gtbarry
スマートモビリティJP [Unofficial]電動モビリティシェア大手Lime、日本で電動アシスト自転車「LimeBike」を展開開始。電動キックボードは廃止を完了
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://smart-mobility.jp/_ct/17842321
Tom Fucoloro
Giving the new LimeBike the downtown Seattle extreme hills test.
Lime has launched 500 new “LimeBikes” in Seattle, a new model with smaller wheels and a lower center of gravity compared to the company’s existing “Gen 4 E-Bike,” resulting in a bike that looks a lot like the company’s sit-down scooter they call the LimeGlider.
The new LimeBike, with a name harkening back to the company’s pre-scooter days, should be more stable when carrying weight in the basket. The bike hopefully will also be less likely to fall over and block sidewalks due to its lower center of mass. Like the Gen 4 E-bike, the LimeBike motor will activate via pedal-assist and throttle, whichever the user chooses. The form factor may also draw wider appeal since it may be less intimidating to some users than a bike with full-size wheels. The LimeGliders have seen lots of use since they launched, for example, and may be attracting users over the Gen 4 E-Bikes that look more like traditional bikes. The Glider has been able to bridge the gap between a bike and a stand-up scooter, and it will be very interesting to see if the new LimeBike can appeal to scooter users in a way the existing bikes do not.
UPDATE 5/11: I finally tracked one down, and oh boy it is very good (no, this post is NOT sponsored). My biggest fear was that it would be a scooter with worthless pedals attached so that it would count as a bicycle like the Veo “bikes” from a few years ago, and I am very happy to report that this is not at all the case. The new LimeBike is the best bike share bike I’ve ever tried, and it’s not even close. I took it on the same extreme test loop I have taken nearly every other micromobility device: Up Spring Street from 2nd to 4th Avenues downtown for a worst case climbing test, then down Madison from 4th to 2nd for a worst case braking test. If a bike can handle this loop, then it can handle anything. Not only did the new LimeBike perform flawlessly, I was able to pedal up these ridiculously steep hills at 12 mph without significant effort. It also easily passed the hardest test of all: Getting started on a steep uphill (many devices have failed this one). Perhaps due to the smaller wheels the bike seemed to have a lot more torque than any other micromobility device I’ve ever tried, which helps with climbing and getting started from a stop. The bike’s pedal assist feels more responsive and natural than the Gen 4 E-Bike it is replacing, so I didn’t feel compelled to even touch the throttle. But beyond power, it was just so comfortable.
The new seat post adjustment latch seems unnecessarily large at first glance, but it’s so intuitive and easy to use to get the saddle at the right height. For a bike where you’ll probably want to adjust this every time you ride, this design is brilliant (assuming it holds up well with time and wear). The lower stepover height makes the thing even more approachable. The lower cargo area is also great, though it is not a cycletruck-style design as I had initially thought it was. I thought the basket was attached to the frame, but it does move with the fork when turning. However, it didn’t feel like the handlebars wanted to flop to the side when there was stuff in it. Thanks to the pedals, the LimeBike is much more zippy than its similar-looking cousin, the LimeGlider sit-down scooter, and on flat ground I was comfortably able to pedal beyond 15 mph, the point that the electric motor stops providing assistance. The bike felt good to ride even without the motor whirring, which is not something I can say about any other shared e-bike I’ve tried. Honestly, I think if they sold this thing in stores people would buy it. You could happily and comfortably ride it for hours around town (buy a LimePass minute bundle or subscribe to LimePrime rather than paying by the minute if you’re going to do this). I had high hopes for this design, and it blew my expectations away.
They are a bit difficult to track down. As of now, only 500 of Lime’s 4,000 bikes in Seattle will be the new model. In the Lime app, the LimeBike does have a slightly different icon from the Gen 4 E-Bike and the Glider if you are determined to track one down yourself (if you’re doing so today, downtown might be your best bet as I saw several down there this morning).
