HWA responds to request for input to Richmond Council e-bikes / e-scooter review.

Richmond Council invited comments ahead of their review with e-bike / e-scooter providers within the borough. Please find our comments below.

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The Hampton Wick Association submits the following points for consideration by councillors and officials in their negotiations with bike, e-bike, scooter hire operators, which in Hampton Wick means Lime.

By way of background, we note that Lime is a US company which has raised over $1.7bn in venture capital since 2017 and is currently valued at around $2bn. They are not a social enterprise motivated by the environment or public health concerns; they are a commercial company heralded as a “unicorn” in investor circles: www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unicorn.asp

1. The HWA broadly supports initiatives that encourage or facilitate cycling on the basis that bikes of all types are a cleaner and quieter method of transport than most, they take up less space on the road and provide opportunities for exercise.

2. The HWA also believes that walking should be facilitated as a means of getting about, and indeed all residents should have the right to unimpeded access along public pavements.

3. We have received numerous complaints from members of the public about Lime bikes. The concerns mostly centre on bikes being left by hirers in inappropriate places, causing obstruction on pavements. Bikes are frequently left in such a way that a person in a wheelchair, or pushing a pram or even just walking along cannot pass them. The bikes are heavy and are difficult for many people to move aside – certainly impossible for a disabled or elderly person.

4. The company provides a mechanism to report abandoned or badly located bikes but (a) members of the public (as opposed to the police or council officers) report that responses are belated or non-existent, and (b) that doesn’t really help the person who is stranded, unable to get past the obstruction on the pavement.

5. Quite apart from the bikes left by hirers, the bikes put out en masse by Lime itself are often in such quantities that they completely dominate the streetscape. Additional bikes are then added by hirers at these locations, causing the bikes to spill out across the pavement.

6. The company’s current charges are:

Classic bikes: unlock fee: £1, per minute rate 15p
e-bikes: unlock fee £1, per minute rate 20p

If someone wants to cycle from Hampton Wick Station to Teddington High Street, according to Google Maps the journey will take 8 minutes. That will cost £2.20 for a regular bike or £2.60 for an e-Bike. These costs are higher than a bus journey and cannot be said to be accessible for less-well off residents. It certainly doesn’t make a bicycle ride in the park an affordable option (say 30 minutes = £5.50 for a regular bike, £7.00 for an e-Bike per person).

7. We would like the council to consider the balance of costs and benefits in this scheme, and in particular who bears the costs and who gains the benefits:

• The cost of obstructed pavements is being borne by local residents, and is disproportionately a problem for those most dependent on pavements: elderly, disabled, those with small children etc.

• The cost of lost parking bays, where bays are designated for Lime bikes, is being borne by local residents. We know that parking is in short supply and that many local residents rely on on-street parking. Giving spaces to support Lime Bikes’ business model comes at the expense of their convenience.

• The cost of visual pollution, again mentioned to us by local residents, is borne by all of us who live and work here. Almost-permanent fluorescent green street clutter on almost every corner spoils almost every streetscape, and in particular is out of keeping in a conservation area.

• The benefit of profit, or at least company value, is being given entirely to Lime Bikes and its venture capital backers in the US.

• The potential benefit of making bikes available to more members of the public would seem to be limited to those who are able to afford the quite considerable charges, certainly beyond many of the local residents who are unable to afford their own bikes or bus fares.

8. We suggest that helping more residents to use bikes more frequently could be achieved by improving road layouts and perhaps supporting schemes to help people buy or share bicycles, and providing better secure bike parking at RHP residential properties, and at public amenities such as the Library, Bullen Hall etc.

9. We question whether this area really suits the Lime Bikes model. Here people are likely to pick up a bike at, e.g. the station and then finish their journey (and so leave the bike) in a residential side street where it is unlikely that another person will come along to use it. It will therefore be left there until the scheduled pick-up time, which could be the following day.

10. Further, the Lime Bikes micro-payment business model means that hirers – who may have the bike for only a few minutes – quite naturally have no sense of ownership or responsibility for the bike, and Lime are unwilling or unable to deal with the consequence of bikes being abandoned all over the place. A longer-term hire model (e.g. a week or even a day) would make it more likely that the hirer would take more care of the bike and be responsible for returning it to a proper location.

Hampton Wick Association
June 2025