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Monrovia Weekly Feb 28, 2019
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Until a new bike-share operator can be found, Monrovians will have to resort to using their own bikes or borrowing from friends. – Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News
By Susan Motander
The bright green bicycles will soon be gone from Monrovia. Lime (the company formerly known as LimeBike) has decided to pull its bicycles from the city.
Lime released a simple but vague statement: “Our mission is to provide communities with safe, sustainable, convenient transportation options, and we are constantly looking to improve the way riders move throughout their cities. We remain hopeful we can revisit this with Monrovia in the future and are open to finding a long-term partnership tailored to the needs of their citizens.”
Jackie Tran, a management analyst in the Monrovia City Manager’s Office, explained that this was not an abrupt move as city staff had been in discussions with the company about the continuation of the bike-share program for the past few months. She confirmed that the city received confirmation of the news that Lime was pulling out of the community last week.
To her knowledge, Lime was intending to focus solely on their scooter business rather than pedal-bike programs. She explained that by March 15 all the LimeBikes will be removed from the city.
The city also announced that anyone who has a remaining balance in their Lime account will be able to request a refund of those funds through Lime customer service. Lime’s website is www.li.me.
As City Manager Oliver Chi wrote when asked for comment, “Although it is unfortunate that Lime will discontinue their bike-share program, the city is already looking into different options for introducing a new bike-share operator.” He added, “There are a few promising avenues that we are currently exploring, including an expanded partnership with Lyft, which is becoming increasingly active in the world of micro-mobility and has a bike-share program in development. In addition, we are examining the possibility of participating in the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments’ e-bike-share program, which is being operated by Gotcha Mobility, LLC.”
