E-scooters in Petah Tikva: Lime and Dott, the City’s tenders, parking bays, the Red Line and Shabbat

Which e-scooter apps work in Petah Tikva?

At 00:33 Israel time on Friday 30 October 2026 the Petah Tikva map showed 666 Lime scooters inside the city’s boundary. That’s what stood there at that moment, not the size of the fleet.

Dott isn’t on our map. In September 2025 Dott and Lime were the two companies running shared scooters in Petah Tikva, the local news site PTNews reported, and on 25 October 2026 Kipa listed Petah Tikva among the seven towns where Dott ran them. We found no news of it leaving, so if you use Dott, check its app.

Bird, which rents in Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv, didn’t win the 2023 tender and wasn’t one of the two companies PTNews named in 2025; our Petah Tikva map doesn’t show it. ScootRadar shows e-scooters only, not e-bikes or bike share. New to shared e-scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.

Petah Tikva’s scooter tenders: who won, and on what terms

Petah Tikva’s shared scooters have run under permits from the Petah Tikva Development Company (HaHevra LePituah Petah Tikva), a company the City owns and has authorised to choose operators. Bird and Lime won the City’s 2021 call for operators, Bahazit reported, and Lime and Dott won its 2023 tender, Ice reported.

The 2023 permits ran from 1 May 2023 to 30 April 2024, and the Development Company could extend them a year at a time, to 30 April 2026 at the latest. On 26 August 2026 it published a new tender for up to two permits, each for at least 200 scooters and no more than 800 vehicles, up to 200 of them e-bikes. Bids closed on 5 October 2026. We found no result by 29 October, nor anything on what has applied since April, so we can’t say who holds a permit now.

The 2023 contract set the companies’ terms, and the 2026 tender’s draft contract repeats them. Each company had to:

• keep renting 24 hours a day, 364 days a year, with no rentals on Yom Kippur, though the Development Company may limit hours or areas;
• make its scooters obey the no-ride zones and 15 km/h slow zones the Development Company sets (we found no published list: watch the app);
• equip at least 75% of its scooters with a helmet, and show in the app which ones have one;
• scan each rider’s ID at sign-up to check their age, with one person per account and one scooter at a time;
• in areas set as bays-only, stop riders ending a ride outside a marked bay: the meter keeps running, and the app warns of a fine.

How much does an e-scooter cost in Petah Tikva?

We found no current Petah Tikva price published by Lime, Dott or the City, so compare them in their apps: each shows the unlock fee and the rate before you start.

Fines cost far more than rides. Since 1 August 2024 every e-scooter in Israel has had to be registered and carry an ID plate, a duty that falls on its owner, Ice reported, so on a shared scooter it’s the company’s. On a scooter of your own, riding without a plate has cost ₪750 since 1 September 2026, Maariv reported.

Do you need a licence for an e-scooter in Petah Tikva?

Yes. Israel’s rules ask every rider for a driving licence or, without one, a passed riding or theory test, Ice reported in 2024. Riding without either has carried a ₪750 fine since 2022, Srugim reported.

We found no news report on whether a visitor’s foreign licence counts, and no page from Lime or Dott on how they check one, so carry your licence and follow what your app asks for.

Carry your driving licence and wear a helmet. Since 2022 municipal inspectors, not only the police, can fine you for riding without either, Srugim reported.

The minimum age is 16; riding younger costs ₪1,000, Srugim reported in 2022.

E-scooter rules in Israel: what Petah Tikva riders must know

The rules are national: the Transport Ministry sets them and the Knesset’s Economy Committee approves the fines, Ice and Srugim reported. They apply the same in every town.

The ₪250 sidewalk and passenger fines are the ones Tel Aviv-Yafo reminded riders of in 2023, Ice reported.

Alcohol. E-scooters are “subject to the same traffic laws as any other vehicle”, a police spokesman told Calcalist in 2019, when Tel Aviv police began breath-testing riders. The paper said a conviction could cost you your driving licence for 24 months.

Where to ride and park an e-scooter in Petah Tikva

Ride on a bike path; where a street has none, ride on the road, never on the sidewalk, dpa reported in 2019, and Ice repeated in 2024 that riding on the sidewalk is banned.

Parking bays. In September 2025 the Development Company added more than 100 marked scooter bays across the city’s neighbourhoods, PTNews reported. Its list puts bays on both sides of the Red Line’s Dankner, Beilinson and Shacham stops, by the Krol stop, on both sides of the Central Station and behind Heichal HaTarbut (the city’s culture hall). When a bay is near, end your ride in it.

Elsewhere, park as the 2023 contract had the companies keep their scooters: by the kerb or along a building’s wall, with 2 metres of sidewalk clear, never blocking a bus stop, a doorway or a shop window, never at a school gate and never inside a public garden without a bike path.

Zones on the map. Our map draws no ride or parking zones in Petah Tikva: each company’s zones are in its app.

The Red Line, trains, Beilinson and Shabbat

The Red Line. Tel Aviv’s light rail starts at its Central Station stop, by Petah Tikva’s Central Bus Station, and runs west along Jabotinsky Road at street level, stopping at Pinsker, Krol, Dankner, Beilinson, Shacham and Shenkar before it drops into a tunnel at Highway 4; a branch serves Kiryat Arye. When it opened in August 2023, scooters and bikes could board only if they fold and are folded, Walla reported. A shared scooter doesn’t fold: end your ride near the stop, in a bay if there is one, and walk in.

Trains. Israel Railways has two stations in the city. Petah Tikva–Kiryat Arye stands in the northern business district by HaMoshava Stadium, with the Red Line’s Kiryat Arye stop across the tracks through a pedestrian tunnel; Petah Tikva–Segula is in the north-east, across from the Segula industrial zone. We found no Israel Railways rule on e-scooters, so end your ride before you go in.

Beilinson. Rabin Medical Center, home to Beilinson Hospital and Schneider children’s hospital, stands by the Red Line’s Beilinson stop, which has bays on both sides. We found no hospital rule on e-scooters: end your ride in a bay and walk in.

Shabbat. Trains don’t run on Shabbat or Jewish holidays. The Red Line’s last train on Friday leaves about three hours before Shabbat begins, and it doesn’t run on Saturday until sundown. The 2023 contract had the companies rent around the clock, Shabbat included, with no rentals on Yom Kippur; check the app.

Riding on into Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv

When Lime and Bird arrived in 2019, Globes reported that their riders could ride straight on between Petah Tikva, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv. The national rules stay the same, but parking and zones change at the city line, so watch the app as you cross. See the Ramat Gan guide and the Tel Aviv guide, where the centre has bays only.

Did you know?

• Petah Tikva is the “Mother of the Moshavot”: founded in 1878, it was the first of the modern Jewish farming villages (moshavot). The Red Line’s next stop west of the city, Em HaMoshavot Bridge, carries the nickname but stands in Bnei Brak.
• Petah Tikva once banned night rides: its 2021 call stopped shared scooters from midnight to 5:00, a first in Israel, Bahazit reported. The 2023 contract had them rent around the clock instead.
• Rides cost ₪5 plus 50 agorot a minute in 2019: that was Lime’s and Bird’s price when they arrived in October 2019, Globes reported.
• Scooter companies give free rides on election day: Lime offered two free rides in Petah Tikva on local election day in February 2024, PTNews reported, and Dott did the same in its towns, Petah Tikva included, on general election day in October 2026, Kipa reported.