Westminster Dockless E-Bike Network – Latest Update

We support the growth of cycling and understand the need to introduce the physical and regulatory infrastructure that enable this to happen.

The current situation where e-bike riders are able to park wherever they like is not acceptable and never has been. The majority of e-bike riders park in a sensible manner but there is a significant minority who park carelessly and with no thought for others, blocking pavements and causing an obstruction for pedestrians.

We responded to the public’s concern about this and started last year by removing those bikes that were obstructing the pavement.

We then agreed with Lime and other operators to designate some streets in Soho and Covent Garden where, using geo-fencing technology, e-bike parking was banned. This certainly improved the situation in those areas of high e-bike usage.

We have now developed the details of the bay network proposed to effectively manage dockless bikes on our streets, for implementation later this Summer.

We have identified 149 proposed new ‘micro-mobility bays’ which when combined with our existing 67 trial E-Scooter rental bays would represent 216 controlled bays for users of the current LIME, TIER and Human Forest rental e-bikes.

There will be capacity for 2,000 e-bikes and 1,000 e-scooters.

We are discussing the proposed bay network with operators to get agreement on the locations and financial contributions from operators.

Additionally, 25 new bays have been identified for Phase 2, of which some of these are on the Transport for London Road Network/Red Routes and are subject to TfL approval and implementation.

The foundation of the proposed network is providing at least one parking bay per 300m catchment radius across the entire city, with additional bays being implemented in higher demand areas, like the West End, where bays are provided in a 150m catchment radius.

As part of the bay network, we are requesting that operating companies have a much greater presence of their ‘Ranger’ staff on our streets to monitor their bikes and ensure they are parked within the bays provided.

The entire city will be designated by the City Council as a ‘No-parking zone’ except for our above proposed network of marked out parking bays. This will be policed and regulated via geofencing technology, and we expect operators to share data on performance and compliance.

If users abandon their trips, we want operators to impose more substantial fines than currently exist – we are suggesting a minimum £10 fine across the city for users who fail to comply.

We will have shared the details of the proposed network of bays with all Councillors and residents’ groups for their comments prior to the network being implemented in August.

At the same time, we will be continuing to press the Government to introduce a Transport Bill which will create a legal framework for the management of e-bikes. So far, the Government has given no indication that it will devote parliamentary time to this important issue, along with the control of pedicabs.

Finally, we also working with London Councils on the introduction of a London-wide e-bike contract so that we have consistency on the operation of an e-bike network across the whole of London. This will bring clarity and consistency to the use of e-bikes across the capital.

We want to encourage more cycling and more active travel and we believe that our proposed Westminster-wide e-bike parking network is an important next step.