Sydney is awash with shared ebikes. Is Australia finally falling in love with Lime?
Shared ebikes are enjoying a rapid boom in popularity in Australia in the wake of the fuel price spike, as cities learn to adapt to schemes like Lime. Lime, the largest operator, has outlasted competitors to gain a foothold across cities on the east coast as it seeks government help to grow. Already in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Lime entered Canberra in April. Australia is now home to almost 25,000 shared ebikes, four times more than it had in late 2024, of which 18,000 are believed to be Lime-operated. Lime has reported higher usage in each city as Australians look for ways to mitigate higher fuel prices following the US-Israel war on Iran.
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The biggest increases have come in New South Wales, where the government has taken an active role to support the schemes’ growth. “This is good for congestion, the environment and the hip pocket,” the state’s transport minister, John Graham, says. “The rapid increase in shared scheme use in Sydney … [is] bridging the gap between train stations, bus stops and where people live and work.” Sydney’s ebike fleet has surged from 13,000 in January to more than 20,000, according to Transport for NSW. They powered 29,000 trips a day in January but more than 40,000 on average in April, more than half of them in the CBD.
Lime has declined to share its data, but analysis of publicly available statistics shows it operates about 14,000 ebikes in Sydney, having doubled its fleet in 2025, then doubled it again in the past four months after the NSW government unveiled new share bike rules in October. It has doubled its operating area in six months, and now has plans to sweep west to Parramatta and across the northern beaches.
‘Behaviour revolution’ Shared bikes have had a mixed reputation with the public and local governments, thanks to the string of providers that dumped thousands of bikes, then collapsed. Councils were left to negotiate with operators, receiving little support from the state government to manage the shared bike explosion, says Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore. “It was immediately clear these schemes were popular and would be here to stay,” Moore says. “We attempted to take matters into our own hands, dealing with operators directly, and … operators and their customers did not always meet [our] expectations.”
Chethan Rangaswamy, who led marketing for the operator oBike, says the early companies correctly spotted a hole in Australia’s transport network. Rangaswamy says oBike rapidly attracted customers and grew revenue as it pushed into Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, but costs rose faster. Australians dumped the bikes in rivers and in trees or turned them into street art, while local councils began fining operators and impounding stranded bikes. Riders parked poorly and thieves took their helmets, with neither councils nor companies able to effectively penalise or incentivise change. “You can’t force a behaviour revolution,” Rangaswamy says. “You can build an ecosystem and hope that you’re in the right place at the right time.” Rangaswamy left oBike in January 2018, foreseeing its collapse, which arrived five months later. More operators followed. Yet shared bikes had shown they could solve the problem of the “last mile” of a commuter’s trip, connecting them from a train station to their doorstep, Rangaswamy says. “We saw a lot of those short trips getting done,” he says. “Even today, it’s not solved, and it makes … sense for that as a gap still to be explored.”
Lime arrived in Sydney months later with 300 shared electric bikes, the first such devices to be operated in Australia. As a string of companies came and went, it gradually grew to Melbourne and the Gold Coast, then Brisbane, operating nearly 6,000 bikes nationwide by late 2024. Rangaswamy believes Lime alone survived six years thanks to investors’ patience and deep pockets: Uber, which lets people book Lime through its app, took a 30% stake in the company in 2020. Lime’s Asia-Pacific head, Will Peters, says it has lasted long enough to see Australia’s bike culture change and learn from other operators’ mistakes. “We weren’t the first ones to launch. I think that’s why we’ve been successful,” he says.
Vandalism has steadily declined, Peters says, and Lime’s bikes have grown harder to damage or throw into rivers: the latest model is 43kg. He says helmet use is rising, and theft or loss has fallen since the company replaced its basket-mounted lock. While safety has been a top concern, Lime has reported a steady 99.99% rate of trips without injuries. The company has hired growing crews to service the city, while installing technology that is meant to prevent users leaving bikes outside designated areas, though many are still to be found blocking footpaths or bike paths, creating clutter and safety risks for pedestrians and other cyclists. City of Sydney is among councils calling for stricter parking rules. “This arrangement is not regulated or forced, and has only been possible given negotiation and goodwill from operators,” Moore says. “Regulation is needed.” ‘Generational change’ Fuel prices have helped Lime continue its geographical expansion and experiment with new designs and pricing models, Peters says. “We are seeing a generational change of adoption,” he says. “We want to double down on it, and this is the beginning.” Peters says he wants to pull customers from Uber, which has recently raised its minimum fare to $10 or more around the country, and attract passengers looking for connections beyond public transport. The company has started offering a fixed price of $2.75 for a 20-minute trip to customers who pay a monthly $4.99 subscription. With most Lime trips lasting less than 20 minutes, Peters says he expects the “Lime Prime” fixed price model to be especially attractive to commuters. A 20-minute trip costs about $13 under Lime’s per-minute pricing, currently more focused on tourists. “We’ve looked at how you become embedded to a city [and] Lime Prime is about getting as many people riding as possible,” Peters says. Other than the CBD, Lime’s highest usage in Sydney is in waterfront regions without rail connections, such as Five Dock, Bondi and Botany.
Its dream is to connect to public transport ticketing systems like Opal or Myki, Peters says. The NSW state government is considering the idea and has the power to implement statewide regimes. The ACT also has full control of Lime’s Canberra operations. Other state governments, though, have refused to help boost access to shared bikes. Queensland is pushing an ebike crackdown that shared schemes say could crush them. Victoria has given all power to the councils. Lime has been left in the lurch in areas such as Merri-bek, where the council has shelved its ebike plans in case its neighbours unilaterally switch to other operators in the next 12 months. The Melbourne, Yarra and Port Phillip councils can also set their own caps on Lime’s fleet, capped at 1,200. Ridership has still grown gradually, from 2,700 trips a day on average in 2025 to 3,300 in 2026. Brisbane city council declined to respond to questions but has also capped Lime’s numbers, while the Gold Coast has seen steady growth within a 1,300-bike limit. Peters says operators cannot truly meet growing demand for share bikes unless state governments and councils give them room to grow and certainty contracts won’t be torn up. “We need to be making sure that you’ve got supply and demand, they’re dynamic, and they move with culture,” he says. “We’re providing that cultural norm, encouraging people, but it’s not possible unless you have a city that’s willing.”
