Lime bikes are on the verge of overtaking Boris bikes to become the most popular hire bikes in the capital.
Usage numbers have increased 10 per cent a month since Lime launched in London five years ago.
By comparison, the popularity of TfL’s Boris bikes has fallen by a third since Mayor Sadiq Khan raised the hire charges a year ago.
Figures from TfL show the Santander-sponsored bikes were hired 2,167,024 times between April and June this year — down 34 per cent on the 3.3 million hires over the same three-month period a year ago.
There were more than a million fewer Boris bikes hired in 2022-23 compared with the previous year, and the scheme looks likely to fall well short of its 11.8 million hire target for this financial year.
TfL has blamed “a significant amount of inclement weather” for the drop in Boris bike hires— as well as higher charges.
It said: “Hires from casual customers continue to be lower than anticipated following the tariff change.”
Last October, annual subscriptions increased from £90 to £120. A 30-minute hire costs £1.65 for a conventional bike and £3.30 for an e-bike.
By comparison, it costs £5.99 to hire a Lime bike for an hour, and the minutes can be used over three days.
The TfL scheme, launched by Boris Johnson in 2010 in his first term as mayor, has 12,000 conventional bikes and 500 e-bikes. Lime’s all-electric bike fleet is believed to be broadly similar to TfL’s total.
