E-scooters in San Francisco: Lime and Spin, what a ride costs, the rules, and where you can’t ride

Which scooter apps work in San Francisco?

Two companies run shared scooters in San Francisco in October 2026: Lime and Spin. Both work under the Powered Scooter Share Program of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), both have held a permit since 2019, and SFMTA names no other.

• The permits. After a board vote on 5 May 2026, SFMTA extended both by a year, to 30 June 2027, though its programme page still said 30 June 2026 on 17 October. The board lets SFMTA extend them again, up to 30 June 2028, without a new application.
• The fleets. Up to 3,250 scooters each, and Lime’s may include up to 500 seated LimeGliders. For Dreamforce, Fleet Week and other autumn events, SFMTA lets each company run up to 3,750 until 26 November 2026.
• The area. Each company serves an area SFMTA approves, with no more than 40% of its fleet downtown and scooters spread across the Richmond, the Sunset, the Mission, the southeast and other neighbourhoods.
• Which app for Spin? Spin has belonged to Bird since 2023 but keeps its own brand, and its website sends you to the Spin app. Its open data, which names Bird as operator, links to the Bird app instead, but neither company’s website says the Bird app rents Spin’s scooters.

On the evening of 16 October 2026 the map of San Francisco showed about 3,050 Spin and 3,000 Lime scooters: what’s on the map, not the fleets. SFMTA counted 2,618 Lime and 2,120 Spin scooters out on an average day in 2025.

Visiting? Get the app before you go; Lime and Spin both take a debit or credit card. State law asks for “a valid driver’s license or instruction permit”, and lets a visitor over 18 drive on a valid licence from home. Carry yours. New to this? See how to rent an e-scooter.

How much does a scooter cost in San Francisco?

Lime publishes its San Francisco price on its website. Spin publishes none, so check the app, and neither company puts prices in its open data.

Riders on low incomes. SFMTA makes both companies offer a plan with no deposit and at least 50% off, or unlimited rides under 30 minutes, to people earning up to twice the federal poverty level. CalFresh, PG&E CARE or Muni Lifeline eligibility can show you qualify. Both must also offer a way to pay in cash.

San Francisco scooter rules: age, licence, helmets, speed and sidewalks

Most rules come from the California Vehicle Code (CVC), which gives a scooter rider a driver’s duties; San Francisco’s Transportation Code and SFMTA’s permits set what Lime and Spin must do, and their terms add the rest. You need no insurance, registration or plates.

Ride on a sidewalk and the scooter tells you. Since 1 September 2023 the Transportation Code has made every shared scooter in San Francisco detect sidewalk riding and play a message such as “No Sidewalk Riding”. In October 2025 the Board of Supervisors urged SFMTA and the police to treat it as a moving violation.

SFMTA can fine the companies up to $500 per offence, and their permits make them deter sidewalk riding with warnings, fines or account suspensions.

Where you can’t ride or park: the Embarcadero, the Golden Gate Bridge and the parks

SFMTA sets some zones, and the companies add their own in the apps. On 17 October 2026:

• The Embarcadero Promenade. SFMTA bans riding on the waterfront promenade from Third Street at Oracle Park to the entrance of Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf. Ride in the street or the bike lane.
• Parking on the Embarcadero. Since 1 October 2025 SFMTA lets you end a ride on Port land between Taylor and Howard Streets only at the bike racks by Piers 43, 41, 31, 27 and 9, the Pier ½ corral north of the Ferry Building and the corral by Ferry Plaza. Pier 40 and Bayfront Park are no-parking too.
• Fisherman’s Wharf. SFMTA bans parking on Port land north of Jefferson Street and west of Taylor Street, around Pier 45, Al Scoma Way and the Hyde Street Pier.
• Chinatown is an SFMTA no-parking zone, roughly between Broadway, Kearny Street, California Street and Powell Street.
• The Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge district doesn’t allow e-scooters on the bridge sidewalks, though e-bikes may cross, and Spin’s app makes the bridge a no-ride zone.
• Spin’s app zones. No riding at Fort Mason, Japantown’s Peace Plaza or Stonestown Galleria. You may ride through but not park in the Presidio and Crissy Field, in Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle, on the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building to Pier 39, in Chinatown and at Coit Tower.
• City parks. The Park Code keeps motorised vehicles on paved roads, off lawns, planted areas and fire trails.

Lime publishes no zones, so check its app map too.

Market Street is open. SFMTA’s car-free rules have kept private cars off downtown Market Street since January 2020, but they let scooters through.

Parking a scooter in San Francisco

Every shared scooter in San Francisco has a built-in lock, and SFMTA’s parking rules say where to lock it:

1. Lock it to a bike rack, upright and inside the rack’s footprint.
2. No rack nearby? Lock it to a sign pole or a parking meter pole.
3. No pole either? Park it upright in the furniture zone, the strip by the curb with trees, poles and signs.

Never park on a sidewalk narrower than 9 feet, at corners, curb ramps or crosswalks, against building fronts, in front of doors, driveways or stairs, at bus stops, in loading or blue zones, by fire hydrants, or locked to a tree.

If you don’t. SFMTA investigators answer 311 reports and cite the company, and the City may remove a scooter left in one spot for more than 7 days. See a scooter in the way? Report it on 311 or the SF311 app.

BART, Muni, cable cars, Caltrain and SFO

BART. Shared scooters such as Lime and Spin may not enter BART stations or trains: park outside the paid area. A folding scooter of your own may come aboard if you keep it folded and don’t ride it.

Muni. SFMTA’s permits bar shared scooters from Muni vehicles and platforms. Your own folding scooter may come aboard folded and kept with you, off the seats. Cable cars take no bikes at all.

Caltrain takes your own scooter, folded under the seat or, if it doesn’t fold, in the bike car. Its rules say nothing about shared scooters.

SFO. There are no shared scooters at the airport: on 17 October neither Lime’s nor Spin’s open data showed one within 6 miles of the terminals. Take BART from the International Terminal: about 29 minutes to Powell Street for Union Square, 28 to Civic Center and 33 to Embarcadero, then pick up a scooter.

Hills, fog, night rides and Oakland

• Hills. Lime’s terms say terrain and weather can drain a battery faster, and make checking the charge your job: do it before a long climb.
• Fog and wet streets. Spin’s terms say not to ride when weather or the road surface makes it unsafe.
• Night. The permits set no curfew. After dark state law requires a white front light and reflectors, which SFMTA makes the companies fit.
• Oakland. Across the bay, the Oakland map showed about 310 Lime scooters on the evening of 16 October.

The San Francisco map shows the nearest Lime or Spin scooter and the walk to it.

Did you know?

• Lime riders took 1.76 million trips in San Francisco in 2025, and Spin riders about 707,000, SFMTA’s figures show.
• October 2025 was a record month: Lime riders took more than 260,000 trips, the most SFMTA has recorded for the programme, KQED reported.
• Complaints doubled in a year: 311 reports about scooter parking and riding rose from over 5,000 in 2024 to more than 11,000 in 2025, mostly from North Beach, KQED found.