A second dockless hire bike operator has moved into Greenwich borough to compete with Lime – but with no agreement on creating bays where users can park their cycles.
Forest bikes started to appear across the borough of Lewisham and parts of Greenwich last month. Its bikes can be cheaper than Lime for shorter trips – offering a free ten-minute ride each day before charging 29p per mile – but there are fewer of them.
But there has been no agreement with either borough on their operation. Lewisham signed a deal with Lime two years ago which included the creation of on-street bays in an attempt to stop pavements being blocked by dumped bikes. Greenwich has promised such a deal for two years, but nothing has yet emerged.
Lime bikes have been a common sight in Greenwich, Blackheath and parts of Charlton for three years – whether being ridden legitimately, illegitimately or dumped on pavements. But the boundary for use stops roughly at Charlton station, Charlton House and Kidbrooke Park Road – meaning nearby streets can be littered with heavy, dumped bikes.
Until recently Forest bikes could not be used beyond the borough of Southwark. But now they have been expanded to all of Lewisham and the same area of Greenwich covered by Lime, meaning it also has a hire boundary running through Charlton.
Lewisham Council told The Greenwich Wire that there was no deal with Forest for the expansion.
“There have been no formal agreement or discussion with Forest over their introduction of their bikes in Lewisham,” a spokesperson said. “Any rollout of bikes onto our network would be subject to a signed memorandum of understanding. We’re keen to encourage active travel journeys in Lewisham so would welcome discussions with Forest”.
Asked if there had been talks with Forest or an agreement with dockless operators, Greenwich said: “We have had conversations with Forest Bikes and will continue to work with them should the company decide to expand its service areas across Greenwich.”
Neither individual boroughs nor Transport for London have the powers to regulate dockless hire services, although the government has put forward new laws that will change this. Instead, individual boroughs have been taking different approaches, with some striking their own deals with operators such as Lime and Forest. Some have enforced mandatory parking bays, others merely advisory ones. Last year Brent Council threatened to ban Lime from its borough because of problems with dumped bikes.
But dockless bikes are attractive to boroughs trying to increase low cycling rates, not least because Transport for London has wanted councils to pay for its own hire bikes to be expanded into their areas. In southeast London, the Santander Cycles scheme runs no further than Canada Water station.
Electric bikes are also particularly convenient in hilly boroughs such as Greenwich and Lewisham.
In 2023 plans for an agreement with both Lime and Forest were published by Greenwich, but by last year just Lime was being mentioned. Earlier this year Lime said it would support and contribute towards parking bays in Greenwich.
In March, Greenwich councillors backed a motion calling for Lime bikes to be banned from the borough if an agreement could not be signed by this summer, with councillors saying they were inundated with complaints from residents.
“Work continues to develop a memorandum of understanding and further details will be published shortly,” a council spokesperson told The Greenwich Wire.
Forest has not responded to requests for comment.
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