E-scooter hire in Bristol: Dott’s prices, the no-go zones and where to park
You can hire an e-scooter in Bristol from Dott, the only operator of the West of England’s scheme, at any hour: it has run around the clock since 1 October 2025. It costs £1 to unlock and 25p a minute, so 10 minutes cost £3.50, and you must be 18 or over with a full or provisional driving licence. End every ride in a parking bay shown in the app, or you risk a £10 charge. Your own e-scooter is illegal on Bristol’s roads and pavements.
Bristol e-scooter hire: Dott, and what replaced Voi
One company, Dott, runs Bristol’s shared e-scooters and e-bikes, under a contract with the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (WECA). Its zones cover Bristol, Bath and parts of South Gloucestershire, but not North Somerset, where the airport is. There is no Lime, Voi, Bolt or Beryl here.
Voi launched the trial on 29 October 2020. Tier took over Bristol on 14 October 2023 and added e-bikes, and since 3 September 2024, after Tier merged with Dott, the scheme has carried the Dott name. The contract, extended in January 2025, ends in 2027.
On 25 August 2026 WECA issued an invitation to tender for the next contract; no winner had been announced by 13 October 2026. The national trial that makes hire e-scooters legal is due to run until May 2028.
On the morning of 13 October 2026 the map of Bristol showed about 2,200 Dott e-scooters around the city: a snapshot, not the fleet size. The map shows Dott’s e-scooters but not its e-bikes. Tap a scooter to open the Dott app, where you unlock and pay.
How much does a Dott scooter cost in Bristol?
Dott charges £1 to unlock and 25p a minute for e-scooters and e-bikes alike, in Bristol, Bath and Yate: the rate on Travelwest and in Dott’s data on 13 October 2026. The app shows the price before you unlock.
| Option | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | £1 + 25p a minute | 10 minutes £3.50, 20 minutes £6.00, 30 minutes £8.50 |
| 2 Ride Pass | £3.99 | Two rides of up to 20 minutes within 24 hours |
| Unlimited Free Unlocks | £5.99 for 30 days | No unlock fee; 25p a minute |
| Dott Pro | £9.99 for 30 days | Rides of up to 20 minutes for £1.50 each |
Dott Pro pays for itself after three 20-minute rides in 30 days, and Unlimited Free Unlocks after about six rides. Travelwest doesn’t say what a pass charges beyond 20 minutes, so check the app.
Travelwest’s UK Access Scheme takes 35% to 80% off pay-as-you-go rides for up to 12 months, though not off passes:
| Discount | Who qualifies | Unlock + per minute | 10 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35% | University students and apprentices | 65p + 16p | £2.25 |
| 50% | NHS staff, Blue Light Card holders, veterans | 50p + 12.5p | £1.75 |
| 80% | Older or disabled person’s bus pass or railcard holders; Jobcentre Plus discount card holders; people on Universal Credit, Income Support or an HC2 certificate; refugees and asylum seekers | 20p + 5p | 70p |
Seasonal offers, such as the free Sunday unlocks launched in May 2026, show in the app while they run. Rates of 99p + 16p a minute, still quoted online, date from Tier in 2023. New to hire scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.
Are e-scooters legal in Bristol? Age, licence and fines
Hire scooters are legal because the West of England is one of England’s 21 trial areas. You must be 18 or over with a full or provisional driving licence (category Q, included in every UK car, moped and motorcycle licence); the app asks for a scan of it and a selfie. Visitors can use a full EU or EEA licence, or another country’s full driving licence within 12 months of entering the UK, but never a foreign provisional one.
| Rule | What it means | If you break it |
|---|---|---|
| Pavements | Never: use the road, cycle lanes and shared-use paths | £50 fixed penalty |
| One rider | No passengers, and nobody else riding on your licence | A Dott ban: “one strike and you’re out” |
| Phone | Not in your hand while riding | £200 and 6 points |
| Drink and drugs | Drink-drive law applies | Court, a driving ban, possibly prison |
| Speed | 12.5 mph, less in slow zones | The scooter slows itself |
| Helmet | Recommended, not compulsory | – |
Dott’s e-bikes are open from 16, with no driving licence, at the same price. The national rules are in our guide to e-scooter law in the UK.
A private e-scooter is illegal on Bristol’s roads, pavements and cycle lanes and in its parks. Riding one counts as riding an uninsured motor vehicle: a £300 fixed penalty and 6 points. Avon and Somerset Police seize illegal e-scooters, and WECA’s Scoot Safe campaign says they are then destroyed.
Dott Bristol no-go zones: where you can and can’t ride
Dott’s Bristol area reaches into South Gloucestershire (Lyde Green, Warmley, Winterbourne, Frampton Cotterell, Yate and Chipping Sodbury) and, more recently, Whitchurch village. Inside it, scooters stop in no-ride zones and slow down in slow zones. This is how we read Dott’s zone data on 13 October 2026:
| Where | Riding | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Harbourside: Millennium Square, Anchor Square, Pero’s Bridge, M Shed, SS Great Britain | No riding | Bays about 90 m from Millennium Square |
| Queen Square, College Green, Corn Street, St Nicholas Market | No riding | King Street and Welsh Back are open |
| Cabot Circus | No riding | A bay about 60 m away |
| Broadmead, The Galleries, Union Street | Slow: 10 mph | – |
| Park Street, Stokes Croft, Gloucester Road, East Street, North Street | Normal | Park Street is steep |
| Cotham Hill at Whiteladies Road | Slow: 7.5 mph | – |
| The Downs | Mixed | Durdham Down is open; Clifton Down’s park isn’t |
| Brandon Hill, Eastville Park, St Andrew’s Park, Blaise Castle | No riding | Many other parks too |
| Bristol & Bath Railway Path, Concorde Way | Normal, since 4 December 2025 | No bays on the paths |
| Clifton Suspension Bridge, Leigh Woods, Ashton Court | Outside the area | Leaving a scooter there risks £15 |
Southmead Hospital and UWE’s Frenchay campus are slow zones too.
