E-scooters in Sacramento: Lime and Bird, the rules, where to ride and where to park

Which e-scooters can you rent in Sacramento?

Electric scooter rental in Sacramento needs a City permit: under City Code chapter 5.18 each company holds a shared-rideable business permit, renewed each year, and the City sets the details in administrative procedures approved on 17 August 2021. Permits are open, not awarded by competition, a review for the City noted in March 2026. A permit covers the city only, not the parts of Sacramento County outside it.

Two companies run under these permits in 2026: Lime and Bird. The City’s micromobility dashboard listed them as its active operators on 29 October 2026, and the City’s consultants interviewed them as the existing operators in October and November 2025. We found no other company renting scooters in the city.

A company must keep at least 250 vehicles and may put out up to 1,000 in its first permit year; after that it asks the City to grow, and the City can cut a fleet that is often badly parked or little used. Each company pays $4,440 for its first permit and $2,220 to renew, plus $104 a scooter a year and 10 cents a trip. It must also place 20% of its fleet each morning in the City’s Opportunity Areas, which the City calls disadvantaged communities; the companies missed that share in 2025, the City’s consultants found.

At 10:51 p.m. on Wednesday 28 October 2026 the Sacramento map showed about 1,480 scooters: roughly 1,400 Lime and 80 Bird, both as last counted, so some may have moved since. That is the map’s count, not the fleets. The map has no outline for Sacramento, so its total takes in both companies’ whole Sacramento areas. Bird’s takes in the central city, downtown, Midtown and Old Sacramento included, almost wholly inside the city limits. Lime’s lies more than nine-tenths inside the city limits, Sacramento State included; the rest is unincorporated county land, such as Arden-Arcade and Lemon Hill, where the City’s permit doesn’t apply. West Sacramento, a separate city across the river, has its own total: about 115 Lime scooters at the same time.

For Bird the map shows each scooter’s position, charge and range; for Lime, position and charge. Scooters on a ride aren’t shown, and the map draws no zones in Sacramento: the apps have the final word. First ride? See how to rent an e-scooter.

How much does a Lime or Bird scooter cost in Sacramento?

We found no open page with Lime’s or Bird’s Sacramento price on 29 October 2026, so check the rate in the app before you unlock. The City Code makes each company price by the hour or in smaller steps, clearly shown, rent seven days a week and run a 24-hour customer service line.

Riders on low incomes can get a discount: the code makes every company offer a reduced-fare plan to anyone who lives in housing managed by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) or gets an SHRA rent subsidy, or who qualifies for CalFresh, PG&E’s CARE programme, SMUD’s low-income programme or WIC.

Scooter rules in Sacramento and California

The California Vehicle Code (CVC) sets the basics, which the City’s scooter safety page spells out; the City Code adds rules for the companies, and each campus or park owner rules its own land.

Stay off the sidewalk. State law bans riding a scooter on it, the City puts the fine at up to $207, and every shared scooter must say so on a sticker in 48-point type or larger. Ride in the bike lane or on the street.

State law is the same in San Francisco and Los Angeles, though their city rules differ: see e-scooters in San Francisco and e-scooters in Los Angeles.

Where to park a scooter in Sacramento

The City asks you to park upright at a public bike rack or in a drop zone, a parking spot marked for shared bikes and scooters. Never block the way for people on foot, curb ramps, doorways or crosswalks.

A scooter that blocks the way can be ticketed: City parking officers issue a $15 citation, plus $12.50 in state fees, and the company must pass it on to the rider who parked it, the City’s consultants noted in March 2026. The company must collect a scooter within two hours of the City’s notice if it is broken, badly parked or left in one place for more than 48 hours. Report a scooter in the way to the City’s 311 service.

The City may also set special parking areas, no-ride zones and slow zones, temporary or permanent, and have the companies add them to their apps within a week of notice. The app shows them when you ride or end your trip.

Can you ride a scooter at night? Hours and what is changing

We found no night ban or riding hours in the City’s rules, the 2021 amendments to chapter 5.18 and the administrative procedures, and the map shows scooters at every hour; the app has the final word.

The rules are under review: the City’s consultants published a peer review in March 2026 and operator interviews in June 2026. On 20 October 2026 a Council committee had on its agenda Vice Mayor Karina Talamantes’s proposal for more enforcement and penalties against illegal riding of e-bikes, e-scooters and e-motos. Neither had changed any rule by 29 October 2026.

Sacramento State, Old Sacramento and the American River Parkway

• Sacramento State. Lime’s area on the map takes in the campus; Bird’s doesn’t reach it. The university bans riding bikes, scooters and boards on its sidewalks, in its Pedestrian Zone and inside buildings: ride only on the bike paths marked with green lines, at low speed near people. Park at the bike compounds; a scooter locked to a lamp post or handrail can be impounded. A ticket in the Pedestrian Zone, or for reckless riding, can cost up to $238.
• Old Sacramento. The Gold Rush district by the river is inside both companies’ areas. Old Sacramento State Historic Park names no scooter rule; the City’s sidewalk ban and parking rules apply as everywhere.
• The American River Parkway. “No motorized traffic is permitted” on the 32-mile Jedediah Smith Memorial Multi-use Trail, Sacramento County Regional Parks says, and in August 2026 the County listed class 3 e-bikes “and other motorized vehicles” as banned from all its trails. Neither page names e-scooters, but keep one, rented or owned, off the trail.

SacRT, Amtrak and the airport

• SacRT buses and light rail. We found no SacRT rule on scooters aboard. End a rental before you board, clear of the stop.
• Sacramento Valley Station. The City owns the station and its 17-acre site, served by Amtrak’s long-distance trains and the state’s intercity trains. On the Capitol Corridor to the Bay Area you may bring your own electric scooter, with tyres no wider than 2.5 inches, or a folding scooter of up to 50 lb, the Capitol Corridor says. We found no rule for the other trains; a shared scooter stays in Sacramento.
• Sacramento International Airport. It lies outside both companies’ areas on the map. SacRT’s Route 142 express bus runs to downtown, and with Yolobus routes 42A and 42B a bus leaves every 20 to 30 minutes, seven days a week, the airport says.

Did you know?

• Scooters you can read by touch. The City Code makes each company mark every scooter with its name, phone number and ID number in braille and raised text.
• Second only to Paris. Uber ranked Sacramento second only to Paris for use of its Jump bikes and scooters, the City reported in February 2020, a year after Jump brought the first 100 scooters.
• Where three lines ended. Old Sacramento was the western end of the Pony Express, the first transcontinental railroad and the transcontinental telegraph, California State Parks says.
• Nearly half a million scooter trips. From June 2019 to January 2020 riders took 460,000 e-scooter trips in Sacramento, and 540,000 on e-bikes, the City reported in February 2020.