Why Lime? 100 Million Reasons.
By Brad Bao
Lime recently hit an exciting milestone, surpassing our 100 millionth ride thanks to an amazing community of riders across more than 120 cities, 30 countries and 5 continents. We’re humbled by what this means for the company as the world’s largest micromobility provider. We’re even more excited about what this means for both the communities we serve and our planet.
Today we celebrate 100 million moments when a rider received the gift of time, 100 million connections with the people and places that matter, 100 million steps toward a world that is sustainable and equitable. We don’t ride simply to cover the distance. We ride to recover our time: time for work, time for play, time with friends and family—the kind of time that makes city life worth living.
Toby and I started Lime two years ago with a vision of making urban life much more livable. We came to the United States in the early 2000s after living in Beijing and Shenzhen, two of the most congested, overcrowded cities in the world. Commuting by car wasn’t an option, so for years we got to know our city by bicycle. From that perspective, we saw up-close how cars made life in condensed urban environments less livable: dirtier air, louder streets, more stress.
Lime was founded to give people a greener, faster way to get around their communities. In the United States, one out of every three car trips is less than two miles long, and more than half are under four miles. With the average Lime ride at about a mile long, we started Lime to be a more sustainable transportation solution for these shorter-distance trips.
Today, we are seeing the impact and the possibility. One in four Lime rides replaces a car trip, meaning Lime riders are directly responsible for 25 million miles of car travel that didn’t happen––that’s more than 50 trips to the moon and back. It means we’ve prevented 1.2 million gallons of gas from being burned, keeping 9 thousand metric tons of carbon emissions out of our atmosphere. For a sense of scale, it would take a 10,000-acre forest more than a year to capture that much carbon.
Just as important as making an impact on the environment, we’re focused on making our service accessible and affordable. Researchers at Harvard have found that commute time is the single strongest predictor of whether or not a person can escape poverty. Every day, our team works hard to reach the many communities that are cut off from public transit, ride-sharing and other mobility options.
Lime Access is a service that provides 50-95% discounts on Lime rides for anyone enrolled in a federal assistance program. By partnering with groups like PayNearMe, we’ve increased micromobility access to those who may not have access to either a smartphone or a credit card. The result is a community of riders that reflects the diversity of our cities.
All of us at Lime envision a future where more people can get more places, no matter where they live or how much money they make. It’s a future where our cities aren’t built around cars––they’re built around us.
We haven’t accomplished these 100 million rides alone. Every day, our team works alongside city officials and community leaders who are striving to make car-free infrastructure a reality using systems like protected bike lanes, multi-use paths, and more accessible public transit. These leaders are helping us advance safety standards for e-scooters and bikes.
This movement would not be possible without each and every one of you. To all of our riders around the world, thank you for embarking on this journey with us. Today, what we’re looking forward to is not simply the next 100 million rides—or even the next billion. It’s the better, cleaner, freer life that’s waiting for all of us around the corner, just a short Lime ride away.