Back to the original story:
At least on paper, the LimeBike addresses my biggest issues with the LimeGlider. Perhaps because I am so used to biking, I do not like the lack of an adjustable-height seat on the Glider and the fact that it feels kind of awkward to stand while riding it. It feel much more comfortable and in-control when I am seated higher, though this is likely a matter of personal preference. The Glider can also struggle a bit going up the steepest hills. The new LimeBike has pedals, so you should be able to help it up hills, and it has an adjustable-height seat. I have not yet had a chance to test ride the new LimeBike, but I will attempt to hunt one down and will update when I do.
As someone who rides bikes every day, I really like the Gen 4 E-Bike. The company is only replacing 500 of their 4,000 Seattle e-bikes with the new model at this time, so the company will keep the Gen 4 bikes in operation for a while longer. However, the new bike fits better into their operations, so if it is a success they will likely phase out the old bikes eventually. The Gen 4 bike was based heavily on the JUMP bike design that the company inherited when it acquired its competitor in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. It’s a solid tank of a bike with good brakes and zippy acceleration. But ridership is consistently higher on the scooters than the bikes, so I am open to the idea that what I am personally seeking is not in step with the average person.
The bike industry seems to be leaning toward bikes with 20-inch wheels, which have a lot of practical advantages over larger wheel sizes even if they take bumps a tiny bit harder. They can more easily fit shorter riders, for example. It is also easier to mount cargo to the frame rather than the fork. It is also easier to get high torque/low gearing, a high-demand bike spec in hilly Seattle. Our family cargo bike is a Tern GSD, which has two 20-inch wheels and is fantastic at hauling anything and anyone I put on it. This isn’t to say 20-inch wheels are always better, but mini velos are having a moment. Rodriguez makes a pretty cool one here in Seattle called the Pony Keg. They also have one called the 6-Pack covered in couplings so it can fit inside a 20″ x 20″ suitcase. (No, they do not sponsor me, I just think these are really cool).
Lime’s Seattle ridership continues to climb to levels few would have predicted even five years ago. Their bikes and scooters carried 57,000 people on the day of the Seahawks parade in February, which is on par with the number of cars that drive across the Aurora Bridge. Data that Lime reports to SDOT shows that the company carried 943,200 trips in April, a 43% increase over April 2025, which itself was a 115% increase over April 2024. To date (through May 7), Seattle is at 3,218,800 trips in 2026, and Bike Month just began. The summer months are when Lime ridership usually balloons. These are astounding numbers, showing that Lime is a serious part of our city’s year-round transportation system now.
With competitor Bird no longer operating in Seattle as of this month, Lime seems to have officially won Seattle’s 9-year shared micromobility cage match. It may be time to revisit our city’s relationship with Lime since our existing permit system is written to encourage competition, yet it’s not clear who else is in a position to compete with Lime at this time. It is a great thing for micromobility that Lime seems to have figured out how to make this work, but it’s also not usually good for users when one company has a monopoly. Seattle may want to figure out how it can ensure Lime’s success also benefits Seattle residents into the future.
The Lime Glider seems to have not cannibalized ridership from the standing scooters or bikes. Instead, it just added more trips on top, helping to explain Lime’s surging trip counts. Chart from SDOT’s Shared Micromobility Data Dashboard.Image from Lime.#SEAbikes #Seattle
シェアサイクル大手「ハローサイクリング」と「Lime」がポート連携を開始。Limeは電動アシスト自転車「ライムバイク」の導入も発表
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://smart-mobility.jp/_ct/17836132
トラベル Watch
Marshawn Lynch rode a Lime to the NFC Championship game at Lumen Field. From Jordan Schultz.
Lime riders took more than 57,000 trips February 11, the day of the Seahawks parade downtown. After adding Bird’s 2,100 rides, the 59,300 total of shared bike and scooter rides was on par with the average daily traffic across the Aurora Bridge.
