E-scooters in Paris: why you can’t rent one, and what to ride instead

Can you rent an e-scooter in Paris?

No. On 12 October 2026 the public data feeds of Dott, Lime and Voi for Paris held nothing but e-bikes. As far as we know, no return of shared e-scooters has been announced, not even since Emmanuel Grégoire became mayor on 29 March 2026.

Is Lime in Paris? Yes, with e-bikes. Lime, Dott and Voi each run 3,000 to 6,000 of them under a four-year agreement with the city that began on 1 October 2025. Hiring an e-scooter from a shop is still legal: the ban covers only shared scooters left on the street.

Why Paris banned shared e-scooters

On Sunday 2 April 2023 the city asked its residents one question: “For or against shared e-scooters?” Voting was in person only, at 203 polling stations.

Clément Beaune, then transport minister, called the turnout “humiliating”. The vote was only advisory, but the city followed it and let the street-use agreements of Dott, Lime and Tier expire at midnight on 31 August 2023. Each had been allowed up to 5,000 scooters, 15,000 in all.

What to ride instead: Vélib’ and shared e-bikes

Vélib’ Métropole has 20,000 docked bikes, about 40% of them electric, at a little under 1,500 stations in Paris and 66 nearby towns. In Paris there is one every 300 metres.

Beyond the time included, you pay €1 (classic) or €2 (electric) per 30 minutes. Buy them on the Vélib’ website or app, or in the Île-de-France Mobilités app, which then lets you unlock with a Navigo card; passes are also sold in the Bonjour RATP app.

Lime, Dott and Voi e-bikes are dockless: unlock one in the app and end the ride at a bike bay.

Lime publishes no Paris rates, so check its app before you unlock; with every operator, the app shows the final price. Since 1 October 2025, shared bikes may only be left in bike bays without racks or at racks with at least four hoops, never on the pavement.

Shop rentals, tours and mopeds

Hiring an e-scooter from a shop by the hour or the day, or joining a guided e-scooter tour, is legal. You then ride under the rules for your own scooter below, so ask the shop for a helmet and a vest.

A language trap: in French, a “scooter” is a moped, and an e-scooter is a “trottinette électrique”. The shared mopeds of Yego and Cooltra are motor vehicles: check in their app which driving licence they require.

The nearest shared e-scooters to Paris

There are none in Paris, and as far as we know none in the three départements around it: no operator publishes shared e-scooter data there. At about 10:45 on 12 October 2026, the map showed about 1,650 in the outer suburbs, in five areas. In the evening the nearest to Notre-Dame was about 14 km away as the crow flies, in Bougival.

The counts are a snapshot of the map, not fleet sizes, and the app shows the final price.

• Around Versailles: none in the town itself. At about 6 pm on 12 October 2026, the nearest Dott to the Château was about 1.4 km away, in Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt. The map around Versailles also shows Voi scooters from the Saint-Quentin service.
• Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines: Voi, across the area’s 12 towns; you pick up and return scooters at stations. See Saint-Quentin on the map.
• Grand Paris Seine & Oise: Voi since 4 May 2026, in three separate clusters, so you can’t ride from Poissy to Meulan. Riders must be 18, scooters slow to 10 km/h near schools and bridges, and the meter runs until you park in a station. See Seine & Oise on the map.
• Marne-la-Vallée: Dott, but none in Chessy or Serris on 12 October 2026; at about 6 pm, the nearest to Disneyland Paris was about 1.1 km away, in Montévrain. See Marne-la-Vallée on the map.
• Évry-Courcouronnes: Pony, since March 2022.

Bring a helmet. In the Yvelines (around Versailles, Saint-Quentin, Seine & Oise), a helmet and a vest or reflective gear have been compulsory at all hours since 15 September 2026, and a Seine-et-Marne order of 2 July 2026 requires a helmet and reflective gear around Marne-la-Vallée. Essonne, where Évry is, reportedly followed on 5 October 2026; we could not read the order.

The minimum age is 18 in Seine & Oise; elsewhere, check the app. First time on a shared scooter? See how to rent an e-scooter.

Riding your own e-scooter in Paris: the rules

Your own e-scooter is legal in Paris from age 14, if it is insured and built for no more than 25 km/h. Since 7 August 2026, an order of the Paris police prefect has also required a helmet and a high-visibility vest or reflective gear at all hours, in Paris and the three départements around it. It covers e-scooters and similar devices, not bikes.

Use the bike lane where there is one, otherwise a road limited to 50 km/h or less. Almost all of Paris has been limited to 30 km/h since 30 August 2021, so nearly every street is open to you, but never ride the Périphérique ring road. In pedestrian areas, go at walking pace; in parks, get off and push.

Parking and taking your e-scooter on the metro

Since a mayoral order of 30 July 2019, e-scooters may not park on the pavement, in pedestrian areas or on the road. Use the motorbike and moped bays, where e-scooters park for free. Leave it anywhere else and you can be fined; the city does not publish the amount.

On the RATP network (the metro, the RATP-run parts of the RER, buses, trams and the Montmartre funicular), a folding e-scooter must stay folded and held in your hand at all times on board. Riding it anywhere in the network, or keeping it unfolded on board, costs €150, plus €50 in fees if you don’t pay on the spot. On SNCF trains, do the same and check SNCF’s conditions.

Did you know?

• Not one district voted to keep them. Even the most pro-scooter, Paris Centre, gave “for” just 14.23%.
• Paris once expected 40,000. In June 2019 the city counted nearly 20,000 shared e-scooters and said there could be 40,000 by the end of the year.
• Many only moved to the suburbs. Tier planned to keep a third of its Paris fleet in the region, around Marne-la-Vallée or Saint-Germain-en-Laye, AFP reported. Dott, which absorbed Tier, still runs scooters around Marne-la-Vallée.
• In Évry you could own a shared scooter. When Pony launched there in 2022, residents could buy one and receive 50% of the revenue from its rides.