The operator of Melbourne’s e-bike hire scheme says that more Melburnians are hiring e-bikes since rental e-scooters were banned in the Melbourne CBD.
According to Lime, there has been an exponential increase in the usage of Lime e-bikes since the scooter ban came into place in September this year.
.Lime’s Senior Director of Government Relations Will Peters said they have seen a drastic increase in e-bike demand in the last month.
“Riders are heavily relying on e-bikes since the e-scooter ban with the average trips per vehicle per day growing from 1.4 in September to 3.5 in October, and trips per day on weekends reaching as many as 4.7,” Will said.
“This kind of ridership is world-leading and highlights the absolute need for green transport in the City of Melbourne. We know that 800,000 e-scooter riders in Melbourne are seeking to fill the transport gap with our e-bikes.
“We’ve done the research, and we see the demand. We recently announced plans to invest over $55 million in expanding our global bike presence with a new e-bike design to release across Australia, North America and Europe in the coming year.”
Lime data found global e-bike usage nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023. Since inception, riders have taken nearly 100 million bike rides and travelled nearly 225 million kilometres on bikes, resulting in an estimated 12,000 ton removal of CO2 emissions and saving more than 5 million litres of fuel.
