E-scooters in Halifax: Bird, where you may ride, By-law M-300, parking and fines

Which e-scooter apps work in Halifax?

One company rents shared e-scooters in the Halifax Regional Municipality: Bird Canada, in the Bird app. It runs the municipality’s two-year shared micromobility pilot, which launched on 15 May 2025 and offers e-scooters and e-bikes. The pilot resumed service on Monday 16 March 2026, the municipality says.

At 3:02 pm Atlantic Time on Monday 2 November 2026, the map of Halifax showed about 330 Bird scooters free to rent at that moment.

• Where: the service area covers parts of Halifax, Dartmouth, Clayton Park, Rockingham, Fairview, Spryfield, Burnside, Westphal, Woodlawn and Woodside. The full map is in the Bird app.
• A helmet: each Bird e-scooter comes with a helmet you can rent for free, or you can wear your own.
• Signing up: you don’t need a driver’s licence, but you need a government-issued photo ID to register a Bird account.
• Age and fare: check the app for Bird’s minimum age, its other terms and the fare.

Snow. After a heavy snowfall, shared e-scooters may be unavailable for a while to make room for snow clearing, the municipality says.

New to shared scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.

E-scooter rules in Halifax in 2026: By-law M-300

Halifax Regional Council passed By-law M-300, the Micromobility By-law, on 11 July 2023, under s. 305B of Nova Scotia’s Motor Vehicle Act and s. 188 of the Halifax Regional Municipality Charter. It took effect on 15 July 2023. An amendment, By-law M-301, added rules for shared rental services from 1 December 2024. The by-law starts from a ban: riding an electric kick-scooter anywhere in the municipality is prohibited except where the by-law permits it (s. 4(1)).

The province. The municipality’s e-scooter page, last changed in April 2024, says the province’s Motor Vehicle Act also governs e-scooters and requires riders to wear a helmet and be at least 14 years old. Its pilot page, last changed on 4 August 2026, says wearing a helmet on an e-scooter is the law in Nova Scotia.

Penalties. Besides the by-law’s fine of at least C$50 (s. 11), the municipality warns that breaking the rules can lead to the impoundment of the scooter.

Private property. On private property, the owner decides whether e-scooters may be used, the municipality says.

Where can you ride an e-scooter in Halifax and Dartmouth?

Section 4 of By-law M-300 opens three kinds of place to e-scooters:

• Roads with a speed limit of 50 km/h or less, at no more than 25 km/h.
• Bicycle lanes on any road, marked lanes that a traffic sign sets aside for cyclists, also at no more than 25 km/h.
• Multi-use pathways within streets. The by-law defines a multi-use pathway as a paved or crusher-dust trail three to four metres wide, owned by the municipality and part of a network for walking, cycling and other active travel. Keep to 15 km/h there.

And it keeps them off two:

• Sidewalks, the part of a street set aside for people on foot and separated from the road.
• Parks: any land the municipality owns, leases or controls as parkland, including gardens, playgrounds, sports fields and beaches, unless its parks department designates the park for e-scooters (s. 4(4)).

On a road with a speed limit above 50 km/h, keep to a bike lane on it or a multi-use pathway along it.

Trails and parks open to e-scooters in Halifax

The municipality’s e-scooter page, last changed in April 2024, lists these trails as open to e-scooters under By-law M-300:

• The Mainland Linear Trail.
• The Chain of Lakes Trail.
• The Halifax Common pathways.
• The McIntosh Run Trail.
• The active transportation trail around Lake Banook, from Star Park to Brookdale Crescent, in Dartmouth.
• The Dartmouth Waterfront Active Transportation Trail, between the Alderney and Woodside ferry terminals.
• The Portland Lakes Trail, from Baker Drive and Freshwater Trail to Waterside Terrace.

Every other path in a park is closed to e-scooters unless signs there say e-scooters are allowed.

Riding among pedestrians, cyclists and traffic

If you ride an e-scooter, you follow the same rules as people who ride bikes, with a few extra rules just for e-scooters, the municipality says. Its pilot page asks riders to:

• Take care around people walking or using mobility aids such as a wheelchair.
• Ring your bell before you pass someone.
• Follow every traffic sign and light.
• Ride alone. Only one rider is allowed on each e-scooter. Don’t carry, tow, push or pull another person, device or object while you ride.

No-ride and slow-ride zones. In busy pedestrian areas and in places where e-scooters aren’t allowed, Bird’s scooters detect the zone and react on their own. In a no-ride zone the scooter slows down and comes to a full stop. In a slow-ride zone it is held to a maximum of 15 km/h. The Bird app shows where the zones are.

Reporting a problem. Bird Canada handles parking problems and moves scooters that are parked badly. Report a blocking scooter, unsafe riding or a damaged scooter to Bird Canada on its 24-hour line, 1-866-205-2442, and call 311 if nothing is done within one business day. Unsafe or drunk riding can always be reported to the police.

Parking a Bird scooter in Halifax

By-law M-300 bars anyone from parking, docking, storing or leaving an e-scooter on a highway, road, sidewalk, trail, path, walkway, exhibition ground or multi-use pathway in a way that blocks people walking, cycling or driving (s. 5).

With a Bird scooter, end your ride in a designated parking zone, shown on the map in the Bird app, and leave the scooter standing up. The zones may be marked with white tape or rubber mats on the ground. Some are painted “bump-out” spaces on the street or bike corrals with green flexible posts, and a few are on grass, or near sidewalks where there are things like benches.

• Don’t park outside the painted or taped lines, or the marked spots for e-scooters and e-bikes.
• Don’t block other sidewalk users.
• Don’t block a bus stop, at the front or the back doors of the bus.
• Don’t block doors, driveways, ramps, stairs, handrails or other ways in and out.

E-scooters on Halifax Transit buses and ferries

A Bird scooter may not go on a Halifax Transit bus or ferry, or on a bus’s bike rack. To cross the harbour by ferry, end your ride and park in a designated zone first.

Your own e-scooter may not go on a conventional bus. On a ferry it may travel only if it can be stored safely in the designated area. Each ferry takes up to three personal transportation devices, and the crew, operators or terminal security may allow fewer for safety or security, Halifax Transit’s policies say.

Your own e-scooter in Halifax

The rules on where you ride, your speed and parking apply to an e-scooter you own, as to a rented one. By-law M-300 defines an electric kick-scooter as a vehicle you ride standing up, with:

• Two wheels, one behind the other, the front one steerable, each between 185 and 430 millimetres across.
• A platform to stand on between the two wheels.
• A handlebar that steers the front wheel directly.
• An electric motor of no more than 500 watts, giving a top speed of 32 km/h.