The only pieces of roadway infrastructure in Seattle that carry more than 60,000 trips per day are I-5 (250,000), I-90 (137,000), the West Seattle Bridge (73,000), the Aurora Bridge (61,000), and Mercer Street (61,000). Link Light Rail carried more than 200,000 trips, and Washington State Ferries carried 46,000. It’s amazing that shared bikes and scooters are carrying trip counts comparable to such massive pieces of transportation infrastructure, especially when you consider that these companies actually pay the city for the privilege. The shared bikes and scooters are also complimentary to our transit services, often helping people access transit stops that would require too long of a walk otherwise. They help further actualize the public transit investments we are already making, expanding their reach to more homes and destinations.
There’s no comprehensive way to measure how many people rode their personal bikes and scooters to the parade, but the number was far above normal. Fremont Bridge bike and scooter trips were up about 40% over other days the same week. We have even less data about the number of people who simply walked to the parade.
The parade gave Seattle a rare opportunity to stress test our transportation network, and it’s clear that walking, biking and transit are the resilient options to keep our city moving under unusual circumstances. The parade was a celebration, but you could also imagine it as a disaster simulation in which we need to move a lot of people amid a significant disruption to our city’s infrastructure (in this case, 4th Avenue through downtown became impassible). Whether we are planning for major events, future increases in daily commuting or responding to a disaster, it’s important to prioritize our resilient modes of transportation.
Lime is the big winner from the parade, aside from the Seahawks of course. The company showed that its service thrives in the most difficult transportation conditions. The numbers, which are also impressive on non-parade days, further support expanding the availability of designated bike and scooter parking areas such as SDOT’s bike corral plan for Pioneer Square. On-street corrals fit perfectly near street corners where car parking is already illegal, improving crosswalk safety by keeping sight lines clear while also providing space for parking bikes and scooters away from crowded sidewalks. SDOT plans to use the special Pioneer Square Preservation Board-approved bike rack design in the corrals, but the board is still pushing back on the plan.
Bike and scooter share is a serious part of Seattle’s transportation system, and it will play a significant role in getting people to and from World Cup events.
Despite all the attention and investments, Uber, Lyft and robo taxis collapse under the same conditions that snarl roadways for personal cars. Robo taxis, which get so much attention and investment, actually block roadways during disaster scenarios. If a Lime fails to unlock, then the user needs to walk or take transit instead. If a robo taxi stops working, it becomes a giant roadblock. If the robo taxi network stops working, they become a fleet of roadblocks across the city. Imagine that happening after a major earthquake, blocking buses, emergency vehicles and people driving private cars. Even outside a disaster scenario, robo taxis also snarl roadways near venues following major events as many people all call them to the same area at the same time. It’s not a solution that scales well in a dense city.
It’s so odd to watch so much attention and money pour into concepts that keep failing to address our transportation issues while we have this other solution that is succeeding beyond anyone’s imagination but keeps getting ignored. Pronto bike share carried 278,000 rides during its two and a half years of operation a decade ago, and Lime just carried 20% of that total in a single day. This is worth celebrating.
#SEAbikes #Seattle
Screenshot from the Lime App.
Lime’s newest pricing scheme makes it far more cost-effective for regular users to use their bikes and scooters for short trips, making the service much more useful as an everyday mode of transportation. The new scheme puts the cost of a 20-minute ride on par with a full-price adult transit single-ride fare of $3 while lowering the cost of rides under 5 minutes to $1.50. The pricing change comes as the number of bike and scooter rides in Seattle in the past year topped 10 million and continue to rise, according to data the company submits to SDOT.
Subscribers to the $6 per month LimePrime membership now pay a flat rate of $2.85 plus tax for rides up to 20 minutes with no unlock fee. That’s about the price of a 4-minute ride under their regular pricing ($1 to unlock plus 47¢ per minute). LimePrime rides up to 5 minutes will be $1.50, and rides longer than 20 minutes are charged a reduced rate of 28¢ per minute. Under the default rate, a 20-minute ride would cost $10.40, 3.7 times higher than the LimePrime rate.
