Designers Agatha O’Neill and Sarah Lisgo are taking on London’s Lime bike menace one citrus-coloured sticker at a time, raising awareness of accessibility issues and cheekily reminding riders to park responsibly.
If you live in London, chances are you’ve danced around a toppled Lime bike or grumbled as one blocked your route altogether. For creatives Agatha O’Neill and Sarah Lisgo, the city’s growing clutter of poorly parked e-bikes became more than a passing nuisance. It became the inspiration for Don’t Be a Lemon with Your Lime, a guerrilla sticker campaign that’s part protest, part PSA, and entirely powered by a love of design with purpose.
“We knew we wanted to do something around the issue for a while,” says Agatha. “The issue isn’t new. Dumped bikes are something you see every single day if you live in London. It’s become the new normal, and it’s gradually been getting worse.”
The duo were particularly struck by the accessibility implications of abandoned bikes, which can pose serious hazards for disabled people trying to navigate already-complicated streets. Sarah’s perspective was shaped by her partner’s work as a carer for Kyle, who lives with cerebral palsy.
“It’s made me a lot more aware of barriers to accessibility in day-to-day life,” she says. “There’s the obvious stuff, like access to transport or venues – but also the everyday things society seems to overlook, like parking up on curbs or leaving bikes in the middle of pavements.”
The project’s cheeky title—Don’t Be a Lemon with Your Lime—came naturally once the pair settled on stickers as their medium of protest. “We thought it would be interesting to anchor the entire concept around lemons as an opposition to Limes,” says Agatha. From there, they developed a series of punchy, graphic stickers that speak directly to riders, using humour, bold visuals, and a hint of sass to grab attention.
“If you’re using a Lime bike, you’re probably in a rush to get to that meeting across town or those drinks down the Blue Post,” says Agatha. “So we needed to create stickers that are as punchy and arresting as possible. Hence the simple, bold visuals and provocative tone of voice.”
The result is a series of playful interventions—like a lemon character yelling, “Park it properly, pal!” or slogans like “Don’t leave me here; I’m not your ex!”—that aims to prompt a moment’s pause before someone hops off and ditches their ride.
While the tone is humorous, the intent is serious. “We believe that serious issues can really benefit from being talked about in a human way,” says Sarah. “The stickers could easily look like a stern parent telling people off – and who listens to their parents?”
By choosing stickers, the pair also unlocked a clever mechanic for both awareness and impact. Lime bikes, after all, are mobile, and they move from rider to rider across the city. Once a sticker is applied, its message stays with the vehicle, confronting every new user who hops on. “It’s a permanent(ish) way to put the message out there and circulate it all over the city,” Agatha explains. “Most of the time, we’re just not thinking. So a little prompt could be all it takes for some people to park more carefully.”
They’re also using the campaign to raise funds for disability charities, encouraging people to buy the stickers online and spread the message themselves. “It’s an accessible way for people to get involved and for us to raise money without asking the world from people,” says Sarah.
So far, the public reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. “We’ve had a lot of messages from people saying they love the idea and the stickers themselves,” Agatha says. “Particularly from people in London, who’ve said they’re really needed.”
The pair are also fielding a steady stream of DMs with photos of misbehaving bikes—a kind of crowdsourced documentation effort they didn’t quite anticipate. “We really welcome and encourage anyone to send them to our Instagram page,” adds Agatha.
Lime hasn’t responded directly, but Agatha and Sarah are clear that the campaign isn’t aimed at the operator. “Our gripe isn’t with the company; it’s with careless riders,” says Agatha. “If legal action were taken against us, that would be missing the point completely.”
They’re also hoping to open the door to collaboration, whether with Lime or local authorities. “It would be great to work together to amplify the ramifications that poor Lime parking has on people,” Sarah says. “A lot of people do it because they simply aren’t aware of how this would impact specific communities.”
While the campaign is currently focused on London, the issue is far from localised. The pair have ambitions to grow the project beyond the capital, possibly expanding it into conversations around vehicle parking more broadly. “While Lime bikes are a more London-centric issue, the problem of obstructing public pathways is nationwide,” Sarah explains.
Ultimately, success for Don’t Be a Lemon with Your Lime isn’t just about coverage or sticker sales but about sparking small changes in awareness and behaviour. “If our stickers encourage even one Limebike user to park that little bit more carefully, then it will be worth it,” says Agatha. “After all, you never know how your simple act of parking your bike badly might affect someone else’s day.”
