Hundreds of hire bikes are being abandoned across pavements, dumped in canals, and seized in their thousands by London councils.
Disability groups say the impact is becoming severe, with some blind people reporting they no longer feel able to leave the house alone.
The Government has promised action – but its proposed fix will not come into force for at least another year, if it works at all.
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Dockless hire bikes have transformed urban transport in Britain over the past decade, offering flexible, low-carbon journeys to parts of cities that traditional schemes never reached.
More than 2.6 million Britons used a bike-share scheme in the year to September 2025, according to the transport charity Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK).
But the speed of that expansion has outpaced the regulatory framework intended to govern it.
What is the problem?
Dockless hire bikes — bicycles that can be picked up and dropped off virtually anywhere, without a fixed docking point — have expanded rapidly across Britain’s towns and cities over the past decade.
The biggest operator is the California-based company Lime, which has around 50,000 bikes in London alone. Other popular providers include Voi and Forest.
These bikes do offer genuine advantages, according to Richard Dilks, chief executive of CoMoUK – a charity supporting shared transport options. He told The i Paper the services have “a fantastic ability to get people on a bike and keep lots of them there, too.
“It’s a highly efficient way to move around in every way — in terms of carbon emissions, in terms of space taken, in terms of not degrading public space or air quality.”
But despite these benefits, even Dilks admits that the “overwhelming amount of controversy” around hire bikes stems from problems with where they are parked.
Bikes are left across pavements, blocking routes for pedestrians and hundreds have been dumped in rivers and canals.
The Canal and River Trust has described it as a national problem, telling the BBC last year that the number of Lime bikes being dumped nationally “could be into the thousands”.
Several London councils – including Haringey, Brent and Islington – have introduced stricter local rules in response to complaints. Changes include requiring Lime to retrieve abandoned bikes more quickly, reduce the size of its fleet, and increase patrols in problem areas.
Some, including Hounslow and Richmond, have had enough. Both have banned Lime from their boroughs in the last year, with contracts given to Forest or Voi instead.
Lime and Forest shared rental e-bikes line Farringdon Street in London (Photo: John Keeble/Getty)
Who is most affected?
The impact of poorly parked hire bikes falls hardest on blind and partially sighted people.
Erik Matthies, the Royal National Institute of Blind People’s (RNIB) policy lead for inclusive journeys, told The i Paper that dockless bikes represented “a new class of obstacles that people are dealing with — things that are very chaotic and feel almost intentionally intrusive.”
He described how blind people who had contacted hire companies to report badly parked bikes received automated responses asking them to provide the serial number, which they could not read.
“They’ll say the right things in meetings,” Matthies said, “but [the companies] are not always following through to a better, improved experience for blind and partially sighted people as pedestrians.”
He said the cumulative effect was profound. “We’ve had people say, I don’t go out on my own anymore. I won’t go out without someone who can see. But that isn’t always possible, and I just think, what are people missing out on?”
Research by RNIB found that 81 per cent of blind and partially sighted people said bikes or e-scooters left on pavements made their journeys harder, and 45 per cent reported mental health issues stemming from street obstructions.
What are the hire bike companies doing about it?
Voi and Forest, two of the other major hire bike operators in the UK, said they took badly parked bikes seriously.
Harry Foskin, Voi’s senior public policy manager, said the company shared “extensive real-time data with local authorities” and issued warnings, fines and bans to riders who parked irresponsibly.
Alex Berwin, head of policy at Forest, said the company had “clear rules in place” and took their enforcement “seriously”, adding that dedicated parking infrastructure was needed across the capital.
“The priority now is to get the detailed rules and guidance right so that schemes are safe, well-managed and able to deliver on their potential to cut congestion, improve air quality and support local high streets,” he added.
A spokesperson for Lime said they had already “helped bring more than 800,000 new cyclists onto London roads” and were “looking forward to continuing to work with national and local authorities to help even more people access sustainable, active travel options.”
The firm pointed out that only a minority of bikes were parked poorly, and that repeat offenders were fined or banned from the platform entirely.
What other impacts are hire bikes having?
Elly Baker, the Labour group lead for transport on the London Assembly, said the issue extended beyond pavement clutter.
She argued that hire bike operators were effectively competing with public transport, without that relationship being properly regulated.
Baker raised concerns that hire bikes could be drawing passengers away from London’s bus network — and undermining its funding model — but claimed companies had been “reluctant” to share the data needed to understand that.
“Who has all the data about who’s using dockless e-bikes and for what journeys? That’s the operators,” she said. “They have that data, and totally understandably, they will only share the data that shows a positive case for them and not a negative case for them.”
She said that when more powers arrived, London and other cities needed to focus on making sure companies were required to hand over that data to help with “planning an integrated transport system that works for everyone”.
Baker also argued that councils needed more powers to respond, to allow them to regulate new technologies and services more quickly before they got “out of control”.
Lime said they had already ‘helped bring more than 800,000 new cyclists onto London roads’ (Photo: Mike Kemp/Getty)
What is the Government doing?
For cities, help is coming on this issue in the form of the English Devolution Bill, currently mid-way through the House of Lords. It will shift the power to regulate dockless hire schemes from individual councils to metro mayors.
In London, that means Transport for London would gain the authority to set unified rules across all 33 boroughs – replacing the current patchwork of local agreements. It would also make it easier for operators to be fined for breaching licence conditions or failing to manage parking effectively.
Lord Hendy, the transport minister, confirmed in the Lords that the Government wanted to see more bike sharing but that it “has to be subject to appropriate regulation.”
The Government has said it will publish detailed guidance on what cooperation between strategic and local authorities on parking should look like.
Why might it not be enough?
Dilks said that CoMoUK welcomed both the Government’s commitment to hire bikes and the powers coming in the new legislation.
But he warned there were still barriers to fixing the issues with such services. He pointed out that strategic authorities – metro mayors and TfL – will hold the licences and set the rules, but it will remain the responsibility of individual councils to build the parking infrastructure that those rules depend on.
“You can immediately see potential issues here,” he added, arguing that there may be clashes between the two levels of Government over how the bike services run.
“It’s just a step along the road, but there’s a definite, definite challenge in all of this,” Dilks added.
The devolution bill is unlikely to receive Royal Assent before late 2026 at the earliest, with new powers unlikely to come into effect until 2027.
Once those powers are in place, the pace of change will depend on individual local authorities – some of which have already acted decisively.
Baker said she wished that London in particular was “able to react quickly” to the lack of regulation around hire bikes, but was nonetheless pleased that the required powers are finally on their way.
“This is what we asked for, and we are getting it. I just think what we need to do is make sure we’re not facing the same problem in a few years’ time.”
All hire bike companies The i Paper spoke to welcomed the upcoming legislation, though a spokesperson for Lime warned that the changes must be “accompanied by clear evidence-based guidance from central Government to avoid a patchwork of regulation that undermines active travel progress”.