Let’s say someone lives a 20-minute bike or scooter ride from a light rail station, the most favorable condition for the new pricing scheme. They could now spend $120 per month to take Lime to and from the station five days a week. That’s not exactly cheap, but under the previous per-minute pricing scheme the same use would have cost $416.
The default per-minute rate is rarely the cheapest option anymore because the 47¢ per minute rate and $1 unlock fees add up very fast whether you’re taking one longer ride or many shorter rides. At 17 minutes under the standard rate, a user has paid the equivalent of one month of LimePrime plus the $2.85 fee for the trip.
Trips under 5 minutes will cost $1.50 instead of $3.35 under regular pricing, which opens up some interesting use cases. I used to love taking the old $1 bike share bikes short little distances around the neighborhood, like going from north Broadway businesses to Pike/Pine businesses or from the Rainier Valley light rail stations on MLK Way to destinations along Rainier Ave. These aren’t the longest walks, but it’s a small joy to just hop on a bike to shrink the neighborhood. I wouldn’t pay $3.35 to bike a half mile, but I might pay $1.50.
The math gets a little more complicated when comparing to the LimePass minute bundles. For example, a single 30-minute ride would cost $5.25 with LimePrime pricing but $7 with a 30-minute LimePass bundle. However, three 10-minute rides in one day would cost $8.55 with LimePrime compared to $7 with a LimePass bundle. So if you rarely take Lime, then the minute bundles are still probably the better option (and the 30-minute bundle is nearly always better than paying the default rate). Someone visiting town for a week who is planning to rely largely on biking to get around may also be better off buying the $34 bundle to get 3 hours of riding time and have no worries about forgetting to cancel the monthly subscription. If you really want to pay as little as possible on a long ride, I guess you could stop every 20 minutes to end your ride and then start it again since the effective rate on a 20-minute LimePrime ride is about 14¢ per minute.
Note that people who qualify for a reduced cost ORCA Lift card also qualify for Lime Access, which at 75¢ to unlock plus 1¢ per minute is much more affordable than any of these other pricing options. If transportation costs are a burden on your budget, definitely check to see if you qualify. The threshold is 200% of the federal poverty level, which is higher than many other assistance programs.
The monthly LimePrime subscription is another potential downside of the new pricing scheme. If you end up not really using Lime often, then that’s $6 down the drain every month until you cancel it. The business model for gyms is for people to pay for memberships that they rarely use, and that’s a risk for LimePrime, too. More people committing financially to a single provider could also further erode competition in the market. Currently, Bird is the only other company operating in Seattle, but that could feasibly change in the future. If enough of the user base has a monthly financial commitment with a single company, that could make it harder for another provider to enter the Seattle market. It’s not usually a good thing for consumers when a single company has too much market share because they can then start hiking prices and reducing the quality of service if they no longer need to worry about losing customers. The situation is a little different with Lime since they are also competing with some heavy-hitting and well-established competitors like the bus and walking.
If Seattle gets to the point where Lime is the only viable provider (they are arguably already there considering they have reported carrying about 97% of bike and scooter share trips in Seattle in 2025), then perhaps an open permit system would no longer make the most sense for the city. Lime carries a massive number of trips around Seattle, and it is an important part of city’s transportation system. If Lime were instead granted a contract or license as the sole provider, the change could open up options for the city to negotiate more public benefits such as investing in a public-private roadmap for shifting to corral-only parking. This could finally deal with the problem of bikes and scooters blocking walkways and curb ramps by only allowing users to end trips within designated parking areas. Such a concept would only work with a massive expansion of bike and scooter parking. I don’t know the exact density required to make it work without significantly degrading the bike and scooter experience, but I imagine it could be on the scale of creating a bike and scooter parking corral at every single intersection in every business district. Residential parking is maybe even trickier due to the sheer scale of how many residential intersections there are in the city. However, there is an added safety benefit to physically restricting parking 20 feet before every street corner (30 if there’s a stop light or sign) as is already state law (with very few exceptions, street corners are crosswalks whether marked with stripes or not). I know in my neighborhood this law is never followed, and cars parked too close to the intersection can create safety hazards by blocking sight lines (“They darted out from behind a parked car!”).
