Lime bikes have been a part of the NC State campus since August 2017. This year, Lime has expanded their involvement on campus with e-scooters, which have been a great benefit to students on campus.
Sarah Williams, the transportation demand management program manager at NCSU Transportation*, says NC State has continued to have a good relationship with Lime, and their participation has been appreciated on campus.
“We have a really good relationship with Lime, and they have done a great job with rebalancing bikes and scooters on campus and taking care of the customer service aspects of things,” Williams said. “The agreement with Lime is a contract for a bike/scooter share on campus, where they provide the bikes and scooters and take care of the maintenance.”
Williams said that the bikes were originally part of a pilot program which turned out to be successful. Since then, a three-year contract for the bikes has been put in place. The scooters are currently part of a pilot program that is concluding this December to determine if the scooters will continue to be a part of campus.
There has been a general outpouring of support from students for the bikes and scooters, with one of the most common benefits being getting to class quickly.
Thomas Wike, a third-year in horticulture science, mentioned that the bikes have helped with getting across campus in a timely and affordable fashion.
“I’ve [ridden] both, and they are super efficient and a lot better than walking,” said Wike. “I made it from Varsity lot to Nelson in six minutes.”
Erika Helmers, a third-year studying foreign languages and literatures and economics, expressed a similar sentiment.
“I rode a Lime bike, and it was extremely convenient because if I had to walk, I would have been late, but riding the lime bike allowed me to get there on time,” Helmers said. “I also didn’t have to pay because it was my first time riding one.”
Other than using them to get to class, students have also utilized them for other purposes. Domenick DiBiase, a third-year studying computer science, spoke on the ease of use from technological and transportation standpoints.
“I really enjoy riding them,” DiBiase said. “I have ridden them for fun around campus, to get to a job interview on time and for general transportation purposes. I think they are quality scooters, and from a computer science perspective, I think their mobile app has a nice user interface, and I have not had any issues with it. I would 100 percent recommend them to anyone.”
Maeve Riney, a second-year in plant biology and foreign languages and literatures, addressed that the scooters can be a lot of fun, but can also be a source of frustration.
“I’ve ridden the scooters and I think they are super fun, but they can be really annoying when people aren’t following traffic laws or are riding them on Hillsborough at night,” Riney said.
Lime is teaming up with Student Health on campus to host an event to teach students and encourage them to use the devices in the proper manner, to avoid injury to themselves and others.
“The biggest negative has been people not following the proper rules,” Williams said. “With the scooters you are supposed to ride them in the streets and not the sidewalks. You are also supposed to have a helmet, but we rarely see people with the helmets on.”
*Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to accurately reflect Sarah Williams’ title.
