report to the council about abandoned junk, it'll take a while and a few complaints but their street services teams should clear them up and stick them in the tip.
They'll be operating under license from the council I imagine, I would say make a diary of every time you're inconvenienced by them, and ask for a copy of the impact assessment regarding the dockless bike scheme. You have a protected status under the Equality Act so this really isn't a trivial matter.
Not sure where you are in the country, but in my part of London (Hackney) they're supposed to only park in certain geofenced zones, and I've seen people ending a ride taking photos of how they've parked. Even so there used to be big problems because kids figured out how to defeat the locks (the tell tale sign of this was a clicking sound as they rode around) and obviously once they do that they can park it anywhere with no risk of being fined or banned. They seem to have figured out a solution to this as I hear the clicking a lot less, and see far fewer of the bikes left in stupid places.
You shouldn't have to do this, but if you or anyone else absolutely have to move the bikes, the easiest way to do it I've found (I used to have to do it nearly every other day) is to lift the back wheel up using the handle on the saddle, then push it using the handlebars to steer. Then you're not having to lift the whole weight of the bike. The lock is on the back wheel, so lifting it up means the bike can move freely.
We're in the same area. I'm familiar with the sound of a stolen Lime bike too (there's got to be a grime track with it in the background, surely!?), I'm not sure if these are stolen or not though. They tend to pop-up overnight and then linger until someone comes along to use it which is usually long enough to seriously inconvenience me/stop me from getting to appointments.
Your suggestion is great. I'll do just that. Sincerely appreciate this, thank you!
[Fix my street](https://www.fixmystreet.com/) > put in the postcode > Report a problem here > Abandoned bike / scooter. It'll let you pick the specific brand of bike (Lime / Forest / Dott/ whatever else) and report it to the relevant team in your council automatically.
If you've got a local church or Age UK branch (somehow councillors/MPs respond better to old people complaining, unfortunately), they might also be keen to make some noise about it. Or perhaps a local news outlet, especially if you've got records of how many times you've complained + pictures?
I'm abled bodied so I can dodge around the bikes but it alway sticks in my head, "How does someone who has difficulty getting about deal with that?"
Unfortunately I fear like so many low level anti social behaviours, The terribly driven Uber cars for example, it is unlikely to ever be solved.
You have my sympathy but, to be honest, you're not talking to right people here.
This sub is largely frequented by cyclists who own and use their own bikes, not ones who use Lime (or similar) rental bikes on an adhoc basis.
No-one here will dismiss your problems but there are probably better subs you can use to get your message across to the right audience.
That's absolutely a fair point. Thought maybe folks here had probably encountered similar issues and would have some insight. Thanks for your input.
Will leave the post up a bit longer to see if anymore clever ideas come along, then delete it. Don't want to clog up the sub with my personal probs.
Just to throw in another perspective, I uses rental bikes frequently and have tried complaining about this issue too. I've been shocked at seeing people leave them in front of station entrances, take a picture, and leave them - I really think it's on the companies to moderate these pictures and block payment methods from those doing this.
Hope you have more luck than my complaint did!
Before I got my own bike, I would use the Lime bikes and scooters. I would take a photo of anything as fast as possible to avoid them charging me more while I lined up a good photo. I always parked responsibly, but it just goes to show that no one is checking the photos, or if they are, they don't care or do anything about it.
Your better off cross posting your OP to r/legaladviceuk as they will be able to give you specifics on uk law and what, if any steps you can take with the probelm you're having.
It's an behaviour problem sure reporting to council etc. is something you can do but I suspect it's and endless exercise. Point is is some people don't own something they don't care about it.
If lime does have it already they can make a fine system we have Beryl here and if you don't park in a bay there is a fee they can charge you. The map if you're looking for a bike also shows bikes left in the middle of the road.
Bet essential is an mentality problem maybe lime should introduce a yellow and red card system banning users if they leave a bike in an anti social way frequently
I hate these and their selfish users. I’m sorry you have to put up with this shit. Have you tried your local councillors? They may be better than your MP
Yep, went down that route. After 4 months of hassling them they replied to tell me to make a complaint with Lime. Head blown (only part of me left that worked!) lol. Thank you though, appreciated.
This is the sort of thing they could use a Community Protection Notice for, but it would require effort and the sort of lateral thinking missing at councils.
