E-scooters in Long Beach: Lime and Bird, the rules, the beach path and where to park

Which e-scooters can you rent in Long Beach?

Electric scooter rental in Long Beach runs under the City’s Shared Micromobility Program, in place since August 2020. The City may permit up to four e-scooter companies, for a year from each 1 October, under regulations last updated in August 2026.

Two companies run under them: Lime and Bird. A Public Works memo of 5 March 2026 called them the City’s permitted operators, and the City’s programme page still listed both on 29 October 2026. Bird rents here but isn’t on our map, and we found no other company renting scooters.

The City caps the programme at 3,000 e-scooters, shared out among the companies as it decides. Each company pays $25,000 a year for its permit, $75 a scooter a year and 25 cents a trip, and must keep at least 20% of its fleet in each of three areas of the city. A permit covers the city only: companies may not place scooters in Lakewood, Seal Beach or Signal Hill.

At 11:51 p.m. on Wednesday 28 October 2026 the Long Beach map showed about 1,480 Lime scooters as last counted, so some may have moved since: the map’s count, not Lime’s fleet. About a quarter of Lime’s Long Beach area lies in San Pedro and Wilmington, and the map counts scooters there under Los Angeles. The Long Beach total covers the rest: more than nine-tenths of it inside the city limits, most of the remainder in Signal Hill, the small city Long Beach surrounds.

For Lime the map shows each scooter’s position and charge, seated scooters included if it has any here, but not those on a ride. E-bikes and the City’s zones aren’t on it: the apps have them. First ride? See how to rent an e-scooter.

How much does a Lime or Bird scooter cost in Long Beach?

We found no open page with Lime’s or Bird’s Long Beach price on 29 October 2026. Each company sets its own price, usually a fee to start plus a charge per minute, the City says: check the app before you unlock.

Riders on low incomes can ride for less: the City makes every company run a reduced-rate plan, and lists Lime Access and Bird Community Pricing. Companies must also reward riders who park in a marked drop zone.

Prefer a bike? Long Beach Bike Share rents bikes from hubs across the city; in October 2026 the City Council was choosing its next operator.

Scooter rules in Long Beach and California

The California Vehicle Code (CVC) sets the basics, the Long Beach Municipal Code (LBMC) adds a few, and the City’s programme regulations bind the companies and their riders.

Stay off the sidewalk. Long Beach’s code bans scooters from every sidewalk in the city, and Long Beach police can cite you. Ride in the bike lane, or on a street posted at 25 mph or less.

State law is the same across California, though city rules differ: see e-scooters in Los Angeles and e-scooters in San Diego.

Where to park a scooter in Long Beach

End your ride in a parking drop zone where you can: signs mark them and the apps show them. Outside one you may still park where the law allows: upright, with at least 48 inches left clear for people on foot, and never in the roadway. In a Mandatory Parking Area, permanent or set for an event, the app won’t let you end the ride outside a drop zone.

• Never park, or ride, in a parking structure.
• Keep at least 10 feet from any transit stop, station or platform.
• A scooter left at a transit stop, a disabled parking space, a fire hydrant, a curb ramp, a doorway, a driveway or a parklet can be impounded at once; the company pays $100, plus $25 for each day the City keeps it.

Report a scooter in the way through the City’s Go Long Beach app: the company must move a badly parked or broken one within two hours of notice, between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.

The beach bike path, the Shoreline and downtown

The beach bike path. After a 6–1 City Council vote in April 2025, a 12-month pilot opened the Shoreline Pedestrian Bike Path between Alamitos Avenue and 54th Place to e-scooters, shared and owned, from 24 May 2025. Ride on the bike side only, never on the walkway; keep under 15 mph and slow to 5 mph near people. Shared scooters slow to 5 mph by themselves near the concessions, the restrooms and Belmont Pier, and can only end a ride in one of 16 corrals.

Is it still open? On 29 October 2026 the City’s programme page still said the pilot “is active as of May 24, 2025”, though its 12 months ran to May 2026. We found no final report and no decision to keep or end it, and the City’s undated page of scooter laws still lists the old ban. Follow the app: it slows or stops a shared scooter where the City says.

Downtown and the Shoreline. The City’s rules keep shared scooters out of public parks and the Long Beach Convention Center, and off the waiting and boarding areas of transit stops, such as the 1st Street Transit Gallery. Its geofence map bans riding near the entrance to the Aquarium of the Pacific, caps speed at 5 mph around it, and sets a slow zone of 6 to 8 mph in Bluff Park.

Night and events. The City’s August 2026 regulations set no riding hours, and the map shows scooters at every hour; the app has the final word. For the Grand Prix in April, Pride in May or June, the Jazz Festival in August, the Marathon in October and Beach Streets, the City can close areas to scooters and set temporary parking zones.

CSULB, the A Line, buses, the Port and the airport

• Cal State Long Beach (CSULB). The campus is a dismount zone: you may ride a rented scooter to campus but must leave it at a drop-off zone on its edge, the university says, and personal e-scooters aren’t allowed on campus at all. Lime’s Long Beach area takes in the campus, but the City’s rules keep a company’s scooters geofenced off it unless CSULB grants that company access.
• Metro’s A Line. Metro’s Customer Code of Conduct bans riding any scooter in its stations and trains: walk one through. The City’s rules keep shared scooters off Metro property altogether.
• Long Beach Transit buses. Bikes ride on the front racks; we found no Long Beach Transit rule on scooters.
• Long Beach Airport (LGB). The City’s rules bar shared scooters from the airport. The airport lists Long Beach Transit routes 102, 104, 111 and 405, and the A Line’s Wardlow station as the nearest rail stop.
• The Port and the Queen Mary. The City’s rules also keep shared scooters out of the Port of Long Beach; we found no rule of the Port’s own. The no-ride area the map draws over the harbour and Terminal Island is Bird’s, from its Los Angeles service. The Queen Mary, across the harbour, lies outside Lime’s Long Beach area, and its FAQ names no scooter rule.

Did you know?

• From 1,800 scooters to 3.3 million trips. Long Beach’s first pilot, launched in July 2018, let six companies put out at most 1,800 scooters; by the end of 2024 riders had taken more than 3.3 million trips, the City says.
• Scooters you can read by touch. Every shared scooter must show its company’s customer service number in braille.
• Fished out of the water. The companies must recover scooters dumped in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers, Marine Stadium, Colorado Lagoon, the marinas and the Port.
• Help in four languages. The City asks the companies for customer service in English and Spanish, and recommends Khmer and Tagalog too.