Near-impassable: resident raises alarm over ‘sea of bikes’ cluttering pavements near Broadway Market
Lime bikes at Broadway Market, May 2026. Video still: Terry Stewart
Footage captured over the May bank holiday weekend has reignited concerns about dockless e-bike parking in Hackney, after a local resident filmed a tangle of abandoned hire bikes strewn across the pavement near Broadway Market.
The video, recorded by 70-year-old Terry Stewart at the corner of Whiston Road and Pritchard’s Road – a spot which is not a designated parking bay – shows bikes piled up in a manner that Stewart says makes the street near-impassable for those with mobility or sight impairments.
“There’s no infrastructure to the whole system,” Stewart told the Citizen.
“I’m on my own and I’m partially sighted. A woman with kids in a pram wouldn’t be able to use that street, because she’d have to push the pram up the road, and it’s a danger when you have to start moving children and prams onto the road to avoid all these cycles.”
He added: “You have to have an infrastructure, you have to have an enforcement team – either the police or the borough – which enforces the rules and regulations and doesn’t allow others to abuse that at expense to other people in the community.”
Hackney has been one of the capital’s most enthusiastic adopters of dockless hire schemes, which offer on-demand, affordable journeys often quicker and greener than the bus.
In March, the Town Hall announced a deal with Lime giving residents the one of the lowest upfront fares in London at a flat £1.75 per ride.
The borough is currently signed up to a five-year contract with Lime and Voi, with options to extend, valued at £93 million as of February 2025.
But the question of where riders leave the bikes at the end of a journey has dogged the schemes since they first appeared on London’s streets in 2018.
Operators – including Lime, Forest, Voi and Bolt – strike separate agreements with each highway authority, meaning rules vary from borough to borough.
Riders are supposed to end journeys in designated bays, with fines for those who don’t, but as Stewart’s video shows, enforcement appears patchy.
Asked what regulations are in place locally and who is responsible for enforcing them, a Hackney Council spokesperson said: “Hackney has among the highest use of e-bikes in London. We have worked with both Lime and Voi to install a high density of dedicated parking bays for the bikes, and compliance is generally good in the borough.
“There will be 400 designated parking bays by the end of the year, which are the only places riders are permitted to leave the bikes.”
The spokesperson did not address the enforcement question directly.
Critics of the schemes point to a wider transparency problem: operators routinely treat journey and parking data as commercially sensitive, leaving councils with little leverage when things go wrong.
Last year, Sir Sadiq Khan compared the dockless market to the “Wild West”, warning that regulation had “not caught up with the pace of people’s desire to use cycle hire bikes” – a view echoed since by Lime’s own chief executive, Wayne Ting.
For regular riders, the Town Hall’s promise of cheaper and easier journeys will be welcome. For residents like Terry Stewart, every additional bike on the pavement is another obstacle on the way to the shops.
Several years ago, Hackney Council introduced Lime ebikes into the borough without conducting an Equality Impact Assessment. One has to question the thinking (and honesty) behind such a decision. Up until a few weeks ago, almost every question (or FoI request) regarding what Lime was or was not permitted to do in Hackney was answered with “That’s commercially confidential information!”
On the matter of the bikes themselves: it is a criminal offence to obstruct the footway under Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980. Lime ebikes are road vehicles. If people are physically able to do so, it is suggested that concerned residents try wheeling them onto the road and leaving them there. And observing how quickly assistance arrives to move them!
It remains to be seen whether the new Administration will choose to act lawfully and responsibly and place proper restrictions on Lime’s operations to stop unlawful obstructions, or whether it is content to accept revenue from a dodgy American company whose profits come at the direct expense of disabled pedestrians.
Oh come on, these are cyclists. Can’t expect them to act responsibly or in anyones interest except their own…..
I wrote repeatedly to the previous Cabinet Member responsible for signing a new contract with Lime pointing out the many problems inconsiderate users cause with these. I was told bikes would only be able to be left if designated bays under the new contract. This is patently not true.
Sadly I don’t know what powers the new Councillors will have to change this. The new contract is signed and chances are Lime worded it carefully so they can charge through the nose to make changes.
Apart from enabling a culture of bike thieving among kids who have learned to break Lime’s inadequate security, and then go on to leave and throw them around wherever they want, it appears that the people who benefit from these montrosities the most, are the people who are most able, i.e. young, healthy, wealthy enough to own their own bikes; while the people who suffer the most are the most challenged or vulnerable, i.e. elderly, handicapped, mothers with children forced out onto the road to pass them.
I want rid of them forever.
Even as a cyclist, their weight and irresponsible use by both thieving kids and irregular cyclists makes me more afraid and unsafe than car drivers. At least with car drivers it’s generally possible to predict their actions and there is a general adherence to following road traffic laws, e.g. stopping at red lights, pedestrian crossings etc.
At the very least, they need to be; governed to a lower speed (due to their weight on impact), have dedicated bays only, have their security features fixed so they can’t be hacked, and have a trackable number plate.
Apart from the usual hipster sense of entitlement and priority, part of the problem is that, a) because their users aren’t regular cyclists, they are not really in control of them, b) because they don’t require anyone to have a driving licence, their users don’t know the Highway Code to adhere to it, and aren’t held accountable for their actions.
Having a trackable number plate, that would connect the bike to the hirer, would mean that any road traffic offences, including dumping, could be immediately fined and riders held responsible.