Inside Lime’s Seattle warehouse, where 15,000 bicycles and motorcycles are being prepared for World Cup operations.

As Seattle welcomes the world this month for the FIFA World Cup, the city’s only micromobility operator is gearing up, too — and GeekWire got an inside look at how.

In a sprawling building south of downtown Georgetown — a space that serves as the company’s base for operations in the Seattle area — Lime is rolling out new devices, regularly refurbishing its existing fleet, and preparing a series of services designed to handle the increase in passengers.

Lime is the sole operator of the City of Seattle’s bike- and scooter-share program, a position it took earlier this year following the exit of competitors including Bird. The company operates a fleet of 15,000 devices in the city — 7,000 scooters, 4,000 LimeGliders, 3,300 Gen 4 bikes and 700 new LimeBikes — and recorded 2.3 million rides in Seattle in the first quarter of this year, up nearly 50% over the same period.

World Cup games and related activities around Lumen Field and other parts of Seattle could match or exceed what Lime saw on its biggest day of riding in the city — February’s Super Bowl championship show that generated more than 60,000 trips.

“We’re excited to support Seattle at such a big time for the city, and to help residents and visitors get where they need to go all summer long,” said Parker Dawson, Lime’s senior regional leader of government relations.

What is saved

To handle the expected influx of passengers, Lime is rolling out several new services and operational improvements during the World Cup and other major summer events, including:

• Valet parking: For the first time in Seattle, Lime will station employees in designated parking lots near the stadium district to stop rides on behalf of riders who can’t connect to cell service in congested areas. “When you go down to the arena and there are potentially hundreds of thousands of fans taking all the cellular service, this allows our team to complete the ride,” said Brent Vigneault, general manager of Lime’s Pacific Northwest operations.
• Fan Pass: A new discounted pass offering 90 minutes of rides for $12.99 — more than 70% off regular prices — is available now through July 19.
• Geofencing: Event-specific visual barriers will direct riders to designated parking areas and help manage heavy pedestrian traffic on game days.
• Rebalancing the Fleet: Using GPS data from past events, Lime will move cars across the city to meet the highest standards in the stadium area and city corridors.
• Helmet gifts: Lime has already distributed 2,500 free hats this year and plans to give away 3,000 more during major events this summer. Helmets will be available in all parking lots after the game.

New technologies are being tested

Thousands of bicyclists and motorcyclists — many of whom may be new to Seattle — can pose major challenges when it comes to where to ride and where to park.

Lime’s new Lime Vision technology is designed to address part of that equation by alerting on-road scooter riders to find a safer route. Cameras mounted on the front of motorcycles, coupled with artificial intelligence, will see where the rider is going. If bad behavior is detected, the scooter emits an audible warning and sends a real-time notification to the Lime app, alerting the rider to a safe place.

GeekWire tested the Lime Vision on Wednesday by riding the scooter from the street to a trail near Lime’s warehouse. After a few seconds, the motorcycle saw where we were and said, “Avoid crosswalks.”

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Lime installed 3,500 new Gen 4.1 motorcycles in Seattle in the past four weeks, all equipped with Lime Vision. Vigneault said the program is already having an impact, with riders shouting out loud and seeing them leave the streets in response.

“Our model will continue to learn through experience,” he said. “The more miles you drive in these cars throughout the city, the better the model will be at finding pedestrians and hopefully pushing people onto bike lanes.”

For now, Lime is focused on getting people off the streets rather than punishing them. When asked if repeat riders on the side of the road could end up facing account suspension or other disciplinary measures, Vigneault said the company is still investigating.

“Right now we are trying to move the carrot instead of the stick,” he said.

Lime Vision isn’t the only technology Lime uses to encourage better behavior. The company’s parking system, called Capture, now uses AI to analyze photos taken by passengers at the end of a trip, providing real-time feedback if a car is parked in a problematic area — blocking a sidewalk or ADA access lane, for example — and preventing a passenger from completing a ride until the car is removed.

The Seattle Department of Transportation, meanwhile, has painted more than 230 parking lots in the city to provide commuters with clearly marked landing spots.

Keeping the ships moving

The Georgetown facility – and its small army of technicians – handles the maintenance of the entire Lime fleet for the Seattle region, which not only goes through the city but Bothell, Redmond, Woodinville, Everett and Shoreline.

Cars are towed to a location where GPS data, tire pressure monitors or negative passenger ratings flag a problem, then brought in for diagnosis, repairs and quality checks with a second set of eyes before returning.

Every part in every Lime car is modular and replaceable – seats, handles, motors, tires, phone holders – meaning that one worn part doesn’t put the whole device out of action. When a car reaches the end of its life, Lime strips it down for reusable parts before returning the rest.

“We try to keep our cars out as long as possible and make sure we don’t waste materials,” Vigneault said.

Batteries are replaced in the field to minimize downtime, but any other maintenance comes through the warehouse, where mechanics are cross-trained on every type of vehicle. Lime tracks the full history of every piece of equipment — every ride, every maintenance, every mile — meaning some cars have been driving Seattle streets for years, swapping parts along the way.

Even graffiti – an occupational hazard of any mass public utility vehicle – is discarded as part of the standard quality control process before the device goes out again.

“We want our cars to look clean,” said Vigneault. “No one wants to sit in a car covered in graffiti.”