Lime Celebrates Car Free Day and EU Mobility Week by Promoting Sustainable Transportation Worldwide
Last week, Lime celebrated a brighter vision for urban transportation during two events that recognized the need to adapt how we move in cities: EU Mobility Week and Global Car Free Day, Wednesday, September 22nd. We were excited to help riders in cities around the world imagine what it would be like to get around without cars, offering major discounts in London, Washington DC, Cleveland and more. Free and reduced priced Lime rides helped encourage people to leave their cars at home and instead discover the benefits of a shared electric vehicle.
We also continued our ongoing efforts to encourage mode shift from cars to light, sustainable transportation options to help keep cities moving free of congestion and carbon emissions. As part of EU Mobility Week, Lime CEO Wayne Ting joined public and private sector leaders in the European transportation industry, including Paris Deputy Mayor David Belliard and Polis Network, to articulate a new vision for sustainable mobility across the continent.
Along with companies like Uber and Arrival, Lime committed to help cities build safe, smart, sustainable and more accessible urban and regional mobility networks, following six guiding principles:
- Access to mobility for all: work with cities to increase access to all shared modes of urban and regional mobility, while striving to make electric and shared mobility more affordable than owning a car.
- Public transport at the core: partner across the public and private sectors to complement and extend the reach of public transport with integrated mobility services and applications that give people the ability to switch seamlessly from one mode to another, both within and between cities.
- Rapid decarbonisation: full decarbonisation of mobility networks by 2035 at the latest, and faster should the policy conditions allow.
- Safety first: commitment to Vision Zero with safe streets for all, ensuring the latest passive and active safety technology is integrated into all modes of transport manufactured and operated on our platforms.
- Smart and responsible use of data: helping cities leverage technologies to build smart, safe and more sustainable urban mobility networks, with transparency of our systems and without ever compromising user privacy.
- Future-proof and resilient: working with policymakers and regulators to help inform the development of safety-based regulations that allow for the introduction of transformative modalities like autonomous vehicles and flying taxis.
Car Free Day aligns perfectly with the mission we work towards every day: a future where affordable, shared and sustainable mobility options are available to all, yielding cities that put people over cars. It’s why our teams across the globe strive to ensure Lime electric scooters, e-bikes, or mopeds are available, fully-charged, when and where they’re needed, helping to serve for any trip under five miles.
We know transportation contributes to 25% of global climate-disrupting greenhouse gas emissions and we know we cannot win the fight against climate change without achieving significant mode shift from cars to sustainable modes of getting around. We’re proud to commit to the goals of #CarFreeDay this year and we will continue to embody its message every day as we work to replace every car trip under five miles with alternative forms of carbon-free transportation.
This past year we’ve taken on multiple initiatives in order to promote sustainability and encourage lasting mode shift from cars to shared electric vehicles. This spring we introduced Lime Prime, our new subscription program designed with commuters in mind in order to encourage regular trips on Lime vehicles rather than in cars. Lime Prime gives frequent riders access to an affordable, reliable, and sustainable way of getting around and will hopefully reduce reliance on car travel in every city we operate in.
We’ve also upgraded our hardware with the Gen4 scooter, featuring swappable batteries and a lifespan of up to five-years. Moving to swappable batteries is driving even greater efficiency in our operations and in so doing further reducing the carbon emissions created by riding our scooters. Our Gen4 scooters are available in cities around the world, from Paris to San Francisco, and are already helping to build a more sustainable future for transportation.
We know that every four Lime rides globally replace a car trip. Our amazing riders have taken over 250 million trips so far, preventing more than 50 million car trips and saving more than 17,000+ tons of carbon emissions worldwide. We will continue working with our riders, cities, and local partners to promote sustainable transportation on future car free days and every day to come in all of the nearly 200 cities in which we operate.