To think the providers of ebikes in cities (hello Lime and Voi)

[CurdinHenry]

Should just go to prison right now and never emerge

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/07/i-felt-my-spine-and-body-split-the-woman-who-was-hit-by-a-child-on-a-lime-bike-and-denied-compensation

As pp says, it is not just hire bikes. We have a few little balaclavad scrotes who ride these things on the road and the pavement. They are an absolute menace.

this

So thats the rider not the ride?

They need fines for riding a bike outside of compliance with the Highway Code and they need to enforce them enough for it to be a deterrent. So running red lights, riding on the pavement, wrong way on a one way street - £200 fine

You seem to have joined the thread specifically to defend e-bikes, @Flamingojune. Do you work for Lime or Voi?

I don't work for either, no idea about flamingo.
But as someone with a disability they are hugely brilliant as I could not ride a normal bike

And as someone who cares about reducing air pollution and climate change i am massively in favour of anything that reduces car use.

I also lost a loved one when they were knocked down and killed by a car. So I can never forget that cars are killing machines

The lime bikes are lot an issue round here. It’s the bloody scooters. It was great when the company went bust and there were none. Now they are back. I saw a bloke leading 3 kids of about ten years old, all on hired scooters on the road the other day.

Surely, the hire charge includes an element of insurance? if so, the insurance company is liable to pay the lady compensation. If there is no insurance, then parliament needs to legislate.

They are a scourge to the pedestrian. I absolutely hate them, cluttering the pavements and I hate the lawless way they are ridden, ignoring red lights and speeding along on pavements. I’m Longing for them to be banned.

I’m sorry about your loved one, @Sweetsalad.

All the good points about these bikes are exactly why we need a really strong crackdown on everyone misusing them, since the alternative could be that they eventually get banned.

Got home to find one propped up against my wall grrrr!! BTW we have Forest bikes round here. They are a bit smaller than Lime

How does having a bike propped against your wall actually affect you?

I am Deaf and have been hit three times on the pavement - twice by e-scooters, once by an e-bike. On two of these occasions I had injuries that required hospital treatment. The bike was ridden by a teen, one of the e-scooters was ridden by a primary school aged child whose parent simply shrugged and didn’t even apologise. My hearing friends tell me that they can’t hear e-bikes/scooters either - but I can’t hear the bells, or the person behind me screeching that I should get out of the way.

No one should ride a bike or scooter on the pavement - with the exception of small children under direct and engaged supervision from an adult to make sure they don’t injure someone else.

Do you work for the car industry? Or is that a ridiculous question?

Also very handy

I think the private ones are more dangerous than the Lime ones.

The Lime ones are restricted to the legal maximum speed (often in practice they are slower than a push bike). The private ones are frequently derestricted and seriously dangerous.

Overall properly ridden they are a great benefit and a triumph of innovation. Boris bikes for instance are cheaper but far more cumbersome.

I think Lime bikes have been AMAZING for London (yes, I know this is a niche view).

But, they have also been dangerous.

If, as a cyclist, you are hit by a driver in a hit-and-run, then you can claim compensation from a body called something like the Motor Vehicles Insurers body, which all of us car-drivers pay into, and which provides something when a perpetrator can't be found.

I think Lime should be required to join this, so that if/when their bikes injure someone, and the perpetrator can't be found, then there is compensation available.

I think they should have docking stations like the Santander bikes do. At least they wouldn't be scattered all over the pavements then.

But this angst about bikes is a very London-centric thing. They are a pain in London, I accept that. I hate their constant bell dinging, you only have to look at them and they ding their bells at you.

But thousands of people are killed by drivers every year and it's drivers we need to do something about. I cycled to an exercise class the other evening and the number of dangerous overtakes in about a mile of road was wild. Not actually a danger to me but the oncoming cars who apparently should disappear. We need to sort out drivers.

I may be wrong, but I thought I heard on Radio 4's Today programme that a lady who was hit by someone on a Lime bike was claiming from the MIB but it was taking years.

I still hate pavement parkers and surfers more. Far more common and dangerous where I live.

Keep your cars and vans off the pavements, please!

I don’t drive so my main interest is keeping anything that has wheels & goes faster than jogging pace off the pavements. Both bikes and cars, but it’s bikes that come whizzing up behind me more often.

It's blocking the relatively narrow pavement for starters. We are in a residential area near a school and lots of people come past with buggies. But anyway, why should anyone prop an ebike on a wall? These bikes stand up. Generally, there are signs on shops and other buildings asking people not to lean the bikes against them and I suspect it's because it damages the building. My garden wall is Victorian brick and I don't want it damaged. E bikes are v heavy btw. Not like a regular pedal bike.

True, but there is a surplus of e bikes near me at any given time. This is a hot spot for these bikes and like i said, we have the e scooter trial too.

Ebike rental should include a type of public liability insurance (or opportunity to add own PL insurance to your account) and there should be some kind of mini black box so that irresponsible riders can be blocked.

YABU the lady could have been hit by someone on a privately own eBike/scooter and also suffered horrendous injuries.

From what I gather, hire ebikes and scooters are legal because they are part of trials and have insurance and registration etc.
Privately owned ones don't, and yes they are a scourge in my town too. 2 up in hoodies, full pelt through pedestrian areas.