E-scooters in Richmond, Virginia: Bird, Spin and Lime, the night rule, and where to ride and park

Which e-scooters can you rent in Richmond?

Electric scooter rental in Richmond runs on City permits. The City’s E-Scooter Program page, read on 26 October 2026, lists three permit holders: Bird, for e-scooters and e-bikes, and Lime and Spin, for e-scooters. Each starts with a cap of 500 devices. A City release of March 2025 calls Spin a subsidiary of Bird.

At 12:29 p.m. on Monday 26 October 2026 the Richmond map showed about 565 scooters: roughly 270 Spin and 185 Bird as they stood at that moment, and 115 Lime as last counted. That is a snapshot, not the fleets. At 1:06 p.m. all but one of Bird’s and Spin’s available scooters stood inside the city, by the Census Bureau’s boundaries; the other was just over the line in Henrico County.

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

Bikes aren’t on the map. ScootRadar shows standing e-scooters only. Bird’s permit covers e-bikes too, though its open data listed none in Richmond on 26 October. RVA Bike Share, which the City’s public works department runs with Wegoshare, says it has 22 stations and 220 bikes, open around the clock.

How much does a Bird, Spin or Lime scooter cost in Richmond?

On 26 October 2026 neither Bird’s nor Spin’s open data held a Richmond price, and the City’s page gives none: check the rate in the app before you unlock, as for Lime. Two programmes halve the fare:

• Equity Zone Program. Since March 2025, residents of Fairfield Court, Gilpin Court, Hillside Court, Mosby Court and Whitcomb Court get 50% off rides they start in their neighbourhood, registered or not. Those who register in the app, through Bird’s Community Pricing or Spin Access, get 50% off every ride in the city.
• Bird Community Pricing. A Bird flyer the City posted in June 2024 offers 50% off to non-profit employees, people in a state or federal assistance programme, Pell Grant recipients, seniors and US veterans, on rides of up to 30 minutes.

For a bike instead, RVA Bike Share sells these passes; dock within 45 minutes to avoid overage fees:

Richmond scooter rules: hours, sidewalks, speed and age

The Code of Virginia defines a motorized scooter (under 100 pounds, no faster than 20 mph on its motor), says it isn’t a motor vehicle and sets where it may go. Richmond’s City Code mostly binds the companies, and the City’s page tells riders what it expects.

Scooters stop at 1 a.m. Since February 2023 the City Code has let shared scooters be ridden only from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. Open the map between 1 and 5 a.m. and it tells you why Richmond’s scooters can’t be rented.

A DMV work group on e-bike and scooter safety must report to state lawmakers by 1 November 2026, so the state rules may change.

Parking a scooter in Richmond, and the zones on the map

Richmond’s permit is, in the City Code’s words, for the “parking of shared mobility devices on sidewalks”, so a ride ends on the sidewalk. The City’s page and the Code ask for:

• Upright on the sidewalk, by the curb, leaving the walkway clear.
• Nothing blocked: not travel lanes, driveways, fire hydrants, curb ramps, pedestrian call buttons or bus stops, nor building entrances with their ramp railings and ADA door push buttons.
• Never in a park or on a path. Every permit bans parking on shared-use paths, in City parks and athletic fields, and on park benches, the City Code says.
• Not on private property, and never in a bike lane or traffic lane.

Bird and Spin published the same zones in their open data on 26 October 2026: 16 no-ride and 32 no-parking zones, which the map draws at street zoom. Matched to the City’s park and parcel maps, the no-parking zones take in Capitol Square, most of Brown’s Island, nearly all of Maymont, part of Byrd Park, and land at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Main Street Station, among others; most no-ride zones are small patches of VCU land. The map doesn’t show Lime’s zones: check its app.

A company must fix a badly parked or broken scooter within two hours of being told. Call Bird on 1-866-205-2442, Lime on 1-888-546-3345 or Spin on 1-888-249-9698; the number is on the scooter too.

Scooters at VCU and the University of Richmond

• VCU. Its Off Campus Transportation page, updated on 28 May 2026, says “electric scooters are only permitted in dedicated bike lanes or on the street. Charging and storing electric scooters in campus buildings is not permitted.”
• VCU’s zones. Thirteen of Bird’s and Spin’s 16 no-ride zones lie on land owned by VCU, its health system or its real estate foundation, in and around the Monroe Park and MCV campuses. At 1:06 p.m. on 26 October about 85 Bird and Spin scooters stood on those two campuses, by the Census Bureau’s boundaries.
• University of Richmond. Its parking rules cover riders’ own mopeds and scooters, which must be registered, and say nothing of shared ones. Most of the campus lies inside Bird’s and Spin’s service area, but none of their scooters stood on it at 1:06 p.m.

The James River Park System and the Capital Trail

The City’s FAQ keeps shared scooters off trails, and every permit bans parking them in City parks. The James River Park System, which the City owns, is open from sunrise to sunset; its City page sets no scooter rule of its own.

The Virginia Capital Trail is a paved, 51.7-mile multi-use trail from Jamestown Settlement to the floodwall in Richmond, where one of its trailheads is Great Shiplock Park. The Virginia Capital Trail Foundation’s trail rules say “No unauthorized motorized vehicles”, support Class 1 and 2 e-bikes and recommend speeds of no more than 20 mph. They don’t list scooters.

GRTC, the Pulse and Richmond International Airport

• GRTC buses and the Pulse. All GRTC buses are free under its Zero Fare policy. Its rules of riding say every personal item must fit in your lap or at your feet, and that this “includes, but is not limited to, e-scooters and share scooters”; bicycles, electric or not, go on the front racks.
• The Pulse. GRTC’s rapid bus line between Willow Lawn and Rocketts Landing comes every 10 minutes at weekday peaks, every 15 to 30 at other times.
• Richmond International Airport. The airport lies in Henrico County, outside Bird’s and Spin’s service area; at 1:06 p.m. on 26 October the nearest scooter stood about 5 km away. GRTC routes 7A and 7B leave the upper departure deck every 15 minutes for the Downtown Transfer Station, free.

Elsewhere in Virginia, see the Norfolk map and e-scooters in Norfolk.

Did you know?

• It passed 6 to 3. City Council adopted the scooter permit programme on 28 January 2019 by six votes to three.
• The Southside gets extra. A company may run 20% more scooters than its permit allows, at no extra fee, if every extra one stands south of the James River.
• Scooters help pay for bikes. Each company pays the City $56,250 a year, the fee for 201 to 500 scooters, and the Department of Public Works told The Richmonder in July 2025 that the fees help pay for RVA Bike Share.