The company told TechCrunch in a statement that the request was about "exposing the biased and flawed process" that led the SFMTA to toss its application, and still saw the case as a win since it helped foster "expedited discovery" into the permit selection system. City Attorney communications lead John Cote, however, characterized Lime's block attempt as sour grapes. The permit process was "fair and transparent," he said, and Lime was only complaining because it "didn't like the outcome."

Regardless of the perspective, it's still a significant setback for Lime. For now, the company can't operate on its home turf. Like Bird, Lyft and Uber, it'll have to rely on expansion plans to grow its app-based scooter rentals.