BYE-BYE, E-BIKES?
As scooters gain momentum, Lime bikes remain ‘at this time’
Orlando’s romance with electrically assisted bicycles remains intact “at this time” but probably not for much longer as the city considers whether to follow a national trend and embrace scooters.
The bike vendor Lime put 500 of its electric cycles on Orlando streets early this year. They quickly became popular even while the San Francisco “transportation company” has transitioned to focus primarily on electric scooters.
As Lime has removed its cycles from dozens of other cities in the U.S. and internationally, and from the University of Central Florida, Orlando is one of the last cities to still have Lime bikes.
“We are not removing bikes at this time, though we are in discussion with the City of Orlando about expanding residents’ clean transportation options with scooters,” said Lime spokesman Russell Murphy. Lime’s bikes and scooters are dockless, meaning they don’t have to be picked up or left at a rack or other station, and are rented via a phone app.
The electric bikes cost $1 to unlock and 15 cents a minute, while the scooters also cost $1 to unlock and between 15 cents and 30 cents a minutes, depending on their location.
In many other cities, rental scooters from many different vendors vastly outnumber rental cycles.
Lime, formerly known as LimeBike, has been diminishing its business of providing cycles. It website makes clear that bikes are secondary to scooters.
The Lime bikes in Orlando proved to be much more appealing than a previous fleet of non-electric bikes that has been removed.
Just how popular Lime bikes are in Orlando was evident during 4th of July events at Lake Eola.
The bikes were in regular use, while a latecomer brand of bike, HOPR, which is also dockless but is not electrically assisted, was being ignored.
During May, the most recent month of available data, riders took 37,625 trips on Lime Bikes and 1,679 on HOPR bikes.
Shannon Stephan and her boyfriend Brian Liffick live near Lake Eola and rent Lime bikes regularly. They also have ridden electric scooters in several other cities.
To them, bikes and scooters are not interchangeable. Scooters can be fun, they said. “The bikes are for when you need to be somewhere, for running errands,” Stephan said.
The said they would be very disappointed if Lime bikes were taken out of Orlando.
Several other Lime riders said electrically assisted cycling is fun and, because they don’t require as much exertion as a conventional bike, are more practical in Orlando’s soggy, summer climate.
“You don’t end up drenched when you go somewhere,” downtown resident Megan Jones said.
Last year, Lime installed a fleet of 600 conventional bicycles at the University of Central Florida. Students could rent them at a discount and the bikes became very popular.
But last month, Lime severed its relationship with UCF and the cycles are now gone.
“Based on strong interest in electric scooters, Lime is phasing out most of its bicycle options,” UCF spokeswoman Rachel Williams said. “Our campus offices are evaluating what transportation services will most safely and effectively serve students going forward.”
City of Orlando officials said they are evaluating Lime’s request to install scooters and have no schedule for a decision.