Dockless E-Bikes in the West End: What Businesses Need to Know
We’re hearing growing concerns from members about obstructive dockless e-bikes. Here’s what HOLBA is doing and how businesses can help.
Monday 21 September
Dockless e-bikes are meant to be part of London’s green transport future. In many places, they still are. But in the West End, the current model is not working as it should.
We’ve heard from many of our members that bikes are blocking pavements, business entrances and crossings, creating accessibility and safety issues for employees, guests and customers, particularly people with mobility needs.
Our street team logged 183 incidents involving dockless e-bikes causing obstructions in the last 30 days alone.
These aren’t isolated incidents. Recurring problems in particular locations are creating frustration for businesses and making it harder for people to move safely and easily around the West End.
What we’re doing about it
We’re not just recording the problem. We’re using the evidence from members and our street teams to push for practical improvements now, while longer-term regulation is developed.
- Building the evidence: We are collating member reports, hotspot maps and incident logs to strengthen our case with Westminster City Council, TfL and operators.
- Engaging directly: We are in regular contact with the Council’s enforcement team and micromobility operators – Voi, Forest, Bolt and Lime – to flag persistent problem bays and push for faster removals and better bay design.
- Shaping future policy: We are feeding local business impacts into the development of TfL’s new licensing framework for dockless e-bikes, including conditions around parking, fleet caps and accessibility.
These measures are a positive step, but they are not yet delivering a consistent improvement on the ground. That is why we need members to continue reporting problems and sharing evidence with us.
What’s happening on the ground now
While longer-term regulation is being developed, Westminster City Council is working with operators to improve the day-to-day management of dockless e-bikes.
Current measures include:
- Sharing data with operators to give the Council greater visibility of bike locations and usage, helping to target enforcement and identify problem areas.
- Encouraging operators to work together on problem bays, improve data sharing and support more targeted enforcement.
- Removing obstructive bikes and, where necessary, temporarily or permanently closing problem bays.
- Working with TfL on future regulation and feeding local issues into the development of the new framework.
The Council has also escalated enforcement. Since November 2025, it has issued more than 2,500 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) and, from July 2026, began seizing dangerously parked bikes, with operators required to pay removal and storage fees before bikes are returned. Despite these measures, the scale of the problem means there is still more to do.
What happens next?
New legislation will give TfL powers to license dockless e-bike operators in London and set conditions covering areas including parking and obstruction, safety, accessibility, fleet management, data sharing and enforcement.
This direction of travel is welcome, but the new regime is not expected to be fully operational until mid-2027 at the earliest.
That means there is still a significant gap between the new powers being introduced and a fully operational regulatory system – and businesses, employees and visitors in the Heart of London area could continue to deal with the current challenges in the meantime.
That’s why action on the ground now remains important.
What you can do now
Many interventions are still complaint-led, so reporting problems when they occur is particularly important.
If your business, staff or customers are regularly affected by dockless e-bikes:
1. Report obstructions and safety issues to Westminster City Council
Email: dockless@westminster.gov.uk
Online: Westminster City Council’s Report It service
2. Report the issue to the operator where appropriate
You can also report problems directly through the reporting channels for the relevant operator, including Voi, Forest, Bolt and Lime.
3. Tell HOLBA about recurring problems
Please send details of hotspots or recurring issues to operations@holba.london.
Your reports help us build a clearer picture of the problem, prioritise removals and strengthen our case for action with the Council, TfL and operators.
Reporting an individual obstruction can help get a bike moved. Reporting recurring problems to HOLBA helps us demonstrate the wider pattern and push for longer-term change.
The more issues that are reported, the better the Council and operators can identify hotspots, prioritise removals and review the location or capacity of parking bays, and the stronger the evidence we have to keep pushing for change.