The borough-by-borough bike share permission lottery will soon end, according to a new mobility strategy from the Mayor of London’s office.
In a welcome slice of news for commuters who cross borough borders regularly, the Mayor and TfL will, with the help of fresh legislation, outline a pan-London framework that will organise how bike share schemes operate, with the intent to provide universal frameworks for bike parking, operations, regulation and enforcement.
Following legislative progress from the current Government, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 has enabled progress, handing the Secretary of State for Transport powers to enable TfL to set its own regulations. However, secondary legislation is now required before the desired licensing framework can be fully implemented. The DfT and Secretary of State will consult on this shortly, but in the meantime the Mayor has outlined how the new powers will be used to further support London’s leading role in growing cycling rates in the city.
A five-point plan will now seek to maximise the potential of bike sharing in the city, all the while dealing with many of the problems that critics have highlighted. The goals include:
A clear set of rule for all of London that replaces the borough-by-borough licensing that could mean you’re barred from crossing from one place to the next,
City-wide standards that seek to address safety, inclusive of vehicle maintenance and rider education, as well as enforcement to ensure riders are using the bikes responsibly
Making dockless bike share a seamless part of London’s transport ecosystem, with clear connections to public transport networks, and places of work
To eradicate unsafe parking and protect pedestrian spaces. Data monitoring is already in place and this will inform investment decisions.
Encouraging innovation to deliver fair and transparent fees for riders, as well as long term investment in streets to deliver a thriving micromobility landscape
Bike share has had such a marked impact in London that it even shows up as impacting full-size bike and electric commuter bike sales in market data. So successful has London’s bike share growth been that daily bike trips are up 43% since 2019, making it London’s fastest-growing transport mode. TfL now estimates that more than one in ten of the 1.5 million daily cycle journeys in the city were attributable to dockless bike sharing.
Feeding into this success has been London’s leading role in laying out a network of safe and segregated, where possible, cycling infrastructure. The cycle network in London has grown five-fold since 2016 to reach 450km of routes.
A £1.7 million fund to develop micromobility schemes, including expanding the number of parking locations beyond the 36,000 currently laid out continues to progress and the Mayor’s office says that TfL will soon publish more details on ideas to help the share schemes work better for residents and users.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The ‘Wild West’ approach to dockless e-bikes cannot continue. While these services are helping thousands more Londoners to cycle, their rapid growth has also brought challenges around safety, inconsiderate parking, and the lack of data needed to properly manage them.
“I’ve been calling for powers to better manage dockless e-bike schemes since 2017, when the first schemes arrived in London, so I welcome the Government’s plans to give cities the powers they need to do this. For too long, cities have been left without the tools needed to properly manage these services, despite clear evidence that the current approach is not working.
“It’s now vital that the Department for Transport moves quickly to bring forward the secondary legislation needed to make these powers a reality. London cannot afford further delays.”