Dockless cycle hire in the City of London

If you have a concern about the way that dockless bikes are being parked or used, please report it to the relevant operating company. Each dockless bike has a clearly visible identifying number and is tracked by its operator. Including the identifying number and the exact time and location can help operators identify and respond the issue.

• Lime 0800 808 5223
• Forest  0208 157 7491
• Dott 0800 048 8993
• TIER 0808 164 9486

Please note that the City of London Corporation has limited powers to address complaints regarding dockless bikes. 

Please contact the contact the Transport Strategy team if your issue relates to a designated dockless bike hire parking bay.

Two dockless cycle hire operators serve the City of London: Lime and  Forest. Their bikes can be located, hired and unlocked using a smartphone app and may be ridden and parked in the City.

Bikes hired from: Dott  and  TIER can be ridden through the City, but you cannot end a journey there.

Dockless bikes must be parked in designated parking areas which are marked in Lime and Forest’s apps. 

If you park or abandon a dockless bike outside of a designated parking area, you may be fined or banned. Operators issue additional charges and penalties for bikes that:

• Obstruct the pavement, especially on narrow pavements or in areas with high footfall
• Are parked on carriageway (unless in a designated bay)
• Are parked on or near a crossing or dropped kerb
• Are parked in front of doors or entryways
• Block a fire escapes or are parked in fire evacuation assembly points
• Are parked in a disabled parking space, car parking space or a loading bays
• On City of London highwalks and walkways

Dockless cycle hire schemes are not covered by legislation so the City of London Corporation does not have the legal power to prevent dockless cycle hire schemes from operating in the City. Nor does the City Corporation have the legal power to compel operators to operate their schemes in accordance with City Corporation policies or standards.

Dockless bikes differ from rental e-scooters, which are regulated by legislation.

The City Corporation has provided space for dockless bikes and has insisted that operators ensure their users end their hire journeys in those bays to minimise inappropriate parking in other areas.

These parking areas have been designated following a design and review process, which included road safety audits, site visits, local engagement and equalities impact assessments, to ensure they do not negatively impact other street users.

While the City Corporation provides these spaces, it has no legal power to require that operators use these spaces as part of their hire schemes, nor does it have legal power to enforce against users who do not use them.

The City Corporation engages with dockless cycle hire operators to insist they improve their schemes. Officers have laid out a series of short, medium and long-term actions for improving dockless bike hire operations in the City. More information on these actions, and on dockless bike policy, can be found in the approved Streets and Walkways Committee Report 

The City Corporation has powers to enforce against obstructions on the streets and pavements.

Highways Act 1980: 

• Section 137 offences related to obstruction created by people
• Section 148(c) offences related to obstructions created by anything deposited on the highway
• Section 149 offences related to dangers created by anything deposited on the highway

When an obstruction is reported, the City Corporation has the power to place a notice on that obstruction requiring that the obstruction be removed in a "reasonable" timeframe, usually within 72 hours. If it’s not removed in that time, the City Corporation can make a ask a Magistrate to grant the City Corporation the power to remove it.

In practice obtaining an obstruction order can take several days and by that time the bike will have been removed either by the operator or a new user.

Consideration has been given as to whether the provision of dockless bikes for hire is covered by local legislation making it unlawful for any person to engage in unauthorised street trading in the City.

“Street trading” is defined in the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1987 to mean the selling or exposing or offering for sale of any article or thing in a street. However, dockless cycle hire schemes involve cycles being available on the highway (or on private land with the consent of the owner) for temporary hire by the public, with payment being made via an App and no person in the street is engaged in their hire.

As the 1987 Act prohibits a person from selling etc. items in the street, not the temporary hiring of bikes via an App, which is more in the nature of a service (and not dissimilar to the existing Santander cycle hire scheme except that there are no docking stations), the activity would not amount to unauthorised street trading.

It is considered that the definitions of ‘waste’ or ‘litter’ are not intended to cover bikes left temporarily on the highway and which are in use for the benefit of the operators and their customers and officers do not know of any decisions on this point.

Our approach to enforcing against inappropriately parked dockless bikes consists of reporting issues and incidents directly to operators and, if possible, immediately moving or relocating bikes to  appropriate locations. We do not undertake significant legal enforcement action against dockless cycle hire schemes. 

City Corporation staff are unable to unlock dockless bikes but they will attempt to lift bikes (which can weigh up to 20kg and need two people) and move them to the nearest safe location. These bikes are reported immediately to the responsible operator.

City Corporation staff report thousands of inappropriately parked bikes each year.

The Government stated it has plans to introduce controls to enable the regulation of the dockless rental market covering rental bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters but a timetable has not been announced to introduce this draft legislation. 

Following work undertaken by London Councils, Transport for London (TfL) and several London local authorities, in June 2023 London Council’s Transport and Environment Committee agreed in principle to a single contract approach for e-bikes and e-scooters and to work with TfL and London local authorities on the design of the scheme, with the aim of enabling the introduction of a single contract in 2025/26.

A single, contract would enable London local authorities to provide a high-quality service which would harness the potential of these transport modes and control parking, in lieu of government legislation.