E-scooters in Minneapolis: Lime and Spin, the rules, the night switch-off and where to park

Which e-scooters can you rent in Minneapolis?

Electric scooter rental in Minneapolis runs on City licences. For the 2025 season the City licensed two companies, Lime and Spin, Fox 9 reported on 8 April 2025, and Park Board records confirm it. Their licences ran to 1 March 2026 (31 March, in the Park Board’s memo), with options to renew. We found no open record of the 2026 licences, so the City rules below are the 2025 licence’s, and another company may run here too. Spin’s open data names Bird Rides, Inc. as its operator. The 2025 licence allowed up to 3,000 scooters among all the companies.

At 4:13 p.m. on Monday 26 October 2026 the Minneapolis map showed about 1,775 scooters: roughly 290 Spin as they stood at that moment, and 1,480 Lime as last counted. That is a snapshot, not the fleets. At 4:18 p.m. every scooter and e-bike in Spin’s open data stood inside the city, by the Census Bureau’s boundaries; none in St. Paul, St. Louis Park or Richfield.

For Spin the map shows each scooter’s position, charge and range, and its zones (see below); for Lime, position and charge. Scooters on a ride aren’t shown. First ride? See how to rent an e-scooter.

Not everything is on the map. ScootRadar shows standing e-scooters only. Besides 289 scooters for hire and 52 out of service, Spin’s open data listed 151 e-bikes that afternoon, and Lime rents e-bikes too: none of them is on the map. Nice Ride, the docked bike share, no longer runs in Minneapolis, the Park Board said in 2023.

How much does a Lime or Spin scooter cost in Minneapolis?

On 26 October 2026 Spin’s open data held no Minneapolis price, so check the rate in the Lime or Spin app before you unlock.

The City’s 2025 licence makes each company offer cheaper rides to lower-income riders, with eligibility checked through Metro Transit’s Transit Assistance Program (TAP). Spin’s is Spin Access: discounted fares once you send proof of your status, and approved riders without a smartphone can unlock by text message. Lime’s is Lime Access, Lime said in April 2025.

Minneapolis scooter rules: sidewalks, speed, age and helmets

Minnesota law (Statutes § 169.225) gives a scooter rider the rights and duties of a cyclist, with a few rules of its own. The state rules below are as the City of South St. Paul and the Mankato Free Press (15 September 2024) set them out.

Off the sidewalk. Minnesota law bans riding a scooter on any sidewalk, except to reach the property beside it.

Can you ride a scooter at night in Minneapolis?

Not after midnight, under the City’s 2025 licence, the latest we could read: “All motorized foot scooters must be disabled from public use daily, no later than 12am Minneapolis Time. Any rides active at 12am Minneapolis Time may remain active until completed.” They may come back on from 4 a.m., and the City may change the hours. From midnight the map marks the night ban in Minneapolis and says when renting starts again.

The ban is the City’s, so it stops at the city line. St. Paul next door has its own rules: see e-scooters in St. Paul, and the St. Paul map for its Lime and Spin scooters.

Parking a Lime or Spin scooter in Minneapolis

The City’s 2025 licence says how to park: upright on the kickstand, and locked to one of these:

• a public bike rack;
• a parking meter hitch;
• a City sign post, but not a bus stop sign;
• a scooter parking spot set up for the programme.

Never block people walking, or curb ramps, doors, driveways, loading zones, disabled parking, transit stops, crosswalks or sidewalk cafés. In the parks, don’t lock a scooter to a tree, the Park Board says.

Leave room on the sidewalk too. The City requires at least 4 feet of clear sidewalk space for everyone, CBS Minnesota reported in August 2026, quoting the City’s website.

Under the licence the City may impound a scooter that hasn’t moved for 72 hours, or one parked against the rules, and a company must re-park a scooter within two hours of a complaint.

Spin and Lime zones, and the August 2026 takeover

On 26 October 2026 Spin’s open data held 195 no-parking zones and 12 no-ride zones in the city, which the map draws at street zoom. Matched to the City’s park map, the three largest no-ride zones cover Gold Medal Park downtown, much of Columbia Park and its golf course, and the golf course at Lake Hiawatha; the other nine are small patches downtown and by the river. The Stone Arch Bridge, Minnehaha Falls and Bde Maka Ska lay inside Spin’s riding area that day. The map doesn’t show Lime’s zones: check its app.

Zones can change at short notice. After hundreds of riders took over downtown streets in a “scooter takeover” on Saturday 8 August 2026, some of them riding onto I-35W, Lime banned the riders who went onto the freeway, added slow and no-ride zones and took highways out of its scooters’ area, CBS Minnesota reported. It told MPR News it was working with the City “to implement geofencing as-needed for anticipated events”.

The lakes, the parks and the University of Minnesota

• Park trails. The Park Board says scooters can be ridden on bike paths but not sidewalks. Its trail rules keep bikes and skates off pedestrian paths, hold bikers to 10 mph and make the bike paths at Lake Harriet, Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles one-way, and its 2025 licences have the companies match its speed zones. In winter the bike paths are ploughed for walkers and bikers to share, and bikers must yield to pedestrians.
• Parks at night. Under the Park Board’s 2025 licences parks are closed from midnight to 6 a.m.; a ride may go on along its lit commuter paths at any hour, but none may restart from or end on park land after midnight.
• University of Minnesota. The University picked the operators with the City, the Park Board, St. Paul, St. Louis Park and Hopkins in January 2025, and each company must sign a separate agreement with it. We couldn’t read the University’s own scooter rules: follow campus signs and the app. Spin’s open data marked no no-ride or no-parking zone on the Minneapolis campus on 26 October, and at 4:18 p.m. one available Spin scooter stood on it, by the Census Bureau’s boundaries.

Light rail, buses and MSP Airport

• Light rail: yes. Buses: no. Metro Transit’s Mobility Device Policy lets shared e-scooters (“Lime, Spin, Veo”) ride inside METRO light rail and Northstar trains, but not on any bus, on its rack or inside. It warns you to check that your destination is in the company’s area, or face its penalty. Your own electric scooter may ride inside a bus if it folds.
• MSP Airport. Both terminals lie outside Minneapolis (in Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory, by the Census Bureau’s boundaries) and outside Spin’s riding area. The METRO Blue Line stops at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 and reaches the Warehouse District downtown in about 25 minutes, the airport says.

Can you ride a scooter in winter in Minneapolis?

Sometimes. The programme used to stop at the end of November and restart in April. In 2025 the City’s licence let Lime and Spin keep their vehicles out through the winter “as long as there’s not an excessive amount of snow and ice buildup”, a City project manager told MPR News; the licence let them shrink their fleets from 15 November. We found no word yet on the winter of 2026–27. The map counts only scooters standing for hire, so it shows at a glance who is out, and none once the fleets are put away.

Did you know?

• Lime arrived in 2018. It first launched in Minneapolis in July 2018, Fox 9 reported.
• Every scooter carries its rules. The City’s 2025 licence makes each one display “No Sidewalk Riding”, “Wear A Helmet”, “Yield to Pedestrians” and “Don’t Ride with a Passenger” or “No Group Rides”, with the company’s phone number.
• The City watches the water. Under the 2025 licence the City looks out for scooters dumped in lakes and rivers, and the company must pull one out within 72 hours of being told.