Before October 2023, dockless bike providers like Lime, Forest and Voi were not required to ask users to park in specific areas. This led to some rental e-bikes being dumped on pavements causing a nuisance and a hazard for pedestrians, and making our pavements less safe.
By encouraging users to park in designated spots, Westminster’s pavements will be safer and more accessible, and it will be easier for those who live, work, or visit Westminster to find and use rental e-bikes.
Why have we introduced a scheme?
With over 3,000 dockless bikes in the city at any given time, it is challenging to keep our pavements free from dumped bikes. We are working to encourage cleaner, low-emission transport in the city, but some dockless bike users are causing problems by blocking footways and making it hard for pedestrians, especially those with visual or mobility impairments.
To tackle this, we have introduced a mandatory parking bay scheme across Westminster. This means users need to end their trips in one of our designated bays. These parking bays are spread across Westminster, with more bays in the areas where demand is highest.
We are actively collaborating with bike operators, Transport for London, and other authorities to find long-term solutions. In the meantime, this parking bay scheme aims to provide easy access to dockless bike hire, encourage active travel, promote responsible bike usage, and create a bay network for e-bike users across the city.
The bay network
We are currently working with three dockless bike and scooter operators on the scheme: Forest, Voi, and Lime. Since October 2023, we have set up over 200 designated bays for parking dockless bikes and e-scooters and over 170 virtual bays for e-bike parking only, totalling over 380 locations. There is now at least one parking bay every 300m across the city, making it easier for everyone to choose sustainable travel.
In busy central areas, we have more bays to meet the high demand for bikes. Bays are placed on the footway or carriageway, depending on what works best in each location.
In the initial roll-out we installed a parking bay within a five-minute walk from every household in Westminster. We will look to expand the network where there's a clear demand for more bikes.
View bay locations on our online map
Please note that our pre-existing e-scooter rental bays were merged with these new rental e-bike bays. If you have any concerns about rental e-scooters, you should check the company's app and websites for advice.
Monitoring and enforcement
All bays are monitored by the operators to ensure that any bikes parked outside of dedicated bays are identified and removed quickly.
