Cycling advocates recently had their eyes on London. In an unlikely turn of events, a story about the chaos of industrial action across the city's Tube network quickly turned into headlines about shared bikes.
The strikes caused an unexpected critical mass of bike commuting and shared bikes offered an easy way to saddle up. Market-leader Lime was ready to take advantage of the moment.
On the first morning of the week-long service disruption, the total number of trips taken on Lime bikes surged by 58%, compared with the same period the previous week. The duration of trips rose by 37% and distances increased by 24%. By Wednesday, trips were up 74%. The data suggests that people used Lime for their entire commute, rather than just the first and last mile.
It was the perfect advert for alternative transport.
Lime quickly took to public space to make light of the strikes across London with these clever ads that played with the names of Tube lines (Image: Lime)
Share bikes are shifting habits
The popularity of shared e-bike schemes has soared worldwide. And Sydney is no exception.
“Share bikes reduce vehicle trips and emissions and are a healthy, convenient and affordable way to get around,” Lord Mayor of City of Sydney, Clover Moore, tells us. “In 2024, people made more than 1.94 million share bike trips in our local area, almost double the previous year. Of those, 22% were between 7pm and midnight, supporting the night-time economy. We expect that number to rise to 3 million for 2025.”
Share bikes are a great gateway to cycling. They provide wheels to people who don’t own a bike, and allow new riders to experience the convenience and joy of making trips through the city by bike.
The benefits for the transport network are huge
Across Australia, it is estimated that 20% of shared bike trips are replacing car travel.
This shows that the bikes can make a significant impact on decongestion and decarbonisation.
In fact, share bikes are a catalyst for change. As more people start cycling and understand why bikes are best, they come to realise that cities are much nicer and safer if they don’t prioritise vehicle use. Share bikes help cities build the social licence to install more cycling infrastructure.
But there are growing pains
The road to a successful and sustainable share bike system, one that benefits the whole community, has not been as smooth as the Oxford Street West Cycleway!
As we have discussed in our previous blog posts, and the click-bait media has highlighted regularly, shared bikes are often strewn across streets or scattered in parks. They clutter public space.
For local residents the bikes are a nuisance, not only on the eye, but as an obstacle to other road users in that same environment. People with disabilities are particularly impacted.
Addressing the parking problem is critical to the future success of share bikes schemes.
A fair allocation of space
A cartoon from the ever-insightful UK cartoonist Dave Walker. Although poorly parked e-bikes can be a nuisance, people are often blind to the huge amount of public space taken up, and inconvenience caused, by cars. We’ve never known anything different. (Image: davewalker.com)
Parking is just one element of share bike regulation that has fallen through the gaps as highly competitive private companies expanded their operations.
Councils have had no power to restrict the rapid growth in bike fleets but then end up responsible for managing bike parking. Of course, as everyone knows, there is plenty of space on the roads that could be used for bikes - but this is currently filled with cars and trucks. Transport for NSW, controller of kerb space, is very reluctant to change the use of parking bays.
It has been very frustrating.
While the community is waiting for the NSW Government to publish a statewide framework for share bike schemes, as recommended by the Parliamentary Inquiry into the use of e-scooters, e-bikes and related mobility options, some local councils have pushed ahead to improve parking.
Positive progress in central Sydney
The City of Sydney is very determined to reduce e-bike clutter in the CBD.
Although the unregulated flood of bikes is due to state government missteps, the City has employed specialist staff to resolve the issues caused.
In 2024, council designated 133 bike parking areas on footpaths and in the public domain. Each area can accommodate between 4 and 10 bikes. Operators were asked to update their apps and require share bike users to park in these designated spaces in order to end a trip.
However, this was a ‘stop gap’ measure. Efforts continued to find spaces for the bikes that did not impact precious pedestrian space - or the car parking and loading zones that Transport for NSW won’t relinquish.
A long-term scalable solution
City of Sydney has finally negotiated a way to create on-street parking areas for share bikes!
These use ‘No Stopping’ zones near intersections so vehicle parking or loading won’t be impacted. The first was installed in Haymarket in February 2025. 17 bays have now been approved by the local transport forum and many more are in the pipeline.
The first on-street bike parking area in Haymarket (Image: Chris Southwood/City of Sydney)
A full list of the designated bike parking areas is available on City of Sydney’s interactive map.
“We continue to do everything we can to make our streets safe for everyone,” says Lord Mayor Clover Moore. “Since 2017, we have worked with share bike providers to minimise the impact of their schemes, while calling for the NSW Government to properly regulate bike share.”
The improvements are spreading!
Waverley Council has also made progress on resolving shared bike parking. There are now 16 shared e-bike parking areas in the council area, with 15 on the footpath and one on the road.
Share bikes neatly lined up in the new parking area on Spring Street in Bondi Junction. Users appear to respond to the cues to park responsibly - a mixture of instructions in the apps, clear the line markings and the actions of other riders (Image: Bicycle NSW)
A further 65 sites have been identified. A wonderful 30 of these will be on-street, mostly making use of No Stopping zones but occasionally re-allocating car parking.
The simple, light touch markings will use temporary paint during the trail phase in case they are found to restrict pedestrian accessibility.
North Sydney Council has also begun to mark out similar designated areas near Metro station entrance, although these are all on the footpath.
Examples of ‘light touch’ designs to provide shared bike parking on Waverley Street, Bondi Junction (left) and Pacific Highway, Crows Nest (image: Waverley Council and Bicycle NSW)
Supporting the growth of e-mobility
Bicycle NSW wants e-mobility to reach its full potential, while keeping riders and other road users safe.
We are working closely with all levels of government to develop policy and regulation for e-bike, e-scooters and their batteries, amend road rules, and establish education programs across the state.
Recent updates and relevant articles can be found on our campaign page, Transforming Transport with E-Mobility.
Our success in convincing the NSW Government to continue to welcome most e-bikes onto the Sydney Train and Metro network clearly demonstrates the value of our advocacy.
Unfortunately, unregulated bike share has impacted the social licence for all e-mobility.
Bicycle NSW is very much looking forward to the imminent release of the statewide framework for shared bikes. There will be one set of regulations, with agreed variations to meet the needs of different urban, suburban and regional contexts. Caps on the number of devices and operators, and clear recommendations for parking, will help councils achieve great outcomes for everyone.
The NSW Government recognises that bike share is a valuable part of a transport network. State funding, support and subsidy is now needed.
Help us push for better policy and regulation!
Bicycle NSW has a seat at the table of all levels of government. Our small team is dedicated to making NSW better for bike riding. But we need your assistance!
Become a Member today and support our advocacy for better infrastructure and safer streets. You will also ride easy, covered by our comprehensive insurance and enjoy many other Member-only benefits.
If you are not ready to join the Bicycle NSW family, then we would love you to make a donation to the Australian Bicycle Advocacy Fund.
