Lime might have competition, as Calgary puts out call for more dockless bike-shares

Lime bikes might soon have some competition, as the City of Calgary is putting out a call for more companies to offer dockless bike-share services.

Over the winter, more than 50,000 trips were logged on the company's 375 electric peddle-assist bikes. The app-based rental service launched a pilot project in the city last October.

Phase one of the pilot wraps up this month, and the plan for phase two is to see more bikes from more companies roll out across the city — not just downtown.

"We'd like to see if other operators want to try operating dockless bikes in Calgary. And we'd like to see if that would serve Calgarians differently. Perhaps there are operators that want to concentrate their services in certain areas, instead of city-wide," said Blanka Bracic, manager of liveable streets with the city. "We're very interested to see how it will play out."

Bracic said the city is anxiously awaiting to see what operators will apply, as other companies could possibly bring non-ebikes or other options like cargo bikes to Calgary's streets.

She said the data gathered so far from the project is proving useful.

"We can see where trips start and stop, according to time of day, we can see where these trips are, which routes people are taking [and] how long they take," she said.

Yasmeen Huq tried a Lime bike for the first time on Sunday, because the downtown CTrain service was down.

"If you're living in a condo, you maybe don't have storage to hold a bike … I think it's a good option," she said.

Phase two will run until the end of October next year, at which point the city will evaluate how well the program is working.

The city also has a questionnaire online to get Calgarians' thoughts on the project so far.