Speed up regulation for 'Wild West' e-bike schemes, says mayor

The mayor of London says the government is taking too long introducing regulations for dockless e-bike schemes, with the rules not due to be in place until at least 2028.

E-bike operators have also accused London of dragging its feet and said the capital had no clear strategy.

The plan is to regulate the schemes and standardise the rules across London because different boroughs have different operators and regulations.

The government said it planned to launch a consultation in the coming months before setting out new rules and regulations.

E-bike rental schemes, like Lime, Forest, Voi and Bolt, offer clean, zero emission modes of transport and more and more Londoners are using them, even though some schemes have had issues over injuries, reckless riding and poor parking.

Latest figures show that dockless e-bike hire journeys have increased by a third, up to 37 million journeys in 2025. It is a multi-million pound business.

Councils get paid by the operators to have bikes in the area under Memorandums of Understanding. For example, the City of London is expected to be paid £455,360 this year by operators.

Christina Moe Gjerde is vice president at Voi in Europe.

She explained that each London borough had its own way of regulating e-bike schemes, such as rules on how to park and how to behave.

She said: "Picture if it was any other mode of transport like a taxi where every borough you crossed you had to check whether or not you could actually drive through or if you could actually jump out of your taxi."

Gjerde described the situation at the moment as confusing.

"What we're missing is a pan-London vision for... another mode of transport in London.

"I really hope the mayor comes into motion and sets a vision for where we want to go, both as an operator, but also as a Londoner.

"Take us on a journey together with you in terms of what we want to achieve."

She added that the mayor was "sitting on a gold mine" as people wanted to ride a bike in this city, but there was no strategy or vision.

"They need to speed things up because it's going to get worse until it gets better when it comes to parking especially."

Earlier this year the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 gave the transport secretary the ability to give Transport for London (TfL) statutory powers to establish a framework for dockless micro-mobility schemes.

But devolving powers is taking much longer than anticipated and currently won't be in place until at least 2028.

London mayor, Lord Khan, says he wants a pan-London scheme to happen much more quickly.

He told BBC London: "What we're saying to the government is we'll help you speed things along. We're publishing the framework, working with councils and operators.

"We'll work with you, the Department for Transport (DfT) to draft the relevant piece of secondary legislation.

"So when it's ready to go, we can begin the consultation so London will be ahead of the rest of the country.

"And the key things we've got to work out are things like data sharing. How do we make sure the operators share the data with TfL and the councils?

"The regulations, safety, parking. If we don't do this now, my worry is the government's going to publish legislation next year, the year after. There'll be another year's worth of delay."

The mayor has said he wants one clear set of rules across London, strong city-wide standards on vehicles and rider education, responsible behaviour and effective enforcement.

He also wants to get rid of poorly parked dockless bikes and street clutter.

The largest operator is Lime with about 40,000 bikes. Forest have about 25,000 and Voi 14,000.

The schemes have been criticised for encouraging reckless riding like red-light jumping due to their pay-per-minute model.

There has also been the issue of inconsiderate parking with pavements regularly clogged with bikes.

There have also been injuries to riders and pedestrians. Jane Ouartsi was walking across an empty St Giles Square in central London on 4 August 2023 when she was hit by a Lime bike.

It was being ridden by a boy thought to be 10 years old.

She suffered a broken femur, a fractured collarbone and two spinal fractures requiring three operations.

In total she has spent 36 days in hospital.

The police did not take action against the boy, and there has been no compensation from Lime.

Lime said her case had been handled in line with its policies and the bike was stolen and fell outside the scope of liability insurance.

Her partner Dave Mathias thinks regulation is needed.

"We feel helpless and very angry indeed that there is no-one accountable for stuff like this. There's virtually no-one willing to help you," he said.

"It's a sorry state of affairs when people can just be innocently walking on a pavement having a wonderful afternoon and in an instant their life is changed by an unregulated service."

"They're not accountable and no-one seems to be able to help. There's no law and no justice."

A DfT spokesperson said: "Shared cycle schemes have real potential to improve local connectivity and cut emissions, and this will bring greater consistency across towns and cities in England.

"We will set out new regulations and guidance for the licensing of hire schemes after a public consultation, which will launch in the coming months."

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