INTERVIEW PHOTO: LIMEBIKE UK BY JAMIE HENDERSON
always prefer to own their own bike, and traditional Cycle to Work is perfect for them. Others value the freedom and flexibility of bike share. By
offering both routes, employers can make sure more people are included rather than forcing everyone into the same model.
Is there data to suggest that employees who start by salary-sacrificing a Lime or Forest bike eventually “graduate” to purchasing their own bike from a retailer?
It is still early, so we do not yet have a full dataset, but we do ask subscribers who leave CycleSaver to provide a reason, and buying their own bike does come up. For me, that is a really positive outcome. We are obviously sorry to lose a subscriber, but if someone starts using CycleSaver because they want a convenient way to cycle to work occasionally, then leaves because they have enjoyed cycling enough to buy their own bike, that is a pretty good customer journey. I do not think the industry has fully realised just how much bigger the cycling pie has become. Investment in infrastructure such as cycle lanes, alongside innovations including e-bikes and bike share, has made cycling feel accessible to a whole new group of people who might never previously have considered getting on a bike. Ultimately, that can only be good for the wider cycling community.
Shared bike schemes are incredibly popular, but they often face backlash over pavement clutter and vandalism. As a company driving more users to these fleets, do you feel a
30 | September 2026
responsibility to work with councils on parking infrastructure? I think bike share has, to an extent, been a victim of its own success. I am not sure operators, councils or the public were fully prepared for just how popular these schemes would become, particularly in London, and the infrastructure has not developed at the same pace as demand. The criticism around blocked pavements and poor parking has been warranted, but we are already starting to see signs of improvement through more organised fleets, dedicated parking bays, better geofencing and closer collaboration between operators and local authorities. We are not a fleet operator, so ultimately, we do not control where bikes are deployed
or parked. But as a business encouraging more people to use these schemes, we absolutely have a role to play. That is why we work closely with our customers and bike-
share providers to resolve issues when they are identified. For bike share to keep growing, it has to work not just for riders, but for pedestrians and the wider communities it serves.
What does the roadmap look like for the next 12 to 18 months? Are there plans to expand into e-cargo bike hire or longer-term leasing models? There is quite a lot happening. Sometimes it feels like a full-time job just keeping abreast of all the new cities and towns introducing bike-share schemes. Much to the frustration of my team, I am a product person at my core, so I am always looking at ways to make the proposition better and more compelling.
For now, our immediate focus is expanding CyclePass, our single subscription offering access to multiple bike- share providers, while continuing to grow awareness and uptake of CycleSaver more broadly. As we get more people onto bikes, we also want to make
sure we are encouraging them to ride safely. Another immediate priority is making helmets more accessible through CycleSaver, alongside better education around safe and responsible riding. Beyond that, a major focus will be working with our
bike-share partners to help grow their schemes outside London. There is a huge opportunity to make bike share a much more mainstream commuting option across the rest of the UK. ●
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