Dott Bristol parking: bays, photos and fines
A ride can only end in a parking bay, marked on the street or shown in the app; Dott’s data listed about 1,260 in its Bristol area on 13 October 2026. Find the one nearest your destination before you set off, park close to a wall or a bike stand, clear of doorways, ramps, bus stops and crossings, and take the photo the app asks for.
Since WECA’s Scoot Safe campaign began on 20 August 2025, poor parking risks a £10 charge, or £15 outside the operating area. More than 36,000 charges had been issued by October 2026, and bad parking fell from 2.4% to 0.7% of trips.
Until 11pm on 31 October 2026, Bristol City Council is consulting on up to 200 new marked bays. To report a badly parked Dott, use ridedott.com/report or call 0800 048 8993.
Temple Meads, GWR trains and Bristol Airport
In Dott’s data, Temple Meads station and the Temple Quarter campus are no-ride zones, with about 10 bays within 300 metres of the forecourt, the nearest about 130 metres away: end your ride there and walk in. Bristol Parkway is no-ride too, with a bay about 170 metres away.
No e-scooters on GWR. Great Western Railway has banned them from its trains and stations since 21 May 2023.
Bristol Airport is outside the scheme, in North Somerset, more than 4 miles from the nearest bay. Take the A1 Airport Flyer bus from the bus station or Temple Meads. Heading elsewhere? See e-scooter hire in the UK for all 21 trial areas.
Hills, match days and the Balloon Fiesta
- Park Street climbs steeply from College Green to the Wills Memorial Building: rideable, but take the descent slowly. Christmas Steps is a stepped lane: walk it.
- Clifton Suspension Bridge is outside the area. End your ride at a bay in Clifton and walk across; pedestrians cross free.
- Match days: Ashton Gate (Bristol City, Bristol Bears) and the Memorial Stadium (Bristol Rovers) are no-ride zones. Park at a bay nearby and walk.
- Balloon Fiesta: Ashton Court, where the next one runs from 13 to 15 August 2027, is outside the area. Ride to a bay in Bedminster or near the Harbourside and walk on.
E-scooters in Bath and Yate
The same app and prices work in Bath, though its Dott area is separate from Bristol’s. Keynsham, between the two, lies outside the Bristol area, so check the app’s map before heading out of either city. Since 4 December 2025 Bath’s area has reached Southdown, Odd Down and Combe Down, and on 13 October 2026 about 260 scooters were on the map of Bath.
In our reading of Dott’s data that day, the Roman Baths and the Abbey, Stall Street, Union Street, Parade Gardens and Sydney Gardens were no-ride zones and Bath Spa station a 10 mph zone; Milsom Street, Pulteney Bridge, the Royal Crescent and the University of Bath were open.
Yate and Chipping Sodbury, part of the Bristol area since a pilot began on 22 August 2025, had about 50 scooters on the map that morning. The pilot now runs until July 2027, after which, WECA says, it will become a permanent part of the scheme.
Did you know?
- Bristol started with 100 scooters, and Bath with 50, in October 2020. Tim Bowles, the region’s mayor at the time, pitched them for “the big hills we have in both Bristol and Bath”.
- The first scooters were limited to 3 to 10 mph, depending on the zone, before the cap rose to 12.5 mph with police support.
- Most often, a scooter replaces a walk. In a winter 2022 survey of Voi riders, quoted in WECA’s evaluation report, Bristol’s scooter trips replaced walking (32%) more often than the bus (18%) or the car (15%).
- Pink, green, then red and blue. Voi’s pink scooters made way for green Tier ones in October 2023, and Dott’s new fleet of spring 2026 wears red and blue.
- 16 million trips since 2020. The scheme passed that mark by August 2026, and in July 2026 weekly journeys topped 100,000 several times.
Questions
- Does Bristol have Lime or Voi scooters?
- No. Dott is the only operator in Bristol, Bath and South Gloucestershire. Voi ran the scheme from 2020 until Tier took over in October 2023, and Tier’s scooters became Dott’s in September 2024.
- Is Dott 24 hours in Bristol?
- Yes. Since 1 October 2025 you can hire Dott’s e-scooters and e-bikes around the clock. Drink-drive law applies at any hour.
- Can I ride my own e-scooter in Bristol?
- No. As everywhere in the UK, a private e-scooter is illegal on roads, pavements and cycle lanes and in parks, and the police can seize it. You may ride one only on private land with the owner’s permission.
- How much does a Dott e-bike cost in Bristol?
- The same as a scooter: £1 to unlock and 25p a minute, with the same passes and discounts. You can ride one from 16 without a driving licence.
- Who will run Bristol’s e-scooters after 2027?
- That isn’t known yet. Dott’s contract ends in 2027, and on 25 August 2026 WECA invited tenders for the next one; no winner had been announced by 13 October 2026. Hire e-scooters also depend on the national trial, due to run until May 2028.