Lime and other e-bike operators 'contacted by Met Police over persistent law breaking by cycle users'

Lime and other e-bike operators have been contacted by the Metropolitan Police about the impact badly parked cycles and speeding cyclists are having on communities.

Met Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes told Times Radio that if e-bike operators were doing their job, flocks of their bicycles would not be seen “strewn across the pavement”.

Since the hire schemes were introduced in 2017, badly parked bikes left abandoned in public areas have been a persistent source of frustration for Londoners.

Pedestrians negotiate their way around Lime e-bikes parked on the pavement and on the road in central London

AFP/Getty

“We're getting a response from some of those operators and they're working with local authorities who are going to principally enforce the rules around it, but you know it's clear if they [the operators] were doing a better job you wouldn't be receiving so many calls and messages about it,” Mr Jukes told Times Radio on Monday.

“Our job of course is to go after the street robbers.

“We've halved street robbery in Westminster over the last year by going after those on e-bikes and... we're doing that alongside some very serious investigations as well.

“But we're serious about the impact of this behaviour in our communities.”

Trip hazard: Lime e-bikes in Knightsbridge

RBKC

He added: “If they were doing enough you wouldn't see flocks of their bikes strewn across the pavement preventing free access for other members of the public.”

Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley earlier this year said Scotland Yard was taking mobile phone theft “massively seriously” and was cracking down on criminals using e-bikes to swipe devices from the hands of pedestrians.

He stressed that drones were being used to pursue phone thieves on electric bikes.

It comes as the Government said it wants to bring an end to the “wild west” of e-bike parking by giving councils greater control over how hire operators run their services.

New powers will include borough’s getting the ability to fine drunk riders.

The proposals form part of a wider push to tackle dangerous riding, poorly parked dockless e-bikes and anti-social behaviour across the capital.

“We’re giving power to Transport for London to set a London-wide licensing scheme because at the moment there are different rules for different boroughs and it can be confusing for people,” she said.

“We think shared e-bikes are a good thing. Personally, I love them, I think they’re quick and easy for people but we need to bring some order to it.”

The Government’s consultation will consider how the new powers could be enforced, with councils able to set conditions for operators, including measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and irresponsible parking.

If evidence arises that operators do not have robust plans in place to tackle dangerous e-riders, Ms Alexander said, they risk losing their licence.