AAA<\/p>\n
An inner-Melbourne community group is defending the world\u2019s largest e-bike operator, claiming the company was \u201cset up to fail\u201d before a local council tore up its years-long deal.<\/p>\n
City of Yarra councillors earlier this month voted against endorsing a permanent e-bike hire contract with American-headquartered hiring company Lime, rubbishing their pitch and terminating an<\/a> almost six-year trial.<\/p>\n Councillors criticised the operator\u2019s unwillingness to clean up dumped vehicles or punish unruly riders at a July 14 council meeting, saying Lime made millions of dollars from local trips during the trial, while the council didn\u2019t see a cent.<\/p>\n Lime\u2019s Asia-Pacific head Will Peters has since derided accusations about lacklustre penalties as \u201cabsolutely untrue\u201d \u2013 and questioned why local governments have the power to ban e-bikes in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not for a council to make a decision on willy-nilly,\u201d Peters told this masthead.<\/p>\n Jeremy Lawrence, president of local active transport advocacy group Streets Alive Yarra, said excessive financial and operational requirements sought by Yarra Council in its tender specifications meant that even a major e-bike provider was \u201cset up to fail\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lawrence spoke at the July 14 council meeting<\/a> in favour of awarding Lime the tender.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my view, it was so onerous [that] no share bike operator, even if it was Lime \u2026 could make it work in a financially viable manner,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n The tender asked e-bike companies to cover all council\u2019s costs for a permanent shared e-bike scheme without specifying or estimating what those costs would be, Lawrence said, adding that it was \u201cabsurd\u201d.<\/p>\n Related Article Operators were also required to relocate \u201cdangerously placed\u201d e-bikes within 30 minutes of a complaint, according to the tender. Faulty or otherwise inappropriately parked bikes were required to be moved within an hour.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you have a really rich, wealthy, profitable share bike operator \u2026 it\u2019s just not realistic to scale across the municipality with those type of restrictions,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n Lime took particular issue with the tender\u2019s requirement to answer all phone calls from members of the public within 10 seconds, 24\/7 \u2013 similar to NSW Ambulance performance target to answer Triple Zero calls, Peters said.<\/p>\n The tender threatened e-bike operators would be fined $5000 the first time they failed to answer a call in this timeframe, and then $10,000 penalties for every further breach in the same month.<\/p>\n Their local e-bike fleet, capped at 250, would also be cut by 20 per cent with every consecutive breach in a month.<\/p>\n Lime asked the council to amend the tender contract before the company was knocked back.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could actually get a person who did not support active transport, or did not like this at all, with no reasons, calling up three times\u201d, Peters said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we did not pick up that phone call in 10 seconds, [and] you do that three times, 20 per cent of the fleet\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n \u201cNo other applicant applied to this tender. I think that, in itself, says enough.\u201d<\/p>\n A City of Yarra spokesperson said that the tender requirements addressed issues that were frequently brought forward by residents.<\/p>\n They emphasised that a permeant contract would be awarded only if it did not place a burden on the community, either financial or in terms of accessibility. Yarra sought to ensure that the program would be \u201ccost neutral to council as a minimum\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the small overall size of Yarra \u2026 30 minutes is appropriate for an operator that is sufficiently resourced to move a bike,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cE-bikes obstructing footpaths and causing other hazards are not an acceptable to our community.\u201d<\/p>\n Lime maintained that it punished riders effectively, using a staged process and ultimately banned those who repeatedly parked poorly.<\/p>\n The company was always going to agree to zero cost to council for an e-bike scheme, but instead faced the \u201csad\u201d reality riders around Melbourne would be geo-fenced, Peters said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re instantly going to go through a red line that no one knew existed, which is a council LGA, because people decided they had a vendetta against e-bikes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe never dreamt of councils doing this for e-bikes \u2026 There has to be a statewide approach here.\u201d <\/p>\n Lime was yet to receive feedback on the tender \u2013 only confirmation its e-bike trial was terminated \u2013 but wanted to keep working with council to find a solution for Yarra, Peters said.<\/p>\n The council, too, hasn\u2019t ruled out<\/a> a future shared e-bike scheme with another operator.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Streets](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6576e7dfaea25ec92f3010e09b704710b43c0275.jpeg\")
Streets Alive Yarra president Jeremy Lawrence has been highly critical of the council\u2019s approach to e-bike operators.Luis Enrique<\/p>\n![\"Yarra](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a8101c757c9fa1a57de7e9344761b4237f6c2f30.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Head](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f1e8b37bc6e2bd23b5b9978c9a352dc0052d5b7a.jpeg\")
Head of Lime Asia-Pacific, William Peters, in 2025.
\nNick Moir<\/p>\n![\"Gemma](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/fc5c408c54b5744a3c486bbe63660ce0a5036c5f.png\")
Gemma Grant<\/a> is a city reporter at The Age. Contact her securely on Signal at gemmagrant.88Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 1, 2026 \u2014 5:07pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-837520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}