E-scooters in Salford: Lime hire, prices and where you can ride and park

E-scooters in Salford: Lime and the trial

Lime is the only company hiring out e-scooters in Salford. It runs the Department for Transport trial and is “fully responsible for the implementation and operating costs”, with the support of Salford City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the University of Salford, the council’s Greener Salford site says. The first 300 scooters took to the road on Monday 26 October 2020. When the trial was extended in March 2024, council and TfGM officers were to choose the operator, the Manchester Evening News reported; in January 2025 a TfGM paper for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority said it “continues to run with the operator Lime”.

Hire e-scooters are legal here because Salford is one of England’s 21 trial areas, which run until May 2028. In October 2025 the combined authority said the local trial had been “extended until May 2026, pending legislative approval”. We found no council, TfGM or combined authority decision after May 2026; the government’s list of 7 July 2026 still names Salford.

At 07:47 on Sunday 25 October 2026 the map of Salford showed about 810 Lime e-scooters: a snapshot, not the fleet size. It shows where they stand and their battery, not prices, zones, parking or hours. That afternoon all of the roughly 750 it showed stood inside Salford’s boundary, none across the Irwell in Manchester or Trafford; most were in Pendleton and Charlestown, Quays and Ordsall wards.

We found no sign of Lime e-bikes here. TfGM’s Starling Bank Bikes, pedal and electric, are a separate scheme, which the map doesn’t show.

How much does a Lime e-scooter cost in Salford?

The app shows the price before you unlock: we found no current published price. In October 2024 the Manchester Evening News reported £1 to unlock, then 17p a minute, so 20 minutes would cost £4.40. Greener Salford once mentioned “discounts … for job seekers, students and some employment sectors”.

New to hire scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.

Are e-scooters legal in Salford? Licence, rules and fines

The law asks for a full or provisional driving licence with category Q, which comes with every UK car, moped and motorcycle licence. The legal minimum age is 16, but Lime said in October 2024 that every rider scans a driving licence or provisional licence at sign-up “to help ensure all e-scooter riders are 18+”.

The national rules are in our guide to e-scooter law in the UK.

A private e-scooter is illegal on Salford’s roads, pavements and cycle lanes and in its parks: “It is against the law to use a privately owned electric scooter on public land,” the government says. Riding one counts as riding an uninsured motor vehicle: a £300 fixed penalty and 6 points, and the police can seize it, since 29 June 2026 without a warning first if it’s ridden anti-socially. A vehicle seized from 22 July 2026 can be disposed of after seven days rather than 14.

Greater Manchester Police “will continue to target” illegal riders, e-scooters included, says the region’s road safety plan for 2024–2027; GMP’s own website refused our request.

Where can you ride a Lime in Salford?

Ride on roads and in cycle lanes. The scooters “can use bike lanes and shared footways where cycling is permitted but are not allowed on footways or in other pedestrian areas”, Greener Salford said when the trial ran to May 2024.

The council has limited the scooters “to an area between the University of Salford, Salford Quays and up to the boundary with Manchester city council, as well as parts of Pendleton to Salford Royal Hospital”, the Manchester Evening News reported in March 2024. On 25 October 2026 the map also showed scooters in Eccles ward, but none in Swinton, Walkden or Worsley.

We found no official list of no-go or slow zones for Salford Quays, MediaCityUK or the Crescent, and no published hours: check the app before you set off.

Where to park a Lime e-scooter in Salford

Salford has no free-floating parking. “All of our e-scooters in Salford must be picked up and dropped off in designated parking bays identified in partnership with the Council,” Lime told the Manchester Evening News in October 2024. The app shows the bays, Greener Salford said when the trial ran to May 2024.

Lime added that it has “GPS-based no parking zones” and “mandatory end trip photos”, and that riders who ignore the rules “will receive a warning, and fine”, without giving the amount.

Campuses, the Quays, canals, parks and hospitals

Landowners set their own rules; here is what we found:

Can you take an e-scooter on a tram, bus or train?

We couldn’t confirm that any of them carries e-scooters:

• Northern manages Salford Central, Salford Crescent and Eccles stations, National Rail says. We couldn’t check its rules: its website refused our request. The National Rail Conditions of Travel (from 30 July 2026) list e-scooters among items “only permitted at the discretion of individual Train Companies”.
• Metrolink trams and Bee Network buses: TfGM sets their conditions of carriage, and its website refused our request too. A combined authority report of 12 December 2024 says Metrolink “currently allows folded bikes”, and says nothing about e-scooters.

A hire scooter stays behind: end the ride in a bay near the station or stop. On the afternoon of 25 October 2026 the map showed about 100 Lime scooters within 300 m of Salford Crescent station and about 120 within 500 m of the Salford Quays tram stop.

E-scooters in Manchester: is there hire across the Irwell?

No. Manchester isn’t a trial area: the government’s list of 7 July 2026 names Salford but not Manchester, Trafford or any other Greater Manchester borough.

Salford’s trial area runs “up to the boundary with Manchester”, the council’s Greener Salford site says, and on the afternoon of 25 October the map showed about 75 Lime scooters in Blackfriars and Trinity ward, across the Irwell from Manchester city centre. A private e-scooter is illegal on Manchester’s roads too.

In Manchester you can hire a Starling Bank Bike instead, and the University of Salford lists docking stations on and around its campuses. Pedal bikes cost 50p to unlock plus 5p a minute, and e-bikes £1 plus 10p a minute, says Beryl’s pricing guide for Manchester (24 June 2026).

The nearest other e-scooter hire is in Liverpool, with Bolt, and Leeds, with Beryl. For every scheme, see e-scooter hire in the UK.

Did you know?

• One of 16. Lime was chosen “over 15 other providers which expressed an interest”, the University of Salford said in September 2020.
• Nearly a million rides. Lime counted 430,000 rides by November 2022, and the Manchester Evening News reported nearly one million in March 2024. When the trial ran to May 2024, the council’s Greener Salford site counted about 1,500 a day, typically 1.2 miles.
• Instead of the car. In University of Salford research across Greater Manchester, published in November 2022, 49% of riders said they had used an e-scooter instead of a car or taxi, and 38% to connect with public transport.