ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – St. Pete’s e-bike share program is turning up a gear.
Thursday, City Council approved renewing a partnership with Lime for the e-bike program through 2029.
RELATED: Florida Senate unanimously passes e-bike crackdown, caps speeds near pedestrians
What we know:
Since shifting from traditional pedal bikes to an all-electric fleet in 2023, St. Petersburg has seen an explosion in interest, according to Cheryl Stacks, the city’s transportation manager.
“From the onset of e-bike deployment in the bike share program, they proved to be more popular than traditional pedal bikes from a utilization perspective,” Stacks told City Council Thursday.
By the numbers:
Comparing data from October 2022, the last year under the Coast pedal bikes program, to October 2025 with the Lime e-bikes, there’s more than a 100% increase in bike trips, she said.
“We had a 30% increase in bike share use, bike share trips year over year for this Grand Prix versus last year’s Grand Prix,” Stacks said.
From 2023 to January of this year, there have been more than 72,000 rides. City Council unanimously approved renewing the agreement with Lime, and $10,000 to upgrade old bike racks Thursday.
“We’ll have considerably improved esthetics and functionality, and it’ll ease in our overall maintenance of the program,” Stacks said about the bike rack upgrades.
“In addition to the increased popularity of e-bikes, the city has been working to identify additional opportunities to make bike share available outside of the downtown core without being too disruptive to the neighborhoods, but while also considering reasonable destinations and supportive infrastructure, like the Pinellas Trail and our own West Central Streetscape project that included bike parking in the right-of-way and marked bike lanes,” Stacks said.
“I wanted to say thank you for your advocacy to bring this west,” Councilmember Copley Gerdes said. “It’s made a big difference. I see them on the trail. I see them in our parks.”
E-bike safety and regulation
While e-bikes have faced scrutiny due to rising injury rates in the Tampa Bay area and nationwide, city officials were quick to distinguish Lime’s regulated fleet from high-powered private models.
Dig deeper:
St. Petersburg’s Lime bikes are programmed with a max speed of 15 miles per hour. Once a rider hits that limit, the electric assist automatically shuts off.
Councilmember Gina Driscoll emphasized that these rentals are not the problem when it comes to e-bikes.
“I want to make sure people know that these e-bikes are really not representative of the issues that we’re seeing out there with e-bikes,” Driscoll said.
According to city data, there haven’t been any incidents or crash reports involving Lime e-bikes in the last three years.
Rider Requirements:
Must be 18 or older to rideMust follow all standard traffic rulesSidewalk riding is prohibited
What you can do:
There are currently approximately 300 Lime e-bikes active across St. Petersburg. To keep the program running smoothly, the city is encouraging residents to use the See Click Fix tool online to report abandoned bikes or those parked incorrectly. Lime monitors these reports directly to ensure bikes are relocated to their proper parking docks.
The Source: Information in this story is from St. Pete city staff and officials.
