Lime's 2020 report can be found here

2020 was a difficult but important year. It challenged communities around the world as they confronted the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice, and climate change; however, there were also some bright moments that came out of the past year that we celebrated alongside the communities we serve. At the height of the COVID-19 crisis, as cities grappled with how to provide transportation for essential workers, they recognized the value micromobility could provide as a safe, sustainable option that essential workers could use while remaining socially-distanced in the open-air.

Cities around the world rapidly responded to the crisis - in many instances, they installed new bike lanes and deemed micromobility an essential service. Many cities welcomed electric scooters for the first time, and hundreds of thousands of new users took their first ride on a shared bike or scooter. Observers called it the “year of the bike,” and as cities and their residents continue the work to recover in 2021, shared light electric vehicles will be a vital part of getting moving again toward a healthier and more sustainable future.

At Lime, we were proud to provide a service to cities and universities to help keep people moving safely, particularly those for whom staying home was not an option. Through our Lime Aid program, we partnered with cities and community organizations to provide thousands of rides at no cost to healthcare staff, first responders, grocery workers and more. We launched services in some of the hardest hit areas, including Rome, and donated scooters to Red Cross workers to help them save lives. And in the U.S., we strengthened our ties to local communities grappling with inequitable treatment and took stock of the ways we needed to change as well. In doing so, we improved the diversity of our board, implemented new hiring practices to increase diversity within Lime, and worked with community organizations serving Black and Brown communities so that equity remains foundational to our local operations. And, we remain committed to continuous improvement.

As we look ahead, we’re glad to share what we learned, how we helped, and where more work is needed going forward after a trying year. Below are findings from our 2020 report detailing Lime’s advancements in safety and sustainability, steps we took to better serve our city partners, the local economic impacts of our service and the ways we’re adapting to provide reliable, affordable, and accessible options to help you make any trip, any time, anywhere, all on the Lime app.

The Year in Numbers

In 2020, we served 135 cities on 5 continents with shared scooters and e-bikes, and provided 55 million rides covering 60 million miles - equivalent to 250 trips to the moon.

• In January, we led the industry by being the first to introduce adaptive scooters and to deploy scalable sidewalk detection technology.
• In May, we acquired JUMP’s award-winning e-bike fleet.
• In October, we introduced Lime Platform as a MaaS solution, and committed to net-zero emissions by 2030 as part of our Ride Green pledge - the first micromobility firm to pledge to science-based targets.

Other highlights of the year included supporting US and European riders through our Lime to the Polls election initiative, unveiling our Gen 4.0 scooter, and announcing our first profitable quarter (Q3).

Sustainability

Cities are leading the way toward achieving global climate goals. In support of these efforts, we partnered with the WWF to launch our Ride Green initiative. Through this collaboration, we commit to reaching carbon negative by 2025 and net zero by 2030 as well as setting a science-based carbon emissions target to hold ourselves accountable. We are now developing an independently-verified road map with annual benchmarks to achieve this important goal. We are taking a number of steps to reduce our carbon impacts, including:

• Transforming our local operations to rely only on zero-emission vehicles and e-cargo bikes in Europe by 2021, and globally by 2023.
• Building our scooters using 90% recycled or low-carbon materials by 2021
• Continuing to purchase local renewable energy near the cities we serve
• Continuing to assess our supply chain to find improvements and efficiencies around sustainability

Our 2020 impact:

• 1 in 5 of trips connect to transit, even in the midst of COVID
• 70% of riders use cars, taxis, and ridesharing less due to micromobility

Multimodality

Over half of all car journeys are under 5 miles, contributing to carbon emissions, air pollution, and traffic congestion.

Lime is building on its existing scooter and bike service to develop a suite of electric vehicles that serve all types of trips under five miles with shared, carbon-free transportation -all in one place. Lime’s real-time integration with Google Maps - the world’s most popular trip planning app - and Uber, along with our partnership with Citymapper, enables riders to easily locate Lime vehicles in cities around the world. These apps show bothpublic transit and Lime vehicles, nudging people to take micromobility rides for short trips instead of rideshare or personal vehicles.

Our 2020 impact:

After acquiring JUMP’s inventory of award-winning e-bikes in May, we quickly integrated the e-bikes into our operations and ultimately served 26 cities, with more to come in 2021.By providing multiple options on the same platform, travelers are able to use the Lime app to meet the needs of nearly any urban trip.

Safety

We know that micromobility can only be successful if riders and communities are safe. At Lime, we're investing in industry-leading safety innovations across our technology, hardware, and operations teams.In analyzing all scooter trips taken in the U.S. between March 2019 and February 2020, we found that 99.985% were completed without a reported incident or injury. We will not rest until every ride is a safe one.

Our 2020 impact:

We improved and expanded our LimeLock technology to prevent misparked and fallen vehicles from impeding other travelers. LimeLock requires riders to lock our scooters and e-bikes securely to parking infrastructure using an integrated cable lock. As a result, we’ve seen:

• 98% parking compliance using LimeLock in San Francisco
• 79% decrease in misparked scooter complaints in Chicago (vs. the initial pilot without a lock-to mechanism)

Lime and Allianz have paved the way in making both micromobility and transportation safer. Together, we launched a comprehensive insurance program that automatically provides Lime riders with two types of insurance: Personal Accident Insurance and Liability Insurance, at no extra cost. This means that riders can step onto a Lime scooter and ride worry-free knowing they are protected.

Economic Impact

This past year our local economies were hard hit by the pandemic, affecting the way we work, the things we buy, and how we move. By providing e-bikes and scooters as a safe, affordable and socially-distant form of transportation, Lime has become an essential part of how the world is staying connected to their communities and participating in their local economies.

Our 2020 impact:

Our platform enables riders to get to work, school, and local businesses in the cities they live:

• 35% of riders used Lime to visit a business at least once a week
• 21% of trips were for shopping or running errands
• 35% of trips were for commuting to work or school

When COVID-19 cases increased in Europe, small businesses played an essential role as many European capitals went back into curfew and lockdowns.

Starting with two European capitals, Lime offered 25%-per-minute discounts on every ride between 9.30pm and 11.30pm in Madrid (where the curfew was at midnight), and between 8.30pm and 10.30pm in Lisbon (where the curfew was at 11pm).

Lime riders used these programs to patronize their favorite restaurants and local shops after work and come back home safely before curfew.

Read Further

Check out the full reportas well as infographics in French, German, Italian, Korean, and Spanish.