Lime, the popular e-vehicle sharing company, announced on Monday a significant increase in e-scooter ridership in Queens and the Bronx during March 2025 — highlighting the growing trend of micro-mobility conveyance in the outer boroughs and the company’s continued expansion within NYC.
March set an “all-time” monthly record for Lime ridership in these two boroughs with 169,860 total trips, company representatives said, more than doubling the ridership in March 2024. The company only operates e-scooters, not e-bikes, in NYC.
The March numbers also show a 105% month-over-month increase from February, capping off what the micro-mobility company called a “blockbuster” first quarter of 2025.
“The numbers say it all. More and more New Yorkers are relying on Lime as a safe, convenient way to get around,” said Nicole Yearwood, senior manager of government relations at Lime. “We’re proud to see riders using our e-scooters for commuting, access to critical services and everything in between.”
So far in 2025, Lime riders in the Bronx and Queens have taken more than 380,000 trips, surpassing the company’s total ridership in 2024, which was just over 200,000 trips.
The increase occurred after NYC expanded its e-scooter sharing pilot program into eastern Queens last year, three years after initiating it in the Bronx. The program’s goal is to expand micro-mobility in all five boroughs. Lime is one of the three major scooter companies, along with Bird and Veo, that kicked off both borough programs.
However, the rise of the e-scooter programs did not come problem-free. In October 2024, NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams urged City Hall to put an “operational pause” on the program in Queens. She explained that too many scooter riders were using the vehicles haphazardly, leaving them parked on sidewalks and roadways, blocking pedestrian traffic.
A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) said at the time that the Queens program “builds on the overwhelming success” that occurred in the Bronx, and the agency is “committed to working with companies to make service changes, including the installation of additional scooter corrals to better organize parking.”
Meanwhile, Lime said in a statement that it “continues to prioritize safety and responsible parking across all boroughs where it operates.”
Embracing e-vehicle ridership
As NYC continues to embrace e-vehicle ridership, officials have launched new programs for safe battery storage and charging and increased financial benefits for food delivery drivers.
Most recently, on April 7, the DOT announced a program that would allow building owners and tenants to submit applications for installing e-bike battery swapping and charging cabinets on sidewalks in front of their properties.
App-based restaurant delivery workers, who often rely on e-bikes to traverse the city for work, received a bump in pay on April 1 from $19.56 to $21.44 per hour. Mayor Eric Adams’ Administration first put a series of pay increases for delivery workers into effect in June 2023.
Before the minimum pay rate was set at $17.96 two years ago, app-based restaurant delivery workers, according to city officials, made an average of $5.39 per hour before tips.
