More than 100 rental e-bikes obstructing pavements or roads have been seized by a local authority. City of London Corporation said the e-bikes were stored in “a safe location” during the two-week operation. Owning companies were able to collect their products after paying a fee to cover the cost of “removal and storage”. The corporation said it has agreements in place with rental e-bike operators on parking, but launched its own crackdown in response to a number of complaints about e-bikes being left in unsuitable places.
It said there is a commitment for 300 additional parking spaces for e-bikes in the City of London, and operators Lime and Forest have pledged to improve their service. Shravan Joshi, who chairs the corporation’s planning and transportation committee, said the “challenges posed by bikes cluttering our pavements” are “undeniable”. He added that the authority will “keep up the pressure” to ensure operators’ efforts to ensure e-bikes are correctly parked are “quantified and meaningful”.
