Lime celebrates Pride in DC by highlighting third spaces

At Lime, we take pride in being a major part of DC’s transportation network. Our shared e-bikes and e-scooters are a safe, sustainable, and fun way to experience the District and get people where they need to go.

This year for Pride, we wanted to celebrate the Queer community in a meaningful way that also felt authentic to our brand. In DC, we partnered with Capital Pride Alliance, which serves the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community all year long, through educational programs, events, fundraising, outreach and advocacy. Our partnership included a donation in support of this important work and a plan to help people get to and from the Pride Parade earlier this month, where Lime and Capital Pride Alliance threw a party worthy of one of the biggest Pride Month celebrations in the world.

This partnership was part of our largest-ever global Pride campaign, supporting local Pride events in over 15 cities around the world with donations to local LGBTQIA+ nonprofits, Pride-flag wrapped Lime vehicles, and discounted rides to get riders to and from their “third spaces” on Pride.

The campaign originated from the insight that third spaces, or places of belonging outside the home or work, are essential to the LGBTQIA+ community. However, Queer people often have to seek out and travel to these third spaces, such as gyms, bars, friends’ homes, and more. Lime provides an easy and accessible way for members of the Queer community to get to and from safe spaces where they can be 100% authentically themselves.

With this insight in mind, we were thrilled to maximize our impact in DC through our partnership with Capital Pride Alliance and the amazing work they do. We put together an operations plan and offered ride discounts to help people ride to the Pride Parade and all around the District all month on our Pride-flag-wrapped vehicles. And to top it all off, we joined the Parade with two custom-built Lime lounges—featuring music, snacks, swag giveaways, and educational information about Lime’s work in DC to provide equitable transportation to all riders no matter who they are or who they love.

It was amazing to welcome so many different parts of the DC community to this event and to celebrate the Pride the city takes in supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. And it just so happens that the day of the Pride Parade this year was our best ridership day ever in DC and one of the best days any Lime city has ever had. We are so honored to have been such a big part of DC’s celebrations this year.

In addition to going all out for Pride Month in the cities we serve, we also have been celebrating internally amongst our employees. Lime proudly employs members of the LGBTQIA+ community at every level, including CEO, Wayne Ting, as well as several members of our senior executive team. Lime is invested in fostering an inclusive, discrimination-free workplace year-round and supports the LGBTQIA+ community through its LimePride Employee Resource Group (ERG). LimePride is a space for LGBTQIA+ employees and allies to gather, support and advocate for each other. The ERG leverages community experiences to foster an inclusive and safe workplace for everyone.

Lime strives to be a company that lives its values year-round in every city it operates in. Lime’s Pride campaign is the latest example of its values-driven approach, building upon the company’s industry-leading Lime Access program, which offers discounts for riders in need, and its Lime Hero program, which allows riders to round up the cost of their rides to support local community organizations. Lime’s success is a result of its focus on being the best partner to cities, working collaboratively to build successful micromobility programs tailored to fit each city’s unique needs, and to extend its impact beyond equitable, sustainable transportation services.

Lime has proudly served Washington, DC, since September 2017 and in that time over 2.7 million riders have taken over 13.2 million rides on Lime e-bikes and e-scooters. Lime riders have traveled over 17 million miles, keeping an estimated 3.2 million car trips off the road and in doing so saving up to 166,000 gallons of gas and 1,475 metric tons of carbon emissions.

Lime will continue looking for fun and creative ways to give back to its riders and the entire DC community. We were grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Pride Month with our city and we can’t wait to do it again next year even bigger and better for World Pride in DC.

By Jeremy Greenbaum, manager of content development at Lime.

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