The end of society

Just this morning, I saw a cyclist on a Lime bike gliding through a red light without even glancing sideways. No hesitation. No fear. Just full of confidence that there’d be no consequences.

And he was right.

No license plate. No helmet. No ID. No way of knowing who he was. He could’ve run that red light all day and the odds of anything happening to him were close to zero.

We’re used to seeing that kind of brazenness on social media. Those anonymous accounts throwing grenades from the shadows.

But now it’s bleeding into the physical world. Real people. Real risks.

Zero accountability.

The Joy of Lime Bikes

When Lime bikes first showed up, they felt like a win. They solved real problems: traffic congestion, carbon emissions, the last-mile transport gap. Download an app, scan the bike, go. No ownership. No parking hassles. Affordable mobility, available instantly.

And if you're not in a city with Lime bikes, let me tell you, they are everywhere. Kids use them all the time. Teenagers in London are no longer learning to drive, because they don't need to. They can just hop on a bike.

And they are great. Up to a point.

With all their simplicity comes something darker: detachment. No connection between the rider and the community. They give you freedom without consequences.

And that’s why things have started to slip.

What I’m Seeing (and You Probably Are Too)

It starts small. A few bikes ditched in the middle of the pavement. A rider zipping through a red light when no one's around. A shortcut down a pedestrian-only road.

But over time, these are no longer the exceptions, they’re the default.

Now, I see Lime bikes blowing through pedestrian crossings with schoolchildren waiting. I see them flying down pavements at 20 km/h, brushing past the elderly and the blind. I see them riding the wrong way down one-way streets, headphones in, head down, phone out.

No clue and no care.

If a motorcyclist did any of this, they’d lose their license. But the Lime rider? They’re untouchable.

This Isn’t Just About Bikes

What we’re really watching here isn’t just an urban transport hiccup. It’s a live experiment in how society handles anonymity. Or, more accurately, how badly it handles it.

Remove the chance of being caught, and a shocking number of people drop the rules. They stop cooperating. They stop considering anyone else. And this isn’t theoretical. It's happening now. Every day. All around us.

The Lime bike is just the latest case study but we've seen versions of this before:

• Social media: Trolls and bots thrive behind avatars and aliases. No real names, no accountability, just chaos.
• Rental scooters: Same story. City after city banned them not because they weren’t useful, but because riders left them in hedges, rode them drunk and crashed them into fountains.
• Cashless shoplifting: Self-checkouts have seen a quiet rise in “mistaken” non-scanning. Why? Because no one’s watching.

In every case, when you take away traceability, people don’t magically uphold social norms. In fact, many test how far they can bend them.

A Society Built on Soft Constraints

We like to think society is held together by values of courtesy, mutual respect, and civic duty.

And sure, those help.

But the truth is, a lot of social order rests on the quiet threat of consequences. Traffic cameras. ID checks. Security guards. Paper trails.

Lime bikes, and similar tech, remove those constraints. No friction. No paper trail. Just trust.

And here’s the problem: not everyone deserves that trust.

Is This How It Starts?

So is this the beginning of the end of society as we know it?

Maybe that sounds dramatic. Maybe we’re not on the brink of societal collapse just because someone cycled through a red light.

But big systems don’t fail all at once. They erode at the edges. One exemption becomes another. One “it doesn’t matter” becomes the standard. And slowly, predictability, the core ingredients of any functioning society, begin to wobble.

A city where people don’t stop at red lights is a city where anything goes. That’s not freedom. That’s fragility.

What Can Be Done?

I don't think we should be banning Lime bikes. How would I meet my mates in the pub?

Innovation isn’t the enemy. But blindspots in design are. If we want the benefits, we need to bake in accountability.

Some options that might help:

• Registration systems: Tie bikes to accounts that are actually verified and not just by an email address and a debit card.
• AI-driven enforcement: Use camera tech (already widely deployed in many cities) to identify and flag reckless riders.
• Real penalties: Fines or suspensions for accounts linked to repeated infractions.
• Urban redesign: Create infrastructure that separates vulnerable pedestrians from fast-moving e-bikes and scooters.

A cultural shift wouldn’t hurt either. Public campaigns that remind people that pedestrians aren’t obstacles. That the rules of the road apply to everyone. That the freedom to ride comes with the responsibility not to be a menace.

Who Are We When No One’s Watching?

I'm not actually that bothered about Lime bikes, despite my ranting so far.

I'm worried about society. Humans are mimetic. If breaking the law is easy and without consequence and I see everyone else doing it, then, chances are, I will do it too. Even if I've been a law abiding citizen for 50 years or more.

That’s what this really comes down to.

Lime bikes test what we do when the usual structures of accountability are missing.

Are we the kind of society that behaves, only when forced to? Or are we capable of cooperation without constant oversight?

Right now, the answer isn’t looking great.

What I’m Watching For

I’ll be watching how cities respond. Whether regulators move beyond band-aid bans and start designing systems that assume that not everyone will do the right thing just because they should.

But I’ll also be watching people. Do we start calling it out when someone rides recklessly? Do we speak up? Do we self-police?

Because the erosion of accountability doesn’t start with the tech. It starts with silence. And the only way to push back is to start noticing and to start saying something.

Until next time,

Jon "founder of the 2035 thought police department" Kaye

Finding meaning in music (and lime bikes)

P.S.

It's coming. 1 September.