Slime bikes? The polluted leisure of micromobility hire schemes in London

This article explores micromobility as a digital leisure assemblage and the impacts of app-based management of shared hire schemes on a public square in London. To do this I deploy an ethnographic approach conducted over 56-days outside of London’s Queens Road Peckham railway station focusing on how micromobility hire schemes influence spatial justice and the right to the city. Research findings highlight the role of digital micromobility infrastructure mismanagement in privatising public space and exacerbating already unfolding socio-spatial inequalities. Yet, hacking, adapting, graffiti and skateboarding emerge as counter-practices that challenge market-driven logic of micromobility towards spatial justice. Reviewing research results through ‘polluted leisure’ paradigm, I argue that micromobility hire as a digital leisure assemblage demonstrates the contradictions of eco-modernity whilst proposing counter-practices as a patchwork manifesto towards sustainable transport solutions. Together, this work brings micromobility research to digital leisure cultures by exploring how leisure, mobility, and technology influence the socio-spatial dynamics of contemporary cities.