E-scooters in Newark, New Jersey: Bird and Veo, what a ride costs, and where to ride and park

Which e-scooters can you rent in Newark?

Newark’s shared scooters and bikes run under NewarkGo, the City’s dockless vehicle programme. It began as a pilot in July 2021 with up to 2,000 scooters and bikes from Bird and Veo, ABC7 reported, and became permanent with a city ordinance adopted on 2 August 2023.

• Two permits at most, one each to two companies chosen by competitive application. Each puts out 500 to 900 vehicles, or up to 1,100 if at least 100 are bikes or e-bikes.
• Bird and Veo. The City Council approved Veo’s permit on 7 February 2024 and Bird’s on 10 April 2024. Each runs two years and can be renewed for two more; both were running in October 2026.

On the afternoon of Sunday 25 October 2026 the Newark map showed about 900 scooters, roughly 590 Bird and 320 Veo: what stood there at that moment, not the fleets. That evening, all but a handful stood inside the city: about 360 in the Central Ward, 210 in the East Ward, 110 each in the North and West Wards and 100 in the South Ward, by the Census Bureau’s 2020 ward lines.

Veo also rents e-bikes. That evening Veo’s open data listed about 820 vehicles in Newark that it classes as electric bikes, against about 320 stand-up scooters. ScootRadar shows standing e-scooters only, so Veo’s e-bikes aren’t on the map: open the Veo app to find one.

First ride? Get the Bird or Veo app and scan the QR code on the handlebars; you need no driving licence. See how to rent an e-scooter.

How much does a Bird or Veo scooter cost in Newark?

The City doesn’t set fares, but its 2023 ordinance makes each operator tell the City before raising prices and give riders 30 days’ notice. Veo publishes its Newark rates in its open data; Bird publishes none there, so its app shows the price before you unlock.

Low-income plans and cash. The City’s 2021 rules make each operator offer a low-income plan to anyone who shows proof of low income, such as local, state or federal assistance, and at least one place to pay in cash in each deployment zone. Bird’s Access programme discounts rides for people aged 65 or over, US veterans and people on state or federal assistance, and in some regions lets you top up in cash at a shop.

Newark e-scooter rules: age, helmet, speed and sidewalks

Three levels of rules apply. New Jersey law, since a 2019 act, treats a low-speed electric scooter much like a bicycle. The City’s NewarkGo rules, issued by its Department of Engineering in April 2021, add limits for shared vehicles, which the operators must enforce. The companies add their own.

Bird says its scooters detect sidewalk riding and can slow you down or stop the ride. Since July 2026, under a state law signed in January, e-scooter riders hurt in a crash can claim personal injury protection (PIP) from no-fault car insurance, the Jersey Vindicator reported. The law’s new licence rules cover e-bikes, not e-scooters, Rutgers’ Bloustein School notes.

Where you can ride a shared scooter in Newark

NewarkGo stops at the city line, which the operators enforce with geofencing. Their permits cover the City’s streets and sidewalks only. To put scooters in county or state parks, plazas, parking lots, private property or transit stations, an operator needs the owner’s permission first.

• Slow zones. Under the City’s 2021 rules, shared scooters drop to 8 mph around Newark Penn Station (between Raymond Plaza West and East, Market Street and Raymond Boulevard) and Broad Street Station (between Orange Street, University Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and State Street).
• Championship Plaza, beside the Prudential Center, is a no-ride zone, where scooters slow to walking speed.
• No-ride ground in Bird’s data. Bird’s zone data marks Port Newark and the industrial streets around Doremus Avenue as areas a scooter won’t even ride through. Ivy Hill Park and the terminals of Newark Liberty International Airport lie outside its service area.

Veo publishes no zone data, so check the map in its app before you set off.

Parking a Bird or Veo scooter in Newark

State law lets you park an e-scooter on a sidewalk as long as it doesn’t get in the way of people walking. The City’s 2021 rules are stricter for shared scooters:

• Corrals and racks first. Use a corral, a bike-share parking area or a public bike rack where there is one. The rules list corral sites at busy places such as Newark Penn Station, Broad Street Station, the Prudential Center, Military Park, NJPAC, NJIT and Rutgers.
• Otherwise, the furnishing zone. Park upright on a hard surface in the strip of sidewalk by the curb, where trees, signs and bus shelters stand, and leave at least six feet clear for people walking.
• Never within 60 feet of a bus stop sign on the bus’s approach side; in a bus, light rail, taxi, loading or disabled parking zone; on a corner or on grass or plants; or blocking a crosswalk, curb ramp, driveway, bike lane, building entrance or station.

Bird ends each ride with a parking photo, checked by AI, and charges a fee for bad parking. Operators must move a badly parked scooter within two hours of a City notice or six hours of a public report. Report one through the operator’s app or helpline, which the City’s rules make each run in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Parks, NJIT and Newark Penn Station

Branch Brook Park, Essex County’s 360 acres in the North Ward, was the first county park opened to the public in the United States and is known for its cherry blossoms. Bird’s zone data lets you ride through most of it but not end a ride there. Weequahic Park, 311 acres with an 80-acre lake in the South Ward, has no Bird zone. Essex County Parks’ pages give no scooter rule for either: follow the signs.

Bird’s data also bars ending a ride in Independence Park, Jesse Allen Park, Hayes Park West and Founders Park, across much of the NJIT campus, and in a small area at Newark Penn Station.

Don’t take a shared scooter into a station or onto a train. NJ Transit bars Bird and other shared or rented vehicles from all its trains, buses, light rail and property, and PATH’s rules ban riding a scooter anywhere in its system. End the ride outside, clear of entrances and bus stops.

• NJ Transit, including Newark Light Rail: riding any personal electric vehicle in its stations is banned. Your own e-scooter may travel if it is switched off, folded if it folds and no heavier than 100 lb; folded, it can go on any train, bus or light rail vehicle at any time.
• PATH, to Jersey City and Manhattan: the Port Authority counts the lithium-ion batteries of e-scooters among the hazardous materials barred from the system, so leave your own scooter at home too.

The Newark map shows the nearest Bird or Veo scooter to the station and the walk to it. The map also shows Veo in New Brunswick, and Bird, Lime and Veo in New York City’s Bronx: see e-scooters in New York City.

Did you know?

• About 3.6 million trips were taken on NewarkGo’s scooters and bikes from August 2021 to September 2026, the City’s data dashboard, run by Ride Report, shows.
• Newark ranked among the top ten US cities for trips per resident during the pilot, ahead of San Francisco, Patch reported in May 2023.
• 15% of each fleet must stand in the City’s equity zones every day, so scooters reach neighbourhoods beyond downtown.
• Your ride helps pay for streets. Each operator pays the City $125,000 for its two-year permit and 25 cents a ride. A council resolution of March 2024 set up a trust for these fees, which pays for monitoring the programme, with what’s left going to street improvement projects.