Electric Pedal Assist Lime Bikes Come To Newton

NEWTON, MA – Yes you've seen those green bikes across Newton near street corners and bike racks, well over the weekend, Lime Bikes rolled out a new addition to their dock-free bright green and yellow bikes: pedal assist e-bikes. The roll out is part of the MAPC regional bikeshare program.

Lime-E – the dock-free, pedal assist, e-bikes – are $1 to unlock and $0.15/min to ride with a maximum assist speed of 14.8 mph.

For those who meet the income threshold, sign up for LimeAccess; e-bikes are $0.50 to unlock, $0.07/minutes to ride. To learn more, check out Lime’s One Year Report. “Lime is excited to expand our Boston metro dock-free bike fleet to include pedal-assist e-bikes. By rolling out Lime-E, more people can now hop on bikeshare,” said Scott Mullen, Lime Director of Expansion, New England. “Communities around the Boston region will now have a boosted ability to ride affordable, green transportation options.”

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) announced on April 13 that Lime would provide dock-free bike share services for 15 participating communities in Metro Boston, including Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Chelsea, Everett, Lexington, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Needham, Newton, Revere, Waltham, Watertown, and Winthrop.

The California-based company started a year ago and now boasts it has set up in more than 70 communities, about 10 of those have Lime-E. The entire Lime fleet is GPS and 3G-enabled, with the idea of making it simple for riders to find, unlock and pick up a nearby bike or scooter using their smartphone. When the ride is finished, riders end the ride with the Lime mobile app and responsibly park by the street curb, or at a bike rack.

To receive $5 in credits to try LimeBikes, new riders can use promo code: LIMELAUNCH.

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Photo by Jenna Fisher who can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).