E-scooters in Boulder: Lime, the rules, the paths and where to park

Which e-scooters can you rent in Boulder?

Electric scooter rental in Boulder means Lime. The City’s Shared Micromobility Program has two partners: Lime for e-scooters and BCycle for e-bikes, which you take from and return to its docking stations. After a competitive bid in 2026 the City chose both again, announcing the renewed contracts on 6 August 2026. CU Boulder calls Lime “Boulder’s lone e-scooter company”, and we found no other.

The renewed programme allows Lime 900 stand-up scooters, as before, and up to 200 seated LimeGliders, brought in gradually from mid-August 2026, mainly for neighbourhoods near the city limits, the City said on 6 August 2026. Both follow the same rules.

For Lime the map shows each scooter’s position and charge; scooters on a ride aren’t shown, and BCycle’s e-bikes aren’t on it. First ride? See how to rent an e-scooter.

At 11:05 a.m. on Thursday 29 October 2026 the Boulder map showed about 790 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 Boulder area, which reaches no neighbouring town: about 95% of that area lies within the city limits, the rest in pockets of unincorporated Boulder County.

How much does a Lime scooter cost in Boulder?

We found no fares on the City’s pages. CU Boulder, a partner in the programme, lists them on its Parking and Transportation Services scooter page (checked on 29 October 2026). These are CU’s figures: the Lime app shows the current price before you unlock.

Scooter rules in Colorado and Boulder

Colorado law treats an e-scooter as a vehicle but not a motor vehicle: it needs no registration, and on the road you have a driver’s rights and duties. Boulder’s Revised Code calls it a “lightweight electric vehicle” and sets where it may go.

The City’s pages differ on sidewalks. Its 6 August 2026 release and its rules pages put the line at 20 mph, but one FAQ answer on its scooter page says 25 mph: to be safe, stay off the sidewalk wherever the street’s limit is under 25 mph. On sidewalks and paths, give way to people walking and warn them before you pass.

Pearl Street Mall, the Boulder Creek Path and Open Space

• The Pearl Street Mall. It is a no-go zone: a Lime scooter loses power there, as it does in cemeteries and on ball fields. On and around the mall, and in the University Hill commercial area, riding any wheeled device on the sidewalk is banned except for accessibility, and you must walk through the marked dismount zones. Streets crossing the mall and 13th Street on University Hill are slow zones.
• The Boulder Creek Path. This 5.5-mile multi-use path runs from Boulder Canyon through downtown, past the Main Library and the Dushanbe Teahouse, to the Stazio Ballfields east of 55th Street. Its page, from Parks and Recreation, sets no rule of its own for e-scooters; the City’s rules let them ride every multi-use path: 15 mph at most, keep right, and give an audible signal before passing.
• Open Space and Mountain Parks. E-scooters are banned on every OSMP trail, paved ones included, even where class 1 and 2 e-bikes may ride. You may ride a Lime to a trailhead and park it there only in a designated area, OSMP says.

Where to park a Lime scooter in Boulder

• Inside the Mandatory Parking Zone, which covers most of central Boulder and is shown in the Lime app, end your ride only in a designated Lime corral, called a Lime Grove. Downtown, University Hill and CU Boulder’s properties are all inside it, and the City said on 6 August 2026 that the zone will grow as more corrals go in over the coming months.
• Outside the zone, park upright near a bike rack or the curb, leaving room for a 36-inch-wide wheelchair to pass (B.R.C. 5-3-5). Never block a walkway, crosswalk, car door, bus stop, driveway or sidewalk ramp.
• Fines. Riders may be fined for breaking the parking rules, the City says, and its zones have been enforced with warnings and fines. CU’s transportation office wrote in April 2024 that since 26 March that year, Lime riders who park outside a Lime Grove on the Hill or on CU’s properties may be fined $10.
• Report a badly parked or broken scooter to Lime on 1-888-546-3345 or with the QR code on it: Lime responds within two hours, the City says.

Lime scooters on CU Boulder’s campus

CU Boulder sets its own rules, and Lime’s scooters follow them. On campus a Lime may use only certain preferred routes on streets, multi-use paths and some sidewalks; leave them for a no-go zone and it loses power until you return. In some zones it slows to 10 mph, and a ride on CU property can end only inside a Lime Grove, marked with green paint.

For e-scooters and other small electric devices, CU’s limits are 20 mph on streets, 15 mph on paths, 10 mph in parking lots and 5 mph on sidewalks, where e-scooters may ride only if the street beside has no bike lane. Walk your scooter through dismount zones such as the Central Campus Mall. On football game days Lime limits riding near Folsom Field: check the app before you go.

RTD buses, Downtown Boulder Station and Denver

• No Lime on RTD. RTD doesn’t allow shared scooters on board any of its buses or trains, or riding in its transit lanes and platform areas. At its stations, park one upright beside the bike racks, in a stencilled area where there is one, with at least three feet of sidewalk clear.
• Downtown Boulder Station, at 1800 14th Street near Walnut, is RTD’s bus station, served by 18 routes. We found no scooter rule of its own: RTD’s rules for all its stations apply.
• Your own e-scooter can travel on a bus’s front rack: the racks hold two bicycles, e-bikes or e-scooters of up to 55 pounds.
• Going to Denver? Lime no longer rents there: Veo has been Denver’s only scooter operator since mid-May 2026. See e-scooters in Denver.

Did you know?

• A mall since 1977. Pearl Street was designated the “Downtown Boulder Mall” on 6 August 1977, closing its blocks to cars, the City says.
• From the east side in. Boulder’s scooters began as a pilot in autumn 2021 in parts of East Boulder, Gunbarrel and CU’s East Campus. As the citywide expansion began in August 2023, CU said 275 scooters stood east of 28th Street and their number would rise to 600, then 900.
• A slow first ride. A first-time Lime rider starts in Training Mode, which holds the scooter to 8 mph, the City says.
• 1.6 million rides. The programme logged more than 1.6 million rides on Lime and BCycle in 2025, the City says.