Lime will be ceasing its bikeshare programs in the city of Monrovia and on the campus of Cal State Northridge, according to a statement released by the company on Friday.

Some 200 green-and-yellow Lime rental bikes scattered throughout Monrovia and the unincorporated area of south Monrovia will be removed by March 15, according to a memo released by Monrovia City Manager Oliver Chi.

Chi, who touted the program that began in March 2018 as a non-polluting approach to helping Monrovians get to the local Gold Line station or nearby hospitals and retail centers without driving a car, called the decision by Lime “unfortunate news.”

But signs point to the company scaling down its bikeshare program and shifting its focus to its electric scooters program moving forward.

According to news reports in the past two weeks, Lime was removing bikes from Tempe, Arizona and St. Louis as well. The St. Louis Business Journal said the company would replace pedal bikes with e-scooters in the Midwestern city.

Campus program

At CSUN in the San Fernando Valley, the program served students, faculty and staff and “aligned with the university’s climate action and sustainability plans” by substituting pedal power for car trips emitting tailpipe emissions that foul the air and contribute to global warming.

Lime has cancelled the contract with the university.

The app-enabled bikes will be taken off the campus by March 19, according to a news item released Friday in the university’s online newsletter “CSUN Today,” and confirmed by CSUN’s Marketing and Communications Department.

CSUN received Lime bikes in January 2018, becoming one of the first entities in Southern California with the program. The university’s Associated Students teamed with its Institute for Sustainability to create what they called a pilot program.

“We were really taken aback by this information,” Associated Students President Beverly Ntagu told the university, adding, “Nevertheless, reducing our carbon footprint is a top priority for not only the campus community, but for Associated Students as well.”

Austin Eriksson, CSUN Director of Energy and Sustainability, told CSUN Today: “The program clearly showed that there is a market and true need for alternate modes of transport at CSUN.”

Eriksson also pledged to bring other sustainable transportation modes to the sprawling CSU campus.

Move towards e-scooters?

The Northern California-based micro-mobility company disrupted LA Metro’s bikeshare program by introducing a dockless, bikeshare program in cities and college campuses in Southern California last year. The company has a presence in 70 U.S. and European markets.

While the bikes and scooters are equipped with GPS to make them theft resistant, they sometimes end up cluttering neighborhoods and used in pranks, all of which prompted a backlash in several cities last year.

Lime did not confirm whether e-scooters would take the place of bikes at CSUN and in Monrovia.

“In the region, bikes are being removed from Monrovia as well as Cal State Northridge. That is all we have as of now,” according to an emailed statement released by Lime through its public relations consultant Courtney Chesla Torres on Friday.

Jess Noblitt, a CSUN spokesman, said: “There are no plans for scooters on campus.”

But the memo from the Monrovia city manager’s office hints at a move to e-scooters by the Northern California start-up.

“Given the way that micro-mobility has evolved of late, Lime is intending to focus solely on their scooter business,” Chi said.

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LA Metro task force will seek to eliminate fares on buses, trains He said the city of Monrovia is in talks with Lyft, the ride-hailing service, to add rental bikes.

Santa Ana voted to allow Lime’s dockless e-scooters in January. Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said the scooters offered “an alternative to cars that is accessible, affordable and sustainable.”

Lime announced it would deploy 250 scooters last month with a goal of reaching 500.