AUSTIN, Texas — The City of Austin has ordered the reduction of 1,000 authorized Lime dockless units due to violations of the city’s ordinances.
- City says Lime broke rules
- Lime is no longer in good standing with the city
- Fleet reduced by 1,000 units
The Austin Transportation Department (ATD) ordered the 20 percent reduction on November 27. As a result, Lime is now authorized to operate 4,000 dockless mobility units in Austin.
According to a memo to City Manager Spencer Cronk, after 30 days, ATD will evaluate whether Lime is in good standing. Lime may be allowed to request the city lift the suspension of its units.
ATD said Lime violated city rules on five separate occasions between November 14 and November 20.
Officials say Lime violated city code by deploying more than 500 units in the Downtown Austin Project Coordination Zone. That is 624 units more than Lime’s authorized allowance. ATD said the saturation of dockless mobility units created a safety issue.
ATD said Lime failed to correct the violation after notification, and deployed 500 more units.
Sam Sadle, Lime’s director of government relations and strategic development, said: “Austinites have embraced Lime scooters, riding over a million times since June. Austin is one of a handful of cities with caps and unique in its caps based on geographic areas. Due to extremely high demand from users, we had an unintentional overdeployment of scooters downtown. We have worked around the clock to fix it, and look forward to continuing to work with the City of Austin.”
The city's action is not expected to negatively impact users. There are now seven licensed dockless mobility companies operating within Austin.