E-scooters in Gloucester: Voi hire, the county council’s trial, and where to ride and park

E-scooters in Gloucester: Voi and the county council’s trial

Voi hires out Gloucester’s e-scooters. Gloucestershire County Council, the local transport authority, says it “facilitated the trial” and that the operators take “all the financial risk”. E-scooters first came in during the Covid pandemic in 2020, the council said in June 2023, when it appointed Voi after a tender, with a contract starting on 1 August 2023.

The government’s list of trial areas, updated on 7 July 2026, includes “Gloucestershire (Cheltenham, Gloucester and surrounding areas)”, and the government says the 21 live trials are due to end on 31 May 2028.

At 18:48 GMT on Sunday 1 November 2026 the map of Gloucester showed 162 Voi e-scooters free to rent at that moment. At 18:42 the map showed 162 too: the furthest south in Podsmead and Matson, none in Quedgeley, and a few just past the city’s edge to the north-east and east. The map shows where each scooter stands and its battery, not prices, bays or zones; you unlock and pay in the Voi app.

Where are the scooters in Gloucester?

The centre and the Docks. At 18:50 GMT on 1 November 2026 the map showed 42 scooters in and around the city centre and the Docks: 16 within 300 metres of the Cross, nine of them together about 170 metres to its west, and 8 within 200 metres of the Gloucester Waterways Museum on the Docks, seven of them together about 70 metres from it.

The east and north. A minute later the map showed these on the city’s east and north-east sides:

So 15 of those 48 stood just outside the city boundary. The county council’s pages give no hours for the scooters, so check the app before a late ride.

How much does a Voi e-scooter cost in Gloucester?

The county council’s e-scooter pages give no prices, and on 1 November 2026 the map showed none for Gloucester, so check the Voi app: it shows the unlock fee, the price per minute and any passes before you start.

To hire one, the county council says: download the Voi app, register a valid driving licence, add a credit or debit card, read or watch the safety briefing, then unlock a scooter. Its June 2023 announcement adds a selfie and Voi’s online safety school. New to hire scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter, and for every trial area in England, e-scooter hire in the UK.

Who can ride a Voi in Gloucester, and what gets you fined

Gloucestershire County Council’s e-scooter FAQ, last reviewed on 29 April 2025, gives Voi’s age requirement as 18 or over with a full or provisional driving licence; the legal minimum is 16, and the app checks your age and licence when you sign up. A UK licence needs category Q, which comes with every car, moped and motorcycle licence, and visitors can use a full EU or EEA licence, or another country’s full licence within 12 months of entering the UK, but never a foreign provisional licence, the government says.

Unlawful riding can cost points or a ban on your driving licence as well as a fine, the county council warns. The national rules are in our guide to e-scooter law in the UK.

A private e-scooter is illegal on Gloucester’s roads, pavements and cycle lanes and in its parks; you may ride one only on private land with the owner’s permission. Riding one counts as riding an uninsured motor vehicle: a £300 fixed penalty and 6 points, and the police can seize it, since 29 June 2026 without a warning first if it is ridden anti-socially.

Where can you ride and park a Voi in Gloucester?

During the trial the hire scooters “can be used wherever bicycles are allowed”, but never on the pavement, the county council’s FAQ, last reviewed in April 2025, says. They are geofenced: “If they leave this area, the motor will stop working.” The FAQ names the areas as central Cheltenham and central Gloucester, but on 1 November 2026 the map showed scooters well beyond Gloucester’s centre, so check the app’s map.

• Parking bays: the bays in city and town centres are all “approved by the highways authority and local councils as safe places to park”, the council says, and riders “may face small fines” for leaving a scooter anywhere else. The app shows the bays.
• Slow areas: in busier parts of Gloucester and Cheltenham the scooters slow down but keep working, the FAQ says. When Voi took over in 2023, the council named Gloucester Quays among the “low speed” areas with a mandatory 5 mph limit.
• No-go areas: “There are some areas where you cannot ride, such as motorways and shopping centres. Your scooter will switch off if you enter a ‘no go’ area,” the council says, and it sends you to the map in the Voi app.

The map here doesn’t draw bays or zones. For a problem with a scooter, the county council sends you to Voi first.

The Docks, Gloucester Quays and the cathedral

The Docks and the Quays. In June 2023 the council named Gloucester Quays a 5 mph area, and its FAQ names shopping centres among the no-go areas: end your ride in a bay before you go in. At 18:50 GMT on 1 November 2026 the map showed seven scooters together about 70 metres from the Waterways Museum.

Gloucester Cathedral. The cathedral, in the historic heart of the city, is a 10 to 15 minute walk from both the train and bus stations, it says. It has bike racks on Cathedral Green, Route 41 of the National Cycle Network runs through its grounds, and parking in the Cathedral Close is for pass holders only. Its visiting page says nothing about e-scooters (read on 1 November 2026), so end your ride in a bay and walk in. At 18:50 the map showed 12 scooters within 300 metres of the cathedral.

Gloucester station, the bus station and Stagecoach

Gloucester station is close to the city centre, the county council says, about 500 metres east of the Cross as the crow flies, and the bus station, Gloucester Transport Hub, about 140 metres from it. The county council’s page describes a £6 million upgrade of the station by Great Western Railway and Gloucester City Council: a new car-park entrance from Metz Way opened in December 2021, and the plans included more cycle spaces.

At 18:50 GMT on 1 November 2026 the nearest scooter to the station stood about 240 metres away, and one stood about 110 metres from the bus station. End your Voi ride in a bay and walk in.

• Trains: check with the train company before you travel with any e-scooter.
• Buses: “Stagecoach is the bus provider for travel in Gloucester”, the county council says. End your Voi ride before you board, and check Stagecoach’s own rules on e-scooters.

Cheltenham and the other trial areas

Voi runs the same trial in Cheltenham, whose station is about 10 km north-east of Gloucester’s as the crow flies; at 18:48 GMT on 1 November 2026 the map of Cheltenham showed 676 e-scooters free to rent at that moment (see e-scooters in Cheltenham). The county council describes two geofenced areas, central Cheltenham and central Gloucester, so check the app’s map before you plan a ride between them.

Nor can you take a Gloucester scooter to another place, even one with its own e-scooter trial, the county council says.

Did you know?

• Worship since the 7th century. Gloucester Cathedral calls itself a site of continuous Christian worship since 678–9 AD, with architecture spanning almost 1,000 years.
• An early trial. Gloucestershire joined the government’s list of e-scooter trial areas on 30 September 2020, and Gloucester and Cheltenham were named on it on 19 April 2021, GOV.UK’s change log shows.
• Why Gloucester. Gloucester and Cheltenham were chosen as the county’s biggest town and city centres, with high congestion and poor air quality, the county council’s FAQ says.
• Commuting by scooter. About a third of trips in the national trial were to or from work, the county council said in June 2023.