Lime Didn’t Fine Timothee Chalamet £65, But It’s Happy To Share Limelight

Timothée Chalamet's red carpet arrival on a Lime rental bike highlights the upsides and downsides of the electric bike share platform: on one hand, it's a sustainable way to get around with a bit of everyman cool, but on the other hand, he claims he was fined £65 for parking out of zone — though that's not entirely true.

The American movie star was in London for the launch of A Complete Unknown, and arrived at BFI on the Southbank astride one of the green shared ebikes — taking it right up onto the red carpet for photos.

However, Chalamet admitted on a chat show yesterday that in his rush to get to the event in time, he failed to find the right place to leave the bike. Lime has had to enforce strict parking rules in an effort to prevent the bikes from clogging pavements, or in this case, red carpets.

“There was a traffic jam, and I actually wasn’t allowed to park there, and I got a £65 fine,” he said. He added: “And actually it’s horrible because it was an advert for them.”

No Lime fine for Chalamet?

Now, a Lime spokesperson told me it wasn't releasing a statement on the incident and wasn't able to confirm that a fine even came via the company.

However, it's worth noting that Lime's largest fine is £20, and that's for repeated offences; first offenders aren't fined.

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Chalamet's photographer friend Aidan Zamiri posted on Instagram that he received a £2 fine for sitting idle for too long, which the app interpreted as a mispark, which sounds more realistic. The Guardian contacted the local council, which also said it didn't issue a fine.

Perhaps Chalamet is better at red carpet entrances than he is with numbers, or he's simply taking a bit of dramatic license and exagerating his or Zamiri's fine. Either way, Lime riders shouldn't worry they face a similarly high fine for parking.

Still, Lime welcomed Chalamet sharing the limelight, with global communications director Russell Murphy posting on LinkedIn that the company appreciated becoming the "preferred red carpet accessory for the biggest movie star on the planet."

"We appreciate even more that he acknowledged in interviews after that he used Lime to cut through London traffic and arrive on time, as countless Londoners do every day," Murphy noted.

Lime controversy beyond Chalamet

Lime bikes have been controversial in London. The dockless parking — as opposed to Transport for London's official bike share, which requires "Boris bikes" to be parked in a dock — meant irresponsible riders were leave the bikes scattered across pavements or in other inappropriate positions, hence the rise of virutal docks, rules around where they can be left, and fines for poor parking.

But parking problems persist, with virtual docks and legit parking zones flooded with bikes, while the easy ability to "hack" the bikes removes the risk of fine — and odds are if you can steal a bike, you're not too worried about where you ditch it after your ride.

Lime's failure as yet to fully solve either problem has resulted in local councils reconsidering their support for the platform and TfL saying it may fine companies whose bikes are left blocking pavements — presumably more than £65.

Despite such challenges, the bikes help reduce reliance on cars and are a popular way to get around the city — especially among a certain subset of the rich and famous seeking to appear down to earth, with reports of Harry Styles, Minnie Driver, James Corden and even Paul Mescal choosing a Lime over a limo.

That means that even erroneous reports of a £65 parking fine isn't likely to dent Lime's use.

That said, at the time of writing, it wasn't clear how Chalamet departed the movie premiere, so perhaps a chauffeured car was waiting to whisk him away to an afterparty after all.