Electric scooter rental company Lime continued a fourth day of Honolulu operations with a depleted fleet Tuesday along with a hope that police will stop impounding the vehicles Lime leaves on sidewalks for rent.

Andrew Pereira, communications director for Mayor Kirk Caldwell, said the Honolulu Police Department removed what amounts to close to half of Lime’s scooters — 90 out of about 200 as of Tuesday morning — from sidewalks as “discarded property” because they lacked registration plates, tags or emblems by which HPD could determine ownership.

However, Pereira clarified that HPD removed only scooters that were either parked within the pedestrian right of way on sidewalks or on private property against the wishes of the property owner.

Andrew Savage, a Lime vice president of government relations, said this justification was hard to fathom given that the California-­based company’s name and phone number are on each vehicle. Lime also includes a mobile phone app feature to report illegally parked scooters.

“It does feel like they’re grasping for an ordinance that would apply here,” he said.

Savage said city officials have given several reasons for why Lime’s operation runs afoul of city rules, including a peddling ordinance, an ordinance governing concessions, a sidewalk nuisance ordinance and an abandoned-property ordinance. He said none of those apply to Lime.

Savage said he’s hopeful that Lime and city leaders can work together to develop a workable regulatory environment if needed.

“We think it’s possible,” he said.

Most of the Lime scooters — 81 of the 90 — were confiscated Monday, and HPD picked up only a few Tuesday.

Sam Dreiman, another Lime government relations official, said the company anticipated being able to retrieve its scooters from police by today and getting them back in service to satisfy what he and Savage described as strong customer demand.

Lime reported that consumers — who can find, unlock and pay to ride the scooters for $1 plus 15 cents a minute through a mobile phone app — had taken about 2,200 trips around town on the green-and-white vehicles as of Monday after they were made available Saturday in the Ala Moana, Waikiki and Kakaako areas as a pilot project that could be expanded.

“It shows that there is a really high demand for personal mobility options,” Savage said.

Lime puts out scooters in the morning after collecting them at night and recharging them. The scooters, propped up on a kickstand, are left on sidewalks outside the pedestrian right of way — generally near the curb edge in between where street signs, utility poles, planter boxes and bike racks are found.

However, it’s up to riders to re-park properly. Improper parking has caused trouble in other cities and prompted Lime to work on developing a system requiring riders to send a photo of where they park after use. Lime also has run into problems in other cities with customers illegally riding on sidewalks and without helmets.

In Honolulu, helmets aren’t required for riders who Lime insists must be at least 18 years old. Lime instructs users via its app to ride on the street and not the sidewalk.

Lime was founded as a bikeshare company called LimeBike in January 2017, and operates in about 60 cities and university campuses, mostly with bikes that are deployed in the same way as its scooters. Lime first deployed scooters about three months ago in San Diego.

The company, which also offers electric-assist bikes in some markets, is one of several firms competing in different cities with bike rental companies that station bikes at fixed racks. In Honolulu, Biki was the first to launch such a service and has about 1,000 bikes between Chinatown and Diamond Head. Biki racks are on city streets and sidewalks, and the city and state each contributed $1 million to help establish the service.