E-scooters in Hamilton, Ontario: Bird, where the City lets you ride, parking and fines

Which e-scooter apps work in Hamilton, Ontario?

At 5:02 pm Eastern Time on Monday 2 November 2026, the map of Hamilton, Ontario showed about 240 Bird scooters free to rent at that moment.

Bird Canada, chosen through a competitive request for proposals, runs the City’s shared e-scooter pilot. It started on 3 April 2023, under a framework Council approved on 13 August 2021: a first term of one year, with up to three one-year extensions at the City’s discretion.

Bird sets the fares, from pay-as-you-go to monthly passes, and runs reduced-fare programmes for groups such as low-income residents and seniors, the City says. Check the fare, and Bird’s minimum age for renting, in the app before you unlock. New to shared scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.

E-scooter rules in Hamilton and Ontario in 2026

Ontario allows e-scooters only under a pilot project set up by Ontario Regulation 389/19 under the Highway Traffic Act; the regulation is revoked on 27 November 2029 (s. 14). On a municipality’s roads, sidewalks, trails and parks you may ride only where its by-law lets you (s. 3). Hamilton City Council passed three by-laws on 16 December 2020:

• By-law 20-269 adds e-scooters and their riding rules (s. 46.1) to the Traffic By-law, 01-215.
• By-law 20-271 adds them to the Parks By-law, 01-219 (s. 34.1), and sets penalties for the park rules.
• By-law 20-270 bars anyone from offering e-scooters for hire unless the City authorises it by permit, licence or contract (s. 1).

Fines. Breaking Ontario’s pilot rules carries a fine of C$250 to C$2,500 on conviction under the Highway Traffic Act (s. 228). In parks, the City’s administrative penalties, set in December 2020, are C$100 for riding where e-scooters aren’t allowed, losing control or riding in a way that could cause harm, and C$75 for the other park rules, from riding without a helmet under 18 to riding without lights.

Stopped by the police? You must stop when an officer tells you to, and show your driver’s licence if you carry one, or give your correct name, address and date of birth (Ontario, s. 11).

Where can you ride an e-scooter in Hamilton?

Where the City allows all e-scooters:

• Roads with a speed limit of 50 km/h or less, in the bike lane where there is one.
• Roads with a higher limit, but only within a bike lane (Traffic By-law s. 46.1(16)).
• Boulevard multi-use paths and bike paths right beside a street, such as the Keddy Trail and the paths along Governors Road and Cootes Drive.
• Selected paved recreational trails in a park or away from a street, signed for e-scooter use. Unsigned ones are closed to them.

Where it doesn’t:

• Sidewalks.
• Unpaved recreational multi-use trails, and the trails in most parks unless a sign permits e-scooters.
• Controlled-access highways, such as the QEW, Highway 403, the Lincoln Alexander Parkway and the Red Hill Valley Parkway (City of Hamilton; Ontario, s. 4).
• Roads closed to bicycles. No one may ride a bicycle or an e-scooter on, along or across any highway, or part of one, listed in Schedule 26 of the Traffic By-law (s. 53(1), as replaced by By-law 20-269).

Parks and trails

Hamilton’s Parks By-law lets you ride an e-scooter in a park only in a designated area where City signs permit it (s. 34.1(1)), and never where cycling, skateboarding or rollerblading is prohibited (s. 34.1(2)).

On a trail, a multi-use path or in a park, you may not go markedly faster than the pedestrians near you (Traffic By-law s. 46.1(13); Parks By-law s. 34.1(13)). In a park, don’t ride side by side with another e-scooter or a bicycle, or leave a scooter blocking a path or trail (s. 34.1(3) and (5)).

Riding among pedestrians, cyclists and traffic

Ontario’s regulation applies the Highway Traffic Act to you as it does to a cyclist (s. 6), and Hamilton’s Traffic By-law spells out how to share the road:

• Keep your distance. Keep a safe distance from pedestrians and other users, and give way to a pedestrian or a bicycle by slowing or stopping where there isn’t room for you both (Ontario, s. 7; Traffic By-law s. 46.1(12)).
• Single file. Don’t ride or push an e-scooter along a road beside another e-scooter or a bicycle (s. 46.1(2)).
• Use the bell. Sound your bell or horn whenever cyclists, pedestrians or others need to know you’re coming (s. 46.1(14)).
• Crossings. Don’t ride across a road within a pedestrian crossover, or within a crosswalk at an intersection or at traffic lights (Ontario, s. 6; ss. 140(6) and 144(29) of the Act).
• Ride with care. You may not ride in a way that could harm anyone or damage property (Ontario, s. 7; Traffic By-law s. 46.1(17)).

Parking a Bird scooter in Hamilton

To end a Bird ride, you lock the scooter to a fixed object with its built-in Bluetooth lock, which opens when you start the end-of-ride steps. The City’s rules:

• Lock it to public infrastructure, such as a bike rack or a streetlight pole in the street furniture zone: the strip of sidewalk next to the road, with the trees, hydrants and parking meters.
• Keep the way clear. Don’t block people walking or traffic (Traffic By-law s. 46.1(4)), or the way into a road, driveway or building.
• Not indoors, on private property or at a Hamilton Bike Share hub.

A scooter in the way, or someone riding badly? Report it to Bird at any hour, on 1-866-205-2442 or in the Bird app, with the location and the three-digit number on either side of the steering column or the five-digit one facing the rider. Bird deals with parking complaints within 30 minutes, the City says.

Bird’s service area and speed limits

Since 9 May 2025, the City says, Bird’s scooters have been available in an area roughly bounded by:

• The Lincoln Alexander Parkway to the south, taking in the Mountain neighbourhoods between the Escarpment and the Linc.
• The Red Hill Valley Parkway and the Mountain Brow to the east.
• All of Dundas, and Scenic Drive, to the west.

Bird’s scooters are geofenced in select areas: in busy pedestrian areas their top speed drops, and where riding isn’t allowed the motor cuts out. On a sidewalk, one sounds a warning to pedestrians and slows to a safe stop. Bird’s top speed is also lower than the province allows, the City says; new riders start in a slower beginner mode, after a training module and a safe-use quiz.

Your own e-scooter: what Ontario and Hamilton allow

The same rules apply to an e-scooter you own, and the City’s by-laws use Ontario’s limits: a motor of no more than 500 watts and a top speed of no more than 24 km/h (Ontario s. 1; By-law 20-269, s. 2). Ontario also sets what the scooter may be (ss. 1 and 9):

• Power and build: electric batteries only, with battery and motor securely fastened; no seat, pedals, basket or enclosure.
• Wheels and weight: two wheels, one behind the other, no more than 430 mm across; no more than 45 kg with the battery.
• Brakes: able to stop from 24 km/h within 9 metres on a clean, level, paved surface; the motor must cut out when you brake or let go of the accelerator.
• No tuning beyond the power and speed limits.

Park your own e-scooter where you would park a bike, the City says, but not at a Hamilton Bike Share station, and never anywhere meant for vehicles or pedestrians to pass (Ontario, s. 8(7)).

Riding beyond Hamilton, and Mississauga’s rules

Past the city line. Ontario lets you onto another municipality’s streets, trails and parks only as its own by-law allows (s. 3): check its rules first.

Mississauga. The same provincial pilot applies there, under the City of Mississauga’s own by-law: see e-scooters in Mississauga.