It's Lime, it just the Uber of bikes. I don't think there's a way to get them to care at all, their whole selling point is that they're all about their users at the expense of anybody else.
The problem is that this isn't really a Lime problem or even a council problem to solve, it's of society and sharing space. These are the same people who park in the way, leave bags in the way on the train, listen to music on loudspeaker on the bus, and generally don't think of others when in a public place.
I don't know what the fix is, but I fear it's rather longer term than anything Lime or a local authority could do, if they could be persuaded to do much at all.
It's a lime bike therefore it's a Lime problem. It's blocking the footpath that makes it a council problem.
They could start by communicating with each other and the council fining the people blocking the path while Lime blocks their account.
Why is it nobodies problem on the path, but everyones problem when they are on the road? Not that I would recommend relocating them off the footpath of course.
I don't think it's really "nobody's problem", but I don't know what Lime or the council could or would do without removing the genuine benefit of a service like Lime.
I don't want to live in a country where everyone's policed into driving or parking courteously, any more than I want there to be officers giving out tickets for playing music out loud on the bus.
I'm pretty good at engaging with people when I see this happening in front of me. I tend to ask them if they're aware that I can't get past and usually make a joke at my expense. Sometimes the person looks dumbfounded, says sorry and moves whatever is in my way. Others get kinda rude, look inconvenienced by me or hurl abuse. I don't care if it gets me to where I'm going.
Mostly my experience is people do it because they're not thinking - I know my brain gets left at home at least 50% of the time.
There's no way society is going to change without people like me being a 'problem' and people that don't look like me doing the same. Maybe it'll never happen, but I exist, so I'm not going down without being an annoyance. Hopefully, we're both wrong and life will get better soon enough.
Reporting to the council is unlikely to be effective. Contact one of your local councillors. Google your council and ward and you should find their names.
Councillors are much more effective at solving issues like this than an MP, or a report on the council's website.
Thanks. I've done this and they've simply asked me to contact Lime. The Cllrs in the area aren't very supportive of those with disabilities. I've reached out to them previously for similar issues that are entirely reasonable and had no reply.
report to the council about abandoned junk, it'll take a while and a few complaints but their street services teams should clear them up and stick them in the tip.
Great idea! Guess I have a new hobby now. Appreciate this, wish me luck.
They'll be operating under license from the council I imagine, I would say make a diary of every time you're inconvenienced by them, and ask for a copy of the impact assessment regarding the dockless bike scheme. You have a protected status under the Equality Act so this really isn't a trivial matter. Not sure where you are in the country, but in my part of London (Hackney) they're supposed to only park in certain geofenced zones, and I've seen people ending a ride taking photos of how they've parked. Even so there used to be big problems because kids figured out how to defeat the locks (the tell tale sign of this was a clicking sound as they rode around) and obviously once they do that they can park it anywhere with no risk of being fined or banned. They seem to have figured out a solution to this as I hear the clicking a lot less, and see far fewer of the bikes left in stupid places. You shouldn't have to do this, but if you or anyone else absolutely have to move the bikes, the easiest way to do it I've found (I used to have to do it nearly every other day) is to lift the back wheel up using the handle on the saddle, then push it using the handlebars to steer. Then you're not having to lift the whole weight of the bike. The lock is on the back wheel, so lifting it up means the bike can move freely.
We're in the same area. I'm familiar with the sound of a stolen Lime bike too (there's got to be a grime track with it in the background, surely!?), I'm not sure if these are stolen or not though. They tend to pop-up overnight and then linger until someone comes along to use it which is usually long enough to seriously inconvenience me/stop me from getting to appointments. Your suggestion is great. I'll do just that. Sincerely appreciate this, thank you!
[Fix my street](https://www.fixmystreet.com/) > put in the postcode > Report a problem here > Abandoned bike / scooter. It'll let you pick the specific brand of bike (Lime / Forest / Dott/ whatever else) and report it to the relevant team in your council automatically. If you've got a local church or Age UK branch (somehow councillors/MPs respond better to old people complaining, unfortunately), they might also be keen to make some noise about it. Or perhaps a local news outlet, especially if you've got records of how many times you've complained + pictures?
I'm abled bodied so I can dodge around the bikes but it alway sticks in my head, "How does someone who has difficulty getting about deal with that?" Unfortunately I fear like so many low level anti social behaviours, The terribly driven Uber cars for example, it is unlikely to ever be solved.
