So, Lime bikes are facing at least a dozen legal claims from cyclists who say they were injured while riding “faulty” bikes and alarmingly these alleged injuries include broken legs, arms and ankles, dislocated shoulders and brain injuries There are an estimated 40,000 Lime bikes out there and the company says that half of young people (18-34) use their cycles weekly, so a dozen or so accidents reported by the solicitors’ firm Osbornes Law is admittedly small beer given so many users.
But the figures should give us pause about the Lime bike phenomenon, and indeed the increase in the number of electronic bikes generally. There are, let’s recall, 2,000 electronic Santander bikes out there, quite apart from the dockless ones. And given that e-bikes can reach 15.5 miles an hour and that they’re heavier than the normal sort – about 25 kg - the risk of accident is that much greater. So, how about grasping this particular nettle right now and requiring every e-bike user – Lime, Santander, whatever - in London to wear a helmet? It would address just one sort of injury, to the head, rather than broken limbs. It would also, of course, be fantastically inconvenient, taking away from the spontaneity of the whole bike hire thing. Teenagers would hate it, which I say is one more reason to make it compulsory. In the Netherlands it’s only cyclists on fast e-bikes, which reach up to 45 miles an hour, who must wear a helmet, but over there the network of cycle lanes makes cycling way safer than it is in London. But it would make hire bikes far safer.
