The Debate: Lime – a friend or foe to Londoners?
Morning Wire’s Debate column asks the hard questions. Today, are Lime bikes a friend or foe to Londoners. Hear what two impassioned commuters think
YES: It’s not Lime that’s the problem, it’s a lack of cycling infrastructure
Lime Bikes are a clear friend to London. Convenient. Eco friendly. Fun. Not the Tube. The people I most often hear complaints about them from either don’t live in London (and have decided they are ruining our streets) or haven’t taken the Tube in 15 years. My commute to work has been slashed, I don’t have to worry about strikes and with a ride pass, it’s even cheaper than the bus. To boot, I get a blast of fresh air every morning – proper fresh air, not the stuff that punches you in the face if you stand too close to a connecting door on the Tube.
I understand there are some legitimate gripes with Lime bikes, but they usually come down to user error or inconsiderate fools. And I find the argument that they take up too much space laughable when you consider the real estate given to car infrastructure around the city – why is no one so outraged by that? Plus, in their defence, Lime has a potential solution, having just offered to cover the costs to businesses for building parking bays – which should be a win-win for everyone.
Safety could be a real concern, but when you mount a bicycle, you take your life into your own hands. Cities that are more bicycle friendly are reportedly safer for all road users and therefore we shouldn’t be beefing with Lime bikes, we should be beefing the lack of good infrastructure for cyclists.
To those that hate on Lime Bikes, I say: get a life, find a hobby, and on your bike.
Ed Jones-Davies is a Lime-biker from Angel
NO: Litter is no longer a discarded crisps bag, but a hulking, blockish thing of green
Hell isn’t other people. Hell is a patch outside your flat being designated a Lime bike parking station – and the people that brings. Drunks, City boys, those balancing a flat white in one hand and a teeny tiny mirror in the other. All day, all night, chattering on a phone, beeping as the bastard thing unlocks, shouting because would you believe who Tabatha or Timothy or Tamaniel is seeing?
Worse, this used to be a city that believed in red lights. A proper city in which you could safely cross the road with your headphones in, a ‘Rest is’ on and maintain the oblivious anonymity of living somewhere with 8m people. No longer. Now, crossing a road is akin to a twenty-first century Takeshi’s Castle. Watch out! A twenty-eight-year-old eight pints deep must make an afters pronto. Zoom! Third Space won’t wait.
Litter. Litter used to be something we all agreed on. Litter was bad. Now, thanks to Lime, litter is good. And bigger. No longer a discarded Walker’s crisps bag but a hulking, blockish thing of white or green, up turned on its side. On a roadside, in a field, hell – in a canal. You liked clean streets, clean-ish waterways? Too bad.
Of course, the tragedy is it’s too late. Too many people are hooked, too many Lime green pilled for us to go back. Oh well, Lime, you win. I’ll see you all in the woods, desperately attempting to cut myself off from the beeping bike’s grid.
Samuel Barnett is a pedestrian from Walthamstow
THE VERDICT
An e-bike company with a bold colour scheme never sounded the making of a political beast but here we are. No longer in 2025 can one Lime politically neutrally, we must decide: is Lime London’s friend or foe? Morning Wire’s callout for opinions showed our readers were strongly divided: where some saw progress and innovation, others saw social degradation. One subject line stated simply: ‘Lime = Crime!’
It’s true, there is much to find irritating in the e-bike trend: Vogue yesterday declared them the newest ‘it’ accessory of the fashion set, many who ride them appear to have never set forth on two wheels before and, of course, as Mr Barnett correctly describes, they are the chosen stallions of overconfident City boys. And yet, Morning Wire would be remiss not to endorse the green-wheeled monster. Not only is Lime an example of great business, a clear case study of supply and demand, but, more importantly, it has helped break the stranglehold of Tube drivers on this much beleaguered city, which simply makes our heart go pitter patter. For that, Lime is truly a friend.