Lime has quickly grown into the world’s largest shared micromobility services provider, now operating e-scooter and/or e-bike share services in over 280 cities around the world.
And on Thursday, September 12, 2024, it will officially add the City of Vancouver to its list, following Vancouver City Council’s formal approval in early July 2024 of a long-term exclusive contract with the San Francisco-based micromobility giant to operate an e-scooter share service.
The rollout of the e-scooter share service represents a major addition to Vancouver’s shared micromobility options and could be Lime’s most notable expansion move yet, given the City of Vancouver’s requirement for docking stations.
To date, around the world, Lime’s shared micromobility services are completely dockless with the Lime app showing where riders can pick up and return their e-scooter or e-bike — often to designated parking areas distinguished only by signage and pavement paint.
This has required Lime to completely pivot its operations for a highly customized made-for-Vancouver model — the company’s first locking docking parking stations anywhere in the world.
“Lime moved mountains to create this new parking station system and we were glad to do it because of the priority we place on serving Vancouver,” said Sonia Kandola, Lime’s Director of Government Relations for Canada, upon inquiry by Daily Hive Urbanized.
She says the Vancouver expansion required a unique interdepartmental research and development effort from Lime’s global teams in product, hardware, operations, and government relations, which collaborated to apply “every lesson we’ve learned from around the world to design and build our first-ever parking station-based system.”
Vladan Zlatic, the General Manager of Lime Canada, added, “All of us at Lime are honoured to have been chosen to launch Vancouver’s first shared e-scooter program… We kept the unique needs of Vancouver and its streetscape front of mind during every moment spent planning and creating this new mode of hardware and we are excited for our neighbours here to be the first people in the world to test them out.”
Today, Lime installed its first very locking docking parking station in preparation for its service launch next month.
This first station is located at the intersection of Eton Street and North Garden Drive in the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood.
Lime’s first locking docking parking station in the world is at the intersection of Eton Street and North Garden Drive for Vancouver’s e-scooter share service. (Lime)
Lime’s very first locking docking parking station in the world, located at the intersection of Eton Street and North Garden Drive for Vancouver’s e-scooter share service. (Lime)
Lime’s very first locking docking parking station in the world, located at the intersection of Eton Street and North Garden Drive for Vancouver’s e-scooter share service. (Lime)
Each modular unit of the station has a locking rack capacity for two e-scooters. Similar to Vancouver’s existing Mobi bike share service, the device will be securely locked to the rack between the trips made by riders.
The stations are also bolted into the ground and feature large signage explaining how to access the service.
“The parking stations are definitely a significant investment, but one we are happy to make given how excited we are to be here and how successful we believe this program will be,” said Kandola.
“We were also able to do this because of the strong partnership the City of Vancouver has built with us and their steadfast support as we worked to tailor this program to the needs of the city.”
Kandola told Daily Hive Urbanized that upon the September 2024 launch, Lime will deploy a fleet of 100 e-scooters across 29 locking docking parking stations across an initial service area within the Hastings-Sunrise and Grandview-Woodlands neighbourhoods, with this initial L-shaped service area being generally framed by Boundary Road to the east, East Pender Street and East Broadway to the south, Kamloops Street to the west, and the port waterfront to the north.
Location of the first 29 locking docking parking stations within the Hastings-Sunrise and Grandview-Woodland neighbourhoods for Lime’s first phase rollout of its Vancouver e-scooter share service in September 2024. (Lime)
From this northeast corner of Vancouver, Lime will gradually expand westwards over the next year as part of its city-wide expansion. The second phase expansion areas will cover the Downtown Eastside, Strathcona, False Creek Flats, Olympic Village, and Mount Pleasant.
The third phase of expansion will reach the downtown Vancouver peninsula, which could occur by Winter 2025.
The gradual expansion provides the company with the ability to learn and test the system before expanding to high-density neighbourhoods.
Lime’s e-scooter share phased service expansion in Vancouver from Summer 2024 to 2025. (Lime)
During the procurement process for an e-scooter share operator, the municipal government required bids to establish an operating model using locking docking parking stations. This measure mitigates the safety and clutter issues of devices improperly left on sidewalks and other public spaces, as experienced in other cities where the devices are not physically affixed to a rack at a designated parking area.
Under the contract, Lime is responsible for all costs related to launching, installing equipment, operating, and maintaining its Vancouver e-scooter share system for the life of the contract, which begins with an initial five-year term and can be renewed for three additional five-year terms for a total term of up to 20 years. The municipal government is not providing any public funding for the service and is requiring Lime to reimburse the City for any costs incurred. This is intended to be a revenue-neutral or revenue-generating opportunity for the City.
“We’re so excited to be teaming up with Lime to bring North America’s first-ever shared e-scooter program with parking stations to Vancouver,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim.
“Today’s installation marks the first of many milestones in our journey to expand accessible and sustainable transportation options in our city. Huge thanks to Lime for working hard to deliver a custom e-scooter program that keeps our streets safe and clutter-free.”
More to come…