Atlanta’s e-bike, scooter rentals skyrocketed during World Cup

Residents and visitors racked up nearly 1 million miles on one company’s scooters and e-bikes over the six weeks Atlanta hosted World Cup matches.

Lime said Friday it saw the number of rentals skyrocket during the international soccer tournament, especially in the downtown area.

The growing availability of scooters, e-bikes and gliders signals a major shift from six years ago, when Atlanta officials started rounding up and impounding discarded devices routinely left on sidewalks and roadways across the city.

In January 2020, Lime announced it was leaving Atlanta, citing the city’s high impound fees and a temporary ban on operating the electric devices at night. The ban came after a series of high-profile scooter deaths and an alarming number of devices strewn willy-nilly in neighborhoods across the city.

The company returned to Atlanta’s streets and sidewalks in the summer of 2021

Flash forward five years and the bicycles, scooters and gliders are seemingly everywhere, especially on Atlanta’s Beltline. Of the estimated 600,000 micro-mobility trips taken during the World Cup, Lime says its devices accounted for more than 587,000.

Between June 11 and July 19, the San Francisco-based company logged nearly 926,000 miles of travel in Atlanta alone, said Carol Antunez, Lime’s deputy regional head of government relations for the U.S. South.

Lime Scooters are parked on the sidewalk across the street from the Fox Theater in Midtown. (Alyssa Pointer/AJC 2019)

Additional devices were brought in ahead of the eight matches played here, and as of Friday, Lime has about 3,300 bikes and scooters in the city, Antunez said.

The World Cup demand was largely concentrated downtown where residents and guests flocked to matches, fan events and watch parties. Matchday ridership demand peaked on June 21 at 69% more than a typical day, the company said. That was the day world champion Spain defeated Saudi Arabia, 4-0, during the group stage.

Lime said it worked closely with the Atlanta Department of Transportation and local organizations, including the Atlanta Beltline and South Downtown, to prioritize accessibility in high-traffic areas.

Nine “micro-mobility valet zones” were set up near venues on matchdays, and a hub designed to accommodate up to 500 devices was set up at the corner of Northside Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Between June 11 and July 19, the San Francisco-based company logged nearly 926,000 miles of travel in Atlanta alone. (Courtesy of Lime)

“In Atlanta, we saw a very strong turnout from locals,” Antunez said. “From what we were able to see, we had a pretty good balance between our strong local ridership and some additional folks that were in town specifically for the games.”