To deal with the overwhelming scale of the task, perhaps the city and Lime could partner on a progressive roll-out concept to go neighborhood-by-neighborhood implementing new parking areas and intersection daylighting improvements along with new scooter and bike share parking restrictions. It might take a while to get the whole city, but work could be phased according to the need and resources available.
#SEAbikes #Seattle
Seattle was the first major and lasting launch city for Lime back in July 2017, and the city has continued to be one of the company’s strongest markets globally. In the last year (November 2024 through November 2025), Lime and Bird reported an astounding 10.3 million trips in Seattle, according to SDOT’s data dashboard (96% of those trips were on Lime). Over the year, bike and scooter share carried about 60% as many trips as the state’s $2.15 billion SR-99 highway tunnel under downtown Seattle. During summer months, that number may have been more like 80%.
Bike and scooter share is a major part of Seattle’s transportation system today, yet the city still has not fully adapted to support it in a comprehensive manner. While the public subsidizes driving to the tune of billions, these companies actually pay Seattle for permits to operate here. Yet despite some city work to add bike and scooter parking areas in select locations (largely funded by scooter and bike permit fees), the vast majority of the devices are parked on sidewalks wherever users could find a spot. This leads to bikes and scooters blocking walkways, curb cuts and other sidewalk access needs whether due to inconsiderate parking by users or passersby knocking them over. A blocked walkway may be annoying for someone who can step around a fallen device, but it is a serious mobility blockage for people who cannot.
Meanwhile, though the city has been building more protected bike lanes, they are nowhere close to keeping up with the demand for safe bike and scooter routes. The result is the frustrating and persistent problem of people riding scooters on sidewalks. Sidewalk riding is uncomfortable for people walking, and it is also not a good solution for people riding bikes and scooters. Some of the problem may be inconsiderate user habits, but the much bigger problem is a lack of safe bike lanes. You are far more likely to experience someone riding a scooter on a sidewalk along a street filled with car traffic, such as the one where this most often happens to me: NE 45th Street in the U District. Sure, they are supposed to ride in traffic, but have you seen traffic?!?
While bike and scooter share ridership in Seattle is a major success story, problems with sidewalk riding and walkway blockages are a persistent source of justified complaints (along with some over-the-top complaints) that are not going away. The Urban Community Councils of Seattle are hosting a “Scooter Public Safety Forum” 6 p.m. Tuesday (December 2) at Plymouth Church at 6th and University downtown. Unfortunately, the event description only mentions “scooter speeding, sidewalk riding, and parking chaos” and not the safety needs of scooter riders. Hopefully that is also part of the discussion. Here’s the event description:
“Speeding, sidewalk riding, and parking chaos! Join us for a forum with Lime Scooters to talk about steps they are taking to address safety. Scooter safety is top of everyone’s minds these days. Seattle has the third largest Lime ridership in the world and is well-positioned for prioritized solutions. Join us for a presentation and audience Q&A with Lime Scooters on what they are doing to address scooter speeding, sidewalk riding, and parking chaos.”
As with any group, the vast majority of people riding scooters want to behave in a proper manner and would gladly use a safe bike lane if there was one. But when presented with the no-win options of a busy street that feels unsafe or a sidewalk, we cannot be surprised when many people choose the sidewalk. It is human nature to prioritize self-preservation. There are always going to be a few total jerks, especially from a pool of over 10 million rides per year, but most scooter riders just want to get where they’re going like everyone else. This is a mainstream way to get around, and the people riding bike and scooter share are also community members, and I hope Tuesday’s conversation keeps that in mind.
The good news is that we already know the solutions to both the scooter and bike share parking and sidewalk riding problems. For parking, the city needs to install way more parking corrals. We have a mere fraction as many as are needed. Even better, if the city installed enough bike and scooter parking, such as at least one corral at every intersection, then we could change the rules to allow the devices to be parked only within designated areas. I think this is a worthy goal, and it would be great to see the city and the companies work out together what it would take to achieve it.
