Why we're all saddled with the Lime bike pavement pests: Riders evade any penalties for flouting parking rules

They are the scourge of pavements the length and breadth of the country.

Now a Daily Mail investigation can reveal why those who leave rented Lime bikes strewn across our streets keep getting away with it.

Technology used by Lime is seriously flawed, meaning that in certain areas riders can park anywhere they please without any punishment, our findings reveal.

Enforcement is so weak that our reporter was able to leave bikes obstructing London landmarks and on the doorsteps of multi-million pound homes without receiving a single warning or fine, despite a vow from the company that operates the bikes it will penalise bad parking.

It has led to chaotic scenes across the country, with ranks of the 80lb electric bikes left blocking entrances to stations and businesses.

California-based e-bike firm Lime operates in cities across the country, including in Salford, Nottingham, Oxford and Milton Keynes.

But anti-social parking has plagued London in particular, with some councils not requiring users to park in designated bays.

Lime states that in these ‘dockless’ areas, bikes must be parked ‘neatly to the side of the pavement’. 

Lime bikes are the scourge of pavements the length and breadth of the country

When our reporter parked in a spot clearly obstructing the entrance of a home in Greenwich, the Lime app simply displayed a message - which could just be ignored

Guidance on its website says riders ‘should always be considerate of other pavement users’ and lists five parking rules.

Riders are asked to take a photo of how they have parked and upload it to Lime’s app.

But the Mail has found that this does little to ensure its rules are followed. Our investigation spanned three south London boroughs that allow dockless parking: Wandsworth, Southwark and Greenwich.

We discovered that, when parking in a spot clearly obstructing a footpath or entrance, the Lime app displayed a message stating: ‘Move vehicle out of footpath: To help everyone get past, move your vehicle away from footpaths, entrances and ramps.’

But each time our reporter was able to ignore this message and park the bike.

It meant we were able to walk away from bikes blocking entrances to the likes of the Greenwich Theatre and the Globe Theatre, despite the app recognising that it was obstructing pedestrians. We even managed to leave a bike on the steps of Southwark Cathedral.

The app also allowed us to park bikes inside the porches of multimillion pound houses.

The Lime app was better at preventing parking in ‘exclusion zones’, such as those surrounding the Cutty Sark and Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, but this was not always the case.

Even when positioned in the middle of Greenwich's bustling market, which is supposed to be protected by an exclusion zone, the Lime bikes could still be parked 

The Lime bike could even be parked on the steps of the entrance to Southwark Cathedral

We managed to park bikes in the middle of bustling markets in Borough and Greenwich, which are supposed to be protected by exclusion zones. Our reporter moved all the bikes after they had been parked.

Lime has said that users who don’t park according to its rules receive a warning, followed by escalating fines of up to £20 before repeat offenders are banned from its service.

However, the Mail was not issued a single warning despite committing 26 parking contraventions.

Lime has struggled to tackle the issue because its GPS technology is not accurate enough to determine whether a bike has been parked properly.

Just last week, Lime apologised to a blind couple after an app glitch led to bikes blocking pavements in Bromley, south-east London, where the firm’s bikes are not permitted, forcing them to walk across a busy main road with their guide dog.

Earlier this year, Lime announced that it was rolling out new bikes with improved GPS technology, which it said would make ‘a huge difference’ to parking enforcement.

But Erik Matthies, policy lead at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, said its efforts ‘clearly still fall short of what is needed’.

Mr Matthies, who has sight loss, said e-bikes ‘present a danger’ to blind and partially sighted people when parked badly.

A Lime spokesman said: ‘Proper parking is important to Lime and we take instances of misparked vehicles seriously.

‘This year alone we’ve issued hundreds of thousands of warnings and tens of thousands of fines to riders who parked incorrectly in London.’