The City of London has approved the addition of a third dockless cycle hire operator, Voi, to operate within the Square Mile. The decision was made during a meeting of the Streets and Walkways Sub (Planning and Transportation) Committee on Tuesday, 21 July 2026.
The committee voted five to two in favour of allowing Voi, aiming to maximize choice for users, drive competition, performance and compliance by introducing a third operator and provides resilience in the event of an operator ceasing to operate or withdrawing.
Officers had initially spoken to a fourth operator, Bolt, but the company decided to withdraw from the negotiations at an early stage.
Alongside Voi, existing operators Lime and Forest will continue to operate under revised Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). These revised agreements introduce stronger controls and accountability
for operators. This includes increased financial contributions estimated to generate over £450,000 annually, which will be used to cover direct costs associated with managing dockless cycles and to reinvest back into road safety and behaviour change campaigns to encourage responsible cycling.
Some revenue will also fund additional street environment officers to support the FPN enforcement
of dockless cycles. Any contributions not spent within the year will be diverted to the on-street parking reserve.
A new penalty regime has also been implemented to address issues such as exceeding parking allocations and poor parking compliance. Penalties are tiered and include fines for exceeding maximum parking allocations (£10 per bike), failure to comply with mandatory parking requirements (ranging from £2,500 to £10,000), failure to respond to reports within agreed timeframes (ranging from £2,500 to £10,000), and failure to issue user warnings and fines for non-compliant parking (ranging from £2,500 to £10,000). Operators also face a £1,000 per month penalty for failing to submit data or provide a live fleet data platform. Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) will continue to be issued for bikes causing obstructions, with the trial of FPNs resulting in 168 notices issued between March and May 2026.
Concerns were raised about the potential for a third operator to exacerbate existing parking demand issues. However, the revised MoUs include measures to mitigate these impacts, such as penalties for exceeding parking allocations and for failing to comply with mandatory parking requirements. The agreements also include a quarterly review of usage with the potential to reallocate parking allocations between operators
if a new operator's usage is lower than expected. Operators are prohibited from deploying bikes, except for limited deployment after 14:00 to help service evening peak demand.
The introduction of Voi is projected to likely result in more people cycling to the City, supporting one of the key outcomes of the Transport Strategy.
However, the report acknowledges that the level of usage of a new operator is not known.
The MoUs are for a 24-month MoU period, with the option of a 12-month extension.
It is noted that It would take Voi some time to embed its operational resources in the City, which could lead to longer-than-anticipated response times in the first few months of service.
Further details on the committee's discussions and the full reports can be found in the Public reports pack and the Agenda frontsheet.