For sidewalk riding the answer is also obvious: Bike lanes. This is a serious mode of transportation, and it needs dedicated space. Bike lanes not only reduce sidewalk riding, they are also part of street safety projects that can dramatically improve crosswalk safety. Likewise, on-street bike and scooter corrals can be located in the space where it is already illegal to park a car, further improving crosswalk safety by daylighting intersections so people driving can better see people about the cross the street. This strategy was a huge part of how Hoboken, New Jersey, has gone 8 years without a traffic fatality. Seattle has had success with on-street corrals, too, but we need way, way, way more of them. Every commercial intersection would be a start, and there could even be two or four of them at each intersection to cover all the approaches.
How daylighting intersections makes them safer, from the National Association of City Transportation Officials, of which SDOT is a contributing member.We are still thinking too small about bike and scooter use. It is unreasonable to expect that painting some rectangles on the sidewalk should be enough to handle the huge and increasing number of trips they are carrying around our city. We invest billions in public dollars and reserve the vast majority of public space in order to move people and goods around our city and region, and we need to be willing to dedicate resources to bikes and scooters, as well.
There are more scooters than there used to be
Does it feel like there are more scooters and bikes out there these days? It’s not your imagination, but it’s for a good reason. When Lime added about 2,600 sit-down scooters in May the city did not require them to remove stand-up scooters or bikes to maintain a total fleet count. The sit-down scooters are designed to be more accessible so people who are not able or comfortable riding a bike or stand-up scooter are still able to use Lime to get around. However, stand-up scooters remain the most profitable device type, so if the city required companies to choose between them, profit would direct companies to prioritize stand-up scooters. By allowing an additional allotment, Lime was able to add sit-down scooters without cannibalizing their own business. The data suggests it has been a success.
Lime’s record-smashing year saw a 4.29 million ride increase over the previous year, thanks in part to the company’s rollout of their Glider sit-down scooters (they did a small test starting in late 2024, but didn’t add them in significant numbers until May and June 2025). Lime-reported data shows that users took 6.73 million stand-up scooter trips (about 6,600 deployed), 1.78 million sit-down scooter trips (about 2,600 deployed starting in May) and 1.4 million bike trips (about 3,100 deployed). They are still new enough that we don’t yet know how long the devices will last or how ridership trends will develop, but it seems like they slot in well between bikes and stand-up scooters.
Perhaps most tellingly, adding Gliders did not result in a reduction in stand-up scooter and bike trips, which both saw record ridership on their own. This suggests that Seattle is still in the phase where adding devices results in an even larger increase in ridership, a phenomenon that became very well-known back during the first dockless bike share boom that started in China nearly a decade ago. Companies observed this pattern and responded by adding more and more bikes until the sheer volume of bikes overwhelmed cities, resulting in world-famous photos of towering piles of bike share bikes. SDOT’s strategy for avoiding such a problem was to issue permits that limited the number of devices a company could operate at any given time. This artificial limit means that we do not know what Seattle’s bike and scooter ride ceiling might be if we found a way to responsibly add more devices to the streets. It’s pretty exciting to consider the potential, especially if rides were also more affordable. Perhaps the city could work out a deal to make rides more affordable in return for significant new public investment in bike and scooter parking. The city already requires a reduced cost program for folks who qualify (including anyone with an ORCA Lyft card), but ride prices are also a bit steep for middle-income folks who might otherwise make it a regular part of their transportation habits.
#SEAbikes #Seattle
ShifterWhat's best for cities: A bike, a e-scooter or a Lime bike?
What's best for cities: A bike, a e-scooter or a Lime bike?
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Once saw a lady pedalling a Lime Bike and the pedals came off, much to her surprise and amusement (thankfully she wasn't going fast)
https://www.mylondon.news/news/north-london-news/lime-bike-crash-student-leg-32252500
