E-scooters in Cambridge: Voi hire, where you can ride and park, and the local rules
E-scooters in Cambridge come from one company, Voi, in a government trial extended to May 2028. You must be 18 or over with a full or provisional driving licence, and the Voi app shows the price before you unlock. Ride on roads and cycle lanes, never on pavements, and park without blocking the pavement. Voi scooters may use the path beside the guided busway; as we read the river towpath’s byelaws, they aren’t allowed there. A private e-scooter is illegal everywhere in public.
E-scooters in Cambridge: Voi and the combined authority’s trial
One company, Voi, hires out e-scooters in Cambridge. Cambridgeshire County Council’s cycling page says “Voi has e-bikes and e-scooters for hire across Cambridge and some of the surrounding villages” and names no other operator; Voi’s scooters “remain the only ones that can be used legally in the city”, the BBC reported in November 2025.
Who runs it? The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority holds the contract with Voi, the Cambridge Independent reported in September 2026. Cambridgeshire County Council is the highway authority, so it makes the traffic orders for the city’s roads.
How long will it run? Voi’s contract was due to end on 31 May 2026, the BBC reported, but the trial has since been “extended until May 2028”, the Cambridge Independent reported in September 2026.
In November 2025 the scheme had 870 e-scooters and 419 e-bikes and was on track for 1.5 million rides that year, the BBC reported. At 14:55 on Saturday 24 October 2026 the map of Cambridge showed about 800 Voi e-scooters: a snapshot, not the fleet size. It shows their positions and battery, not prices, zones, parking hubs or Voi’s e-bikes. The total covers the villages on the city’s edge too: before dawn on 25 October about one in six stood outside the city boundary, in Orchard Park, Milton, Girton, Histon and Impington, Teversham, Oakington and Fulbourn, and none in Great Shelford, Grantchester or Waterbeach.
How much does a Voi e-scooter cost in Cambridge?
No council page we checked gives Voi’s Cambridge prices or hours, so check the app: it shows the unlock fee and the price per minute before you start, and any passes on offer. Rides are short: a typical e-scooter trip lasts around 11 minutes, says a March 2025 report by Cambridge Ahead, a group of local businesses and institutions.
Students may pay less: an Anglia Ruskin University student blog (November 2023) says Voi offers “a student discount when you register with your student email”; the app shows whether it still does. New to hire scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.
Are e-scooters legal in Cambridge? Age, licence and fines
Hire scooters are legal because Cambridge is one of England’s 21 trial areas, on the government’s list updated on 7 July 2026. The county council says “you must be at least 18 years old to use the Voi scheme (and hold a current driving licence to rent e-scooters)”. A full or provisional UK licence works (category Q, included in every UK car, moped and motorcycle licence). Visitors can use a full EU or EEA licence, or another country’s full car, moped or motorcycle licence if they entered the UK in the last 12 months, but never a foreign provisional one; the app decides which licences it takes. The national rules are in our guide to e-scooter law in the UK.
| Rule | What it means | Set by | If you break it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age and licence | 18 or over, with a full or provisional driving licence | The law (licence); the county council and Voi (18 or over) | £100 and points without the right licence |
| Pavements | Never ride on them | The law | £50 fixed penalty |
| Where to ride | Roads (never motorways), cycle lanes and routes with the blue bicycle sign | The law | – |
| Speed | 15.5 mph at most; the county says Voi’s scooters are “limited to 15mph”, and the busway path has a 15 mph limit | The law; the county council | – |
| Parking | Never block the pavement; end the ride where the app allows | The county council; Voi | – |
| Phone | Not in your hand while riding | The law | £200 and 6 points |
| Drink and drugs | Drink-drive law applies | The law | Court, a fine, a driving ban, possibly prison |
| Helmet | Recommended, not compulsory | The law | – |
A private e-scooter is illegal on Cambridge’s roads, pavements and cycle lanes, in its parks and on the busway path. The county council warns that riding one “risks a £300 fine, six penalty points on your licence, and the vehicle being seized”, and since 29 June 2026 police can seize one ridden anti-socially without a warning first.
Where can you ride a Voi in Cambridge?
Across England, hire scooters may use roads (never motorways), cycle lanes and routes with the blue bicycle sign, but never the pavement. In 2022 Cambridgeshire County Council made an experimental Electric Scooter Exemptions order: hire scooters could go wherever a pedal cycle may on dual-use cycle tracks, contraflow cycle lanes, bus lanes, bus gates and streets signed “no entry except cycles”.
That order came into force on 31 March 2022 “for a period not exceeding 18 months”. The county’s page of experimental orders still listed it on 25 October 2026, but we found no record that it was made permanent, so don’t count on bus lanes: follow the signs and the app. Voi’s no-ride and slow zones are in the app: we found no published list, for King’s Parade, the Market Square or anywhere else.
The area has grown: in December 2024 the BBC reported plans for a larger zone taking in the Histon to Girton link and the University’s Laundry Farm on Barton Road, with more to follow through 2025. Before dawn on 25 October 2026 our map showed Voi scooters from Eddington and the Science Park to Cherry Hinton and Trumpington Park & Ride, and in the edge villages above; the app’s map shows where you can ride and end a ride.
