IN BRIEF
London dockless e-bike hire operator Forest is installing plates on the back of around 500 of its bikes, in the borough of Richmond upon Thames. According to road.cc, the plate displays the ID code that customers already use to unlock the bike — so it is the operator’s own in-house number, not a registration issued by any authority. The stated aim is to let a passer-by report dangerous riding or problematic parking simply by noting that number. Forest says it can then immediately identify the bike and its user. According to the British press, users reported repeatedly could be permanently banned from the service. According to road.cc, which approached the company, Forest did not confirm whether this is a trial or a roll-out set to expand.
Forest, one of London’s dockless e-bike operators, has begun fitting them to its fleet in the borough of Richmond upon Thames. The move was reported by the London press on 8 September.
Number plates that are nothing of the sort
The phrase “number plate” is misleading. This is not a number issued by an authority, as it is for a car or a moped. According to road.cc, which reported the news, “Approximately 500 bikes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames are to be installed with ‘number plates’ showing the bike’s individual ID code used by customers to unlock the dockless bikes”.
In other words, the information already existed: it was on the bike, under the QR code. What changes is that it becomes readable from a distance, by anyone, and from behind the bike.
Reporting a rider, and tracing them
The purpose is explicit. Forest, road.cc writes, “is to begin installing ‘number plates’ on the back of their bikes to make it easier for members of the public to report users for ‘dangerous riding’ or parking issues”.
A company spokesperson, quoted by the London press, spells out the mechanism: “The way it works is that if there’s an incident and the number is shared with us, just as with the bike number, we can immediately identify the bike and who was riding it at the time, and take the required action faster.”
At the end of the chain, users reported repeatedly risk losing the right to hire a Forest bike at all. The headline of road.cc’s article sums up the logic — “clamp down on dangerous cycling and ‘problematic’ parking – and ban repeat offenders”.
Forest under political pressure over dockless hire
The move lands in a tense climate. Dockless bike hire is a source of friction in several London boroughs, between pavement parking and threats to shut out one operator or another. The idea of registering cyclists is indeed doing the rounds in the British debate: road.cc points, alongside its article, to the case of a Tory councillor “who wanted mandatory cyclist number plates”. The British government’s position runs the other way: in June 2025, the London press reports, a transport minister, Lord Hendy, said the Government had “no plans to legislate for the registration or insurance of e-bikes or pedal bikes”. What Forest is putting in place is of a different nature — a private initiative, limited to its own fleet. Nor does it cover the whole local fleet: according to road.cc, Forest has held a monopoly over e-bike provision in the borough since June, where around one third of the bikes are to be fitted with a plate — one third of a 1,500-bike fleet in Richmond, the London press specifies.
Forest, for its part, points to a series of initiatives. The roll-out of rear number plates “is the latest action Forest is taking to strengthen their accountability to members of the public and their customers”, road.cc notes, recalling that the company had announced the previous month that it would begin providing third-party insurance to its riders. road.cc adds, however, that the company did not clarify the terms of its insurance policy when approached for comment, and points out that it has already been criticised and fined by councils for failing to take sufficient action on parking provisions and rider behaviour.
One unknown remains. road.cc writes that “it is unclear whether the number-plated bikes are a trial initiative or whether they are set to be expanded across the city”, and specifies that the operator declined its requests for comment.