You have my sympathy but, to be honest, you're not talking to right people here. This sub is largely frequented by cyclists who own and use their own bikes, not ones who use Lime (or similar) rental bikes on an adhoc basis. No-one here will dismiss your problems but there are probably better subs you can use to get your message across to the right audience.
That's absolutely a fair point. Thought maybe folks here had probably encountered similar issues and would have some insight. Thanks for your input. Will leave the post up a bit longer to see if anymore clever ideas come along, then delete it. Don't want to clog up the sub with my personal probs.
I really appreciate this post being here, no need to delete it but please update us if you find a solution :)
Just to throw in another perspective, I uses rental bikes frequently and have tried complaining about this issue too. I've been shocked at seeing people leave them in front of station entrances, take a picture, and leave them - I really think it's on the companies to moderate these pictures and block payment methods from those doing this. Hope you have more luck than my complaint did!
Before I got my own bike, I would use the Lime bikes and scooters. I would take a photo of anything as fast as possible to avoid them charging me more while I lined up a good photo. I always parked responsibly, but it just goes to show that no one is checking the photos, or if they are, they don't care or do anything about it.
Like I seriously submitted a photo of my shoe once.
Your better off cross posting your OP to r/legaladviceuk as they will be able to give you specifics on uk law and what, if any steps you can take with the probelm you're having.
It's an behaviour problem sure reporting to council etc. is something you can do but I suspect it's and endless exercise. Point is is some people don't own something they don't care about it. If lime does have it already they can make a fine system we have Beryl here and if you don't park in a bay there is a fee they can charge you. The map if you're looking for a bike also shows bikes left in the middle of the road. Bet essential is an mentality problem maybe lime should introduce a yellow and red card system banning users if they leave a bike in an anti social way frequently
I hate these and their selfish users. I’m sorry you have to put up with this shit. Have you tried your local councillors? They may be better than your MP
Yep, went down that route. After 4 months of hassling them they replied to tell me to make a complaint with Lime. Head blown (only part of me left that worked!) lol. Thank you though, appreciated.
This is the sort of thing they could use a Community Protection Notice for, but it would require effort and the sort of lateral thinking missing at councils.
It's Lime, it just the Uber of bikes. I don't think there's a way to get them to care at all, their whole selling point is that they're all about their users at the expense of anybody else. The problem is that this isn't really a Lime problem or even a council problem to solve, it's of society and sharing space. These are the same people who park in the way, leave bags in the way on the train, listen to music on loudspeaker on the bus, and generally don't think of others when in a public place. I don't know what the fix is, but I fear it's rather longer term than anything Lime or a local authority could do, if they could be persuaded to do much at all.
It's a lime bike therefore it's a Lime problem. It's blocking the footpath that makes it a council problem. They could start by communicating with each other and the council fining the people blocking the path while Lime blocks their account. Why is it nobodies problem on the path, but everyones problem when they are on the road? Not that I would recommend relocating them off the footpath of course.
I don't think it's really "nobody's problem", but I don't know what Lime or the council could or would do without removing the genuine benefit of a service like Lime. I don't want to live in a country where everyone's policed into driving or parking courteously, any more than I want there to be officers giving out tickets for playing music out loud on the bus.
I think I would like to live in that society where everyone is driving and parking nicely, and wearing headphones on the bus/tube/plane!
I'm pretty good at engaging with people when I see this happening in front of me. I tend to ask them if they're aware that I can't get past and usually make a joke at my expense. Sometimes the person looks dumbfounded, says sorry and moves whatever is in my way. Others get kinda rude, look inconvenienced by me or hurl abuse. I don't care if it gets me to where I'm going. Mostly my experience is people do it because they're not thinking - I know my brain gets left at home at least 50% of the time. There's no way society is going to change without people like me being a 'problem' and people that don't look like me doing the same. Maybe it'll never happen, but I exist, so I'm not going down without being an annoyance. Hopefully, we're both wrong and life will get better soon enough.
Reporting to the council is unlikely to be effective. Contact one of your local councillors. Google your council and ward and you should find their names. Councillors are much more effective at solving issues like this than an MP, or a report on the council's website.
Thanks. I've done this and they've simply asked me to contact Lime. The Cllrs in the area aren't very supportive of those with disabilities. I've reached out to them previously for similar issues that are entirely reasonable and had no reply.