Where to park a Voi e-scooter in Cambridge
The county council asks riders to “park without blocking the pavement”. Cambridge uses parking hubs: “the parking hub model experiences high demand, with spaces under pressure at peak times”, said a report for the combined authority that the BBC covered in November 2025. Addenbrooke’s was its “notable example”; Trumpington Park & Ride and the Biomedical Campus had problems too.
The centre is tight: in March 2022 there were only 4 parking spots within 200 metres of the Market Square while the app was opened 120 times a day there, Cambridge Ahead’s report said, and before dawn on 25 October 2026 our map showed just one Voi scooter within 500 metres of it. The app shows where you can end your ride.
Can you ride a Voi on the busway, the towpath or the commons?
Landowners set their own rules:
| Place | Owner | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Guided busway path | Cambridgeshire County Council | Private e-scooters “are also not allowed on the Busway path. Only Voi trial e-scooters which are limited to 15mph are permitted”; the path has a 15 mph limit (page current in October 2026) |
| River Cam towpath, Chesterton to Clayhithe | Conservators of the River Cam | Its 1996 byelaws ban riding “any other vehicle of any description” on the towpath; only cycles other than motor cycles are exempt. E-scooters aren’t named: we read the ban as covering them |
| Anglia Ruskin campuses | Anglia Ruskin University | “The use and storage of privately owned e-scooters is prohibited on all ARU campuses”, and so is charging one (rules, July 2026); nothing on hire scooters |
| Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie | Cambridge University Hospitals | No rule we could read: its travel page (October 2026) gives none for e-scooters |
| Parker’s Piece, Jesus Green, Midsummer Common, Christ’s Pieces | Cambridge City Council | No rule we could read: its pages for the first three say nothing about e-scooters (25 October 2026), so follow the signs |
| The colleges, the Backs, University sites | The colleges and the University of Cambridge | No rule we could read: they are private land, so follow the signs |
The towpath byelaws don’t apply where the towpath crosses a city council public walk or pleasure ground; breaking them can bring a fine. At Addenbrooke’s, end your ride at a hub nearby and walk in.
Cambridge station, trains and buses
The railway station was the most popular place in Cambridge to hire an e-scooter, Cambridge Ahead’s report said, and before dawn on 25 October 2026 our map showed 37 Voi scooters within 500 metres of it. End your ride near the station and walk in. The train and bus companies set their own rules:
- Thameslink and Great Northern: “all e-scooters, e-unicycles, e-skateboards and hoverboards are not permitted on our trains or in our stations from 1 June 2023”, even with the battery removed, and rail replacement buses ban them too.
- Greater Anglia, which runs Cambridge and Cambridge North stations, and CrossCountry: we couldn’t check their rules.
- Buses: Whippet, which runs guided busway services alongside Stagecoach, says “we do not allow carriage of electric scooters on our buses”. We couldn’t check Stagecoach’s own conditions.
Taking a Thameslink or Great Northern train to London? Voi hires out e-scooters there too: see the map of London. Oxford has a Voi scheme of its own: see e-scooters in Oxford.
Did you know?
- Four blue whales. Since 2020, Cambridge’s hire e-scooters and e-bikes have avoided 649 tonnes of carbon emissions, “equivalent to the weight of four blue whales”, the BBC reported in December 2024.
- 94 seized in three days. During a three-day crackdown in August, Cambridgeshire Constabulary seized 94 e-bikes and e-scooters across the city, Varsity reported in March 2026.
- The longest of its kind. Voi riders may use the path beside the guided busway, whose own website calls its track “the longest in the world”.
Questions
- Is there Lime or Bird in Cambridge?
- No. Voi is the only e-scooter hire operator: the county council’s page names no other, and only Voi’s trial scooters can be ridden legally in the city. Voi also hires out e-bikes, which our Cambridge map doesn’t show.
- How much does a Voi e-scooter cost in Cambridge?
- The councils don’t publish Voi’s Cambridge prices, so check the app: it shows the unlock fee and the price per minute before you unlock. In November 2023 an Anglia Ruskin student blog said students get a discount by registering with a student email.
- Can I ride a Voi on the guided busway?
- Yes, on the path beside it. The county council says only Voi trial e-scooters, “limited to 15mph”, are permitted on the busway path; private e-scooters are not.
- Can I ride an e-scooter on the towpath along the Cam?
- Not on the Conservators’ towpath between Chesterton and Clayhithe, as we read their 1996 byelaws: they ban riding any vehicle there except a cycle that isn’t a motor cycle. E-scooters aren’t named, and breaking the byelaws can bring a fine.
- Can I take an e-scooter on the train at Cambridge?
- Not on Thameslink or Great Northern: both have banned e-scooters from their trains and stations since 1 June 2023. We couldn’t check Greater Anglia’s or CrossCountry’s rules.
- Can I ride my own e-scooter in Cambridge?
- No. A private e-scooter is illegal on public roads, pavements, cycle lanes and the busway path. The county council warns of a £300 fine, six penalty points and seizure.