Say goodbye to the Lime bikes. Lime, the company, is dropping its pedal-bike fleet. The surprise announcement was made tonight at the Reno City Hall as the city council was considering renewing its franchise agreement with the company.
A spokesperson for Lime confirmed that it was moving to focus on scooters and e-bikes, saying that pedal bikes are not profitable industry-wide.
City Sustainability Manager Lynn Barker said that Lime’s ridership in Reno has dropped to the point of the company losing $10,000 a month here.
“Nobody’s doing dockless bikes in any market,” she said.
Council member Neoma Jardon, who has been critical of the company’s relationship with the city, said the surprise announcement was another example of the company not being a good partner.
“I won’t be supporting this,” she said, in reference to continuing the city’s relationship with Lime. “I think this council was very progressive and said, ‘Come on in. We want to try it out.’ There are too many moving pieces with this [now].”
Scooter use is not legal under Nevada law, a point being considered by the Nevada legislature that council was waiting for before approving scooter use in Reno.
A motion to continue the city’s agreement with Lime did not get enough votes among council members.
