London, Paris, Parramatta: Lime bringing e-bikes to western suburbs

Share-bike company Lime is planning to drop thousands of e-bikes onto the streets of western Sydney in the coming months – but is yet to come to an agreement with local councils about how they will operate.

The California-based company, last valued at $780 million and backed by Uber and Google, has found major success in Sydney’s east and CBD and is now betting on the appetite of western Sydney locals to sustain its growth.

William Peters, the head of Asia Pacific for Lime, is confident the next generation of e-bikes will be welcomed in western Sydney.Credit: Nick Moir

Lime, which has emerged as the clear leader in Australia’s once highly competitive and risky share bike market, is preparing to slowly roll out its service in Parramatta CBD and Sydney Olympic Park by the end of the year, representing its first significant expansion since its Sydney launch in 2018.

As part of the expansion, the company will release a new generation of e-bikes designed to address safety and accessibility issues present in the current fleet. The bikes will have smaller and thicker tires, a lower centre of gravity to prevent toppling, and an easier-to-use helmet lock that the company says will better enforce helmet use.

“Lime is going all-in on Sydney and western Sydney to ensure complete connectivity of the network, said Lime’s head of Asia Pacific, William Peters, noting there had been a “dramatic uptick” in usage of Lime bikes in Sydney over the past year.

“Global cities need three things for seamless transport: an airport, a metro system, and micromobility. Lime fills the last-mile gap.”

The shared e-bikes are regularly seen fallen over on footpaths across Sydney.

But the company’s expansion plans were news to Parramatta’s Lord Mayor Martin Zaiter, who said he had only heard through third parties that they were interested in launching in his council’s area.

While he had heard “whispers of them wanting to enter the market”, there had been “no direct discussion or correspondence as of yet”, he said.

“I’m keeping an open mind. We’ve just invested a substantial amount of money expanding our bike lanes in the CBD … [but] I don’t want them dumped in the river, or left on Church Street,” he said.

“We would need to know, do we get reimbursed if we have to go and shift these along? These are questions you’d discuss with a memorandum of understanding.”

Earlier this year, Lime signed a memorandum of understanding with Waverley Council that saw the company pay the council an undisclosed amount for the installation of designated bike parking zones, which will come into effect on Monday. Peters said he wanted to do the same in Parramatta.

“We would love to pay for those bays wherever we operate, absolutely, no questions. We’re willing to invest,” he said, adding that incorrect parking “keeps [him] up at night”.

“We know how important it is to get the bikes on the ground and make sure they’re neat and tidy and organised, and dedicated parking is the best way to do that.”

Popularity surges as company faces safety questions

Over the past two years, Lime bikes have surged in global popularity, with more than one million trips on several days in 2025. Timothée Chalamet arrived at a movie premiere on one, and the entire England cricket team hopped on them when their bus was stuck in traffic.

In a sign of its rapid growth, Reuters this week reported Lime was planning to float the company on the US stock market. Peters declined to comment on the reports.

But the company has also been facing a safety battle. Emergency doctors have coined the term “Lime bike leg” for the common motorbike-style leg injuries appearing after riders fell off the bikes and were hit by the heavy steel bar down the centre of the bike (which has been significantly lowered and made lighter in the new generation of bikes).

“There’s been a huge spike in the number of presentations relating to e-bike accidents, definitely over the last two years, and I’d say specifically over the last year,” St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney emergency specialist Dr Tom Crofts said last month.

But Lime contends that the majority of e-bike injuries are on private, modified e-bikes, not public shared ones – and “99.95 per cent of all rides are incident-free, and that is a tremendous record”, Peters said.

The other issue is that while riding without a helmet is illegal in NSW, a huge number of Lime bikes are currently available without helmets.

Asked if Lime was essentially encouraging people to break the law by allowing bikes to be used without helmets attached, Peters said that was “absolutely not” the case and the company had a problem with people stealing them after a ride.

The new bike design, featuring an easier-to-use helmet lock, would encourage stronger usage. The company is also trialling a 10 per cent discount for users who send a selfie proving they are wearing a helmet.

The Sydney Morning Herald has opened its bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email [e-mail] with news tips.