E-scooters in Albuquerque: Lime, the rules, the trails and where to park

Which e-scooters can you rent in Albuquerque?

Electric scooter rental in Albuquerque means Lime in October 2026. Any company renting scooters, bikes or other small vehicles here needs a permit from the City’s Planning Department under its Shared Active Transportation Program, which the City relaunched in late September 2024. Spin was set to start installing its stations on 27 September 2024; Lime, the second operator approved, began setting up 52 stations for 500 scooters in the first week of December 2024; Beam, the third, brought its purple scooters in March 2025. By the end of that month the three had more than 2,000 scooters in town, the City said.

On 29 October 2026 the City’s programme page gives contact details for Lime alone, while its FAQ page still names Spin and Beam. We found no current source saying whether either still rents here; Beam’s own site still lists Albuquerque among its cities. The map shows Lime only: if you see an orange Spin or a purple Beam scooter, use that company’s app.

At 4:55 a.m. on Thursday 29 October 2026 the Albuquerque map showed about 870 Lime scooters as last counted, so some may have moved since: the map’s count, not Lime’s fleet. The total covers Lime’s whole Albuquerque area, which takes in almost all of the city and little else: about 98% of that area lies within the city limits, the rest in slivers of unincorporated Bernalillo County at the edges.

For Lime the map shows each scooter’s position and charge; scooters on a ride aren’t shown, and the map has no e-bikes. First ride? See how to rent an e-scooter.

How much does a Lime scooter cost in Albuquerque?

The City doesn’t run the scooters or regulate what riders pay: each operator sets its own fares, its FAQ says. Lime’s rates and stations are in the Lime app and in the Uber app, which also rents Lime scooters, the City said when Lime arrived. We found no official page that states the price.

What the City does set is the permit each operator signs. Its terms, as revised on 9 August 2024:

E-scooter rules in Albuquerque and New Mexico

Scooter rules in New Mexico are thin. The state’s Motor Vehicle Code defines e-bikes, which have pedals, and “electric mobility devices”, which can top 20 mph on the motor alone (NMSA 66-1-4.5): a rental scooter held to 15 mph is neither, and we found no state rule written for it beyond the children’s helmet law. Albuquerque says that any rule that applies to bicycles also applies to e-scooters.

Mind the business-district rule. You may not ride on the sidewalk where at least half the buildings are shops, offices or civic buildings, or where a bike lane or trail runs beside the road. Downtown, Nob Hill and Old Town are lined with shops, so expect it to apply there (we found no rule of Old Town’s own): ride in the street or the bike lane.

Can you ride at night?

Yes. The permit sets no riding hours, and we found no night ban or winter pause in Albuquerque’s rules. Scooters are generally put out each day after charging overnight, the City says, so fewer may stand in the small hours.

Where to park a Lime scooter in Albuquerque

• End at a station, a rack or a buffer. Under the permit, scooters belong at a City-approved station (a drop zone shown in the app), at a bike rack, or in a landscaped buffer if there is one. On a sidewalk, leave at least four feet clear for people walking.
• Never block the way. Keep clear of building entrances, driveways, intersections, crossing buttons and curb ramps, bus stops and ART stations, ADA parking spaces and bike share stations.
• Park where you’re allowed, or keep paying. If you leave a scooter outside the authorised areas, the operator will keep billing you for your time, the City warns.
• The City does impound. On 21 March 2025 its code enforcement officers swept Nob Hill and the University of New Mexico area and impounded 38 badly parked scooters; their companies faced a $100 fee each plus $200 a day in storage.
• Report a problem to 311 (505-768-2000) or to Lime’s hotline, 1-888-546-3345.

Can you ride e-scooters on the Paseo del Bosque Trail?

Albuquerque’s e-bike law, O-24-14, in force since September 2024, counts e-scooters as “powered micromobility devices”: they may use the City’s paved trails unless a sign forbids them, never unpaved ones, at up to 20 mph or a lower limit the City may post, near trailheads and bridges for example. Paved trails outside Open Space, such as the North Diversion Channel and I-40 trails, are open to them.

The paved Paseo del Bosque along the Rio Grande is another matter. It runs through Open Space on land of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, where the City and the District share jurisdiction, and the City’s e-bike page (checked on 29 October 2026) keeps e-scooters off such shared trails unless a posted sign allows them. In October 2024 the District handed the decision on e-bikes and micromobility devices on the Paseo del Bosque and the Alameda Drain trail to the City and Bernalillo County; we found no later decision on e-scooters. Ride there only where a sign at the trail says you may, and give way to people walking.

Buses, the Rail Runner, UNM, the Sunport and the Balloon Fiesta

• ABQ RIDE and ART. You can’t take a rental scooter on a City bus: ABQ RIDE carries your own stand-up e-scooter, but not one that is rented or part of a dockless system. ART, the free bus rapid transit line along Central Avenue (old Route 66), runs through downtown and Nob Hill: end your ride clear of its stations.
• The Rail Runner. Rio Metro welcomes bikes and scooters on New Mexico Rail Runner Express trains, electric ones with sealed lithium-ion batteries included, boarding at doors marked with a bicycle. Its page says nothing about rental scooters: end your Lime ride before you board.
• The University of New Mexico. Its parking office says UNM Policy 2260 bars mopeds and scooters from pedestrian walkways, and bars parking them at bike racks or on sidewalks. The page doesn’t name rental scooters, but keep off campus walkways and follow the Lime app.
• The Sunport. The airport’s ground transportation page names ABQ RIDE Route 50 as the shuttle between the Sunport and the Rail Runner (Route 250 is suspended), and says nothing about scooters.
• Balloon Fiesta. Scooters, skateboards and hoverboards are on the list of items you can’t bring into Balloon Fiesta Park during the Fiesta; the next one runs from 2 to 10 October 2027.
• Riding elsewhere in the West? See e-scooters in Phoenix and Denver, or find the nearest Lime on the Albuquerque map.

Did you know?

• “The honeymoon phase is over.” So said Alan Varela, the City’s planning director, announcing the scooter sweep of March 2025.
• Where the fees go. Every dollar the City collects from the programme’s operators must go to pedestrian and shared-transport infrastructure and to the cost of overseeing the programme, the permit says.
• A Traffic Code from 1974. Albuquerque’s Traffic Code was largely unchanged from 1974 until the City Council passed an overhaul on 5 November 2025. It makes drivers stop at marked and unmarked crosswalks for “vulnerable road users”, people on scooters among them, and keeps e-scooter riders off sidewalks next to a bike lane, the Council said.
• The state follows in 2027. From 1 January 2027, New Mexico’s Motor Vehicle Code will also count people riding scooters among its “vulnerable road users” (NMSA 66-1-4.19, as amended in 2026).