Seattle Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch, center, rides a Lime Glider in downtown Seattle during the march to the match ahead of the USA vs. Australia FIFA World Cup contest on Friday, June 19. (Seattle Department of Transportation Photo)
Lime went full Beastmode for last Friday’s FIFA World Cup match in Seattle.
Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch was among the riders who helped Lime set a new single-day ridership record in Seattle, with 83,000 trips recorded on shared bikes and scooters.
The tally eclipsed a record set by fans of Lynch’s former team in February when they descended on Seattle for the Super Bowl Championship parade and took more than 60,000 trips.
Across the full week, from June 15 through June 21, Lime said riders took more than 300,000 trips on its devices in Seattle, underscoring Lime’s position as the sole shared e-bike and scooter provider in the city — and the popularity of micromobility during crowded events.
A Lime e-bike and scooter staging area near the Occidental Square fan zone in Seattle’s Pioneer Square during FIFA World Cup. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
“Major events put real pressure on city streets, transit systems and people’s wallets, and Seattle’s first week of match play showed how micromobility can help,” Parker Dawson, senior regional lead of government relations at Lime, said in a statement Tuesday.
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Inside Lime’s Seattle warehouse, where 15,000 bikes and scooters are prepped for a World Cup surge
The company — which has 15,000 devices on city streets — says it worked closely with the Seattle Department of Transportation and local stakeholders “to support safe, organized and reliable operations.” Around Pioneer Square, the waterfront and stadium district, huge numbers of Lime devices were staged in drop-off and pick-up spots.
The company also gave away free helmets to riders and deployed teams to help with orderly parking and fleet rebalancing. Lime introduced temporary geofencing and launched a Fan Pass for discounted riding and flexible use through July 19.
“Seattle showed the world how shared e-bikes and scooters can help a major host city move,” Dawson said.
Sound Transit’s Link light also set a record, drawing approximately 280,000 riders on Friday and exceeding a mark of 220,000 that it also set earlier this year during the Super Bowl parade.
The agency said it operated at peak service from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. to get soccer fans from across the region to and from Friday’s match. Baseball fans also descended on T-Mobile Park for a sold-out Mariners game that evening.
Seattle will host four more World Cup matches:
- June 24, Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Qatar, noon
- June 26, Egypt vs. Iran, 8 p.m.
- July 1, Round of 32, 1 p.m.
- July 6, Round of 16, 5 p.m.
