Lime Bike Parking Bays to Be Made Permanent

All 82 bays in Chiswick and Brentford to be kept or relocated

A Lime bike bay near Chiswick Back Common. Picture: ChiswickW4.com

January 3, 2025

Hounslow Council is proceeding with making most of the Lime Bike bays in Brentford and Chiswick permanent.

The 82 bays, most of which are in Chiswick, were introduced in June 2023 under an Experimental Traffic Management Order (ETMO).

In later phases of the scheme bays were introduced across the borough and there are now over 260 from which users can hire and return the e-bikes.

In July 2024 , as part of the Cabinet report on the Kerbside, the council’s cabinet recommended that the e-bike trial be extended so that data for another year so all the bays in the borough across the three phases of implementation could be evaluated.

This evaluation included e-bike operator data and feedback from residents and ward members. The review is being undertaken in three stages to reflect the introduction of the scheme in three areas of the borough with Chiswick and Brentford first.

All 15 bays in the Brentford area are to remain as they are while four of the 67 bays in Chiswick are to be relocated, and one is to be added.

Any bays listed to be relocated will not be made permanent as part of this process but will instead be subject to a new consultation process as part of a permanent traffic order.

Bays that did not achieve at least 30 trip starts in a month have been flagged for review.

The council accepted feedback during the trial period but is disregarded any issues raised about the service which do not relate to a specific bay.

A report issued by the council shows that the scheme had 23,350 active users in September double the first month of operation although the number of bays has more than doubled over this period. There were 93,400 trips taken in September 2024 with an average duration of 10 minutes and an average length of 2.3km.

Initial problems with parking compliance appear to have been reduced with 95% of sessions ended with the e-bike left correctly in a bay. Since the beginning of 2024 the average monthly number of incorrectly deposited bikes has fallen to 500 compared with 1,000 at the start of the scheme’s operation.

Users who do not park within a bay at the end of their trip face a fine, the level of which increases after each use up to £20, before they are ultimately banned from the scheme. Lime has acknowledged there is always likely to be a degree of user error that will be difficult to eliminate completely given the volume of trips.

The Council’s agreement with Lime sets out operator response times dictating how quickly the operator is expected to respond to issues such as mis-parked or damaged bicycles. Where a Lime bike is not operational (but not causing an obstruction), it must be removed within 24 hours and within 2 hours if it is causing an obstruction. Council staff monitor response times and report that, to date, Lime has been meeting the required timelines.

The estimated cost of making the bays permanent is expected to be approximately £3,000 which includes the expense of placing the statutory notices in a newspaper. This will be covered by licensing revenue generated for the council by the scheme.