Lime and the City of Grand Rapids recently announced a new initiative aimed at expanding the affordability of shared e-scooters and e-bikes to residents who qualify for state, city and federal subsidies. The City of Grand Rapids is taking a pioneering step by embarking on a pilot program to directly subsidize trips taken via the Lime Access program. Lime, a leading provider of shared electric vehicles around the world, already offered Grand Rapids residents 50 percent off trip discounts based on need and on geographical area throughout its time in the city. With this new pilot program, Lime Access will provide five free 30-minute rides a day to all eligible residents, and Lime is working with researchers from McGill University to determine what lessons can be applied to equity in micromobility moving forward.
Lime Access has been successfully helping eligible Grand Rapids residents get around safely, sustainably and affordably for years, and in spring of 2022 Lime added equity zone pricing to its service. Through this equity zone pricing, Lime offered automatic 30% discounts in parts of the city that will benefit from breaking down barriers to affordable transportation, including Roosevelt Park, John Ball Park and Garfield Park.
“Equity has been at the heart of our service to Grand Rapids from day one, and we are grateful to work with the city to launch this groundbreaking new initiative. We know our e-scooters and e-bikes help people move around the city safely, sustainably, and affordably and we are excited to see if we can welcome even more of the city into the Lime rider community. We will be working hard to ensure all those who are eligible have a chance to participate and we’ll be conducting research before and after this pilot program to learn as much as we can and see if there are lessons to apply in the future. We look forward to deepening our commitment to equity in Grand Rapids and working with the city to continue improving our service moving forward,” said LeAaron Foley, Lime’s senior director of government relations.
“We are excited to embark on this new program with Lime to provide even more access to consistent mobility options in the City for our residents who need it most,” said Ariana Jeske, PE, PTOE, assistant director for Mobile GR. “The value of ‘micromobility’ cannot be overstated in how it knits together all the multimodal components of a transportation network and fills in the gaps to get people where they need to go most. The data and information we gather with this program will help evolve our ‘micromobility’ program to best serve our residents.”
Hannah Wilson, senior director for partnerships at the Shared-Use Mobility Center, a national public interest organization, said, “Affordability programs like Lime Access extend the benefits of shared mobility to the people who need it the most. Shared electric bikes and scooters are an important tool to fill critical gaps in access to opportunity for people who cannot or choose not to own their own car, especially in mid-sized cities like Grand Rapids where transit is not always running. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and this program will also help people in the City reduce their carbon footprint.”
This pilot is a continuation of Lime’s policy and research leadership. In 2023, Lime worked with Monash University Professor Alexa Delbosc to understand how Lime Access riders use the service and how that might differ from non-Access users. Through a survey of over 1,000 Lime riders in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, the researchers identify three key insights: Access riders used Lime more heavily for commuting and other utilitarian trips (68%) compared to non-Access riders (37%); Lime Access combined with public transit supports a car-light or car-free life, with 44% of Lime Access users’ trips connected to or from public transit as part of an overall multimodal journey; and quotes from riders revealed that the tangible benefits of the Access subsidy on riders’ lives, especially for people with a physical disability or who could not afford a car.
Lime offers discounted rides to qualifying riders in cities around the world through its Lime Access program, to give back to cities and support transportation equity. This differs from other publicly available transportation options, like public transit, where the public sector provides the funding to support discount programs for the elderly, low-income individuals, veterans, youth, and other groups. With this pilot, the City of Grand Rapids is taking a bold step toward bringing their support of shared micromobility in line with public investment in public transit, acknowledging the role that shared scooters and bicycles can play in cities.
“The McGill research team is excited to evaluate this innovative program. We will survey participants before, during, and after the pilot to understand how participants use Lime and see what benefits they experience,” said McGill University Prof. Kevin Manaugh.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with the city of Grand Rapids to expand the Lime Access program, our signature equity initiative that plays a key role in our partnerships with the cities we serve. This new program is exciting and impactful as it will help us make transportation more accessible and equitable for all community members. By providing affordable and sustainable mobility options, we are not only enhancing transportation but also breaking down barriers and supporting a more inclusive city,” said Emily Gibbs, Senior Manager of Social Impact and Operations at Lime.
Lime has served Grand Rapids since June of 2021 and since then over 266,000 unique riders have taken over 832,000 rides on Lime shared e-scooters and e-bikes. Lime riders have traveled over 1.2 million miles and have kept an estimated 204,000 car trips off the road. By shifting some trips from cars, Lime riders have prevented an estimated 104 metric tons of carbon emissions and saved an estimated 11,700 gallons of gas.
