Transport for London greater control over shared e-bike operators, replacing the current fragmented approach.
Matthew Clark, head of new mobility at Steer, which independently administers Lime’s fund, said the bays being built now would help prepare for a “more consistent, safer and sustainable future.”
Lime’s own Opinium survey of 1,000 Londoners found 21 per cent were more likely to use a shared e-bike if safer parking was available at their destination.
The investment follows Lime’s recent move to offer its annual subscription through the Cycle to Work scheme, targeting a greater share of London’s daily commuter market.
Lime’s UK revenue jumped 75 per cent to £111.3m in 2024 as demand for its bikes continued to surge across the capital.