London is in the midst of a series of tube strikes, disrupting transport across the city and leaving commuters to find other modes of transport.
Transport for London told BikeRadar that Santander Cycles and its e-scooter rental trial saw a 60 per cent increase in usage this morning, after members of the RMT union walked out for a 24-hour strike from midday Tuesday.
The rental electric bike provider Forest also said it had seen a “surge in demand”, although it did not provide any figures.
Alex Berwin, head of policy at Forest, said: “[W]e have increased our on-street resources, including upping our battery swapping capacity by 80 per cent, increasing the number of teams dedicated to tidying bays by 70 per cent, and stepping up fleet redistribution, so our bikes can be found in areas where they are needed the most.”
Berwin said Forest’s team of 'battery swappers' are using cargo bikes to navigate London in particularly busy areas, such as Westminster and the City, to maximise the availability of its electric bikes.
A second 24-hour period of industrial action will begin on Thursday and end at midday on Friday. The Piccadilly and Circle lines will close entirely, as well as the Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate. There will be no Central line services between White City and Liverpool Street.
Hal Stevenson, director of policy at Lime UK, said the company was “proud to be helping so many Londoners get to where they need to be this week”.
Lime said it would provide data and insights into the impact of the strikes on its dockless ebike rentals later this week.
But the company said that during the tube strikes in September 2025, it saw a 54 per cent week-on-week increase in trips.
Lime said trips on its bikes were also longer, suggesting commuters were using its bikes for their full journey rather than connections with public transport.
With YouGov, Lime surveyed 1,027 London adults following the September strikes and found 28 per cent of Londoners were more likely to consider cycling in the future as a result of the strikes. 21 per cent of Londoners said they cycled during September’s strikes.
This week’s strikes differ from the tube strikes in September. The dispute is over a voluntary proposal to allow train operators to move to a compressed four-day working week.
Only the RMT union, which represents around half of London’s tube drivers, is on strike, whereas ASLEF, another tube drivers' union, is still working.
This will likely mean the uptick in cycling due to the strikes this week will be lower than during the September strikes.
However, cycling in London is on the up generally. TfL revealed that cycling journeys increased to an estimated 1.5 million journeys per day in 2025.
Lime’s revenue jumped by 75 per cent in 2024, with Londoners making 16 million journeys during commuting hours, while the company saw an 85 per cent increase in total journeys.
