E-scooters in San Jose, California: Lime, the rules, where to ride and where to park

Which e-scooters can you rent in San Jose?

Electric scooter rental in San Jose needs a City permit. The Department of Transportation runs the Shared Micro-Mobility Device Permit Program under chapter 11.92 of the Municipal Code, which the City Council set up in December 2018, and sets each permit’s terms, such as how many scooters a company may and must put out.

Lime is the company renting in 2026. Its scooters came back in early March, and the Department of Transportation announced on 10 March 2026 that Lime had been granted a permit, the Spartan Daily, San José State’s student paper, reported on 26 March. We found no 2026 permit for any other company, and the map shows Lime only: Bird, which ran here until 2024, and Spin aren’t on it.

The gap before Lime explains the new terms. From September 2024 to August 2025 Spin was the City’s only operator, allowed up to 1,000 scooters and required to keep at least 500. It fell short, the City didn’t renew its permit, and Spin stopped on 27 August 2025, San José Spotlight reported. A call for a new operator, open from 25 August to 12 September 2025, drew no applicant, so on 13 January 2026 the City Council cut the City’s yearly fee from $139 to $100 a scooter, with effect from 1 January; staff had aimed to issue a new permit by 1 March.

The San Jose map showed 925 Lime scooters at 3:55 a.m. on Thursday 29 October 2026: what stood there at that moment, not Lime’s fleet. That total covers Lime’s San Jose area as a whole, so it takes in a few scooters just over the city line in Santa Clara and in Burbank, an unincorporated pocket inside San Jose. We found no riding hours in the City’s Council records, and the map shows scooters at every hour.

For Lime the map shows each scooter’s position and range, but not scooters on a ride, and it draws no zones in San Jose: the app has them. First ride? See how to rent an e-scooter.

How much does a Lime scooter cost in San Jose?

We found no open page with Lime’s San Jose price on 29 October 2026, so check the rate in the app before you unlock.

Riders on low incomes can ride for less. The City’s programme requires the company to run a low-income plan, renewed each year, that waives any deposit and gives either at least 50% off or unlimited rides under 30 minutes to people earning up to twice the federal poverty level, the Department of Transportation wrote in November 2025. You can qualify through a programme such as Medi-Cal, or with recent pay stubs or a tax return, and the plan’s materials must come in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Mandarin at least.

Prefer a bike? Bay Wheels, Lyft’s bike share, rents e-bikes from dozens of stations in San Jose, San José Spotlight reported in September 2025; the map doesn’t show them.

Scooter rules in San Jose and California

The California Vehicle Code (CVC) sets the riding rules, the City’s permit binds the company, and each campus or transit owner rules its own ground.

The City has set tighter limits for shared scooters before: in 2019 its permit had the companies cap them at 12 mph citywide and check in the app that riders were 18 or over, a City report said. We found no record of the limits in Lime’s 2026 permit, so the app has the final word on age and speed.

Stay off the sidewalk. State law bans riding a scooter on it, except to enter or leave an adjacent property. Ride in the bike lane, or on a street posted at 25 mph or less.

State law is the same across California, though city rules differ: see e-scooters in San Francisco and e-scooters in Sacramento.

Where to park a scooter in San Jose

In 2019 San Jose let riders park shared scooters on the sidewalk, in the furniture zone: the strip by the curb with the trees, poles and benches. A scooter there must not block the space wheelchair users need, people on foot, access to transit, or utilities and emergency services, and the companies had two hours to move a badly parked one after a report, a City report said in November 2019.

We found no newer City page on parking, so check the app, which shows where you may end your ride.

San José State and the Guadalupe River Trail

• San José State University (SJSU). The campus is a dismount zone for electric and motorised scooters: ride to campus, then leave the scooter at a drop-off zone on its edge or in a bicycle enclosure, the university says on a page last updated in July 2024. Shared e-scooters may not be ridden on campus, and the companies use a geofence to shut them down there. A scooter left unattended on campus counts as abandoned and can be impounded, and riders can be cited under the Vehicle Code and the student conduct code.
• The Guadalupe River Trail. This 11-mile class I bike path runs north–south along the river to Alviso. The City runs it as a public trail, much of it on Valley Water’s flood-control levees, and it had over 433,000 users in 2025, the Department of Transportation wrote in March 2026. Its low points at the major undercrossings often flood in the wet season and can be impassable with standing water, mud and debris. State law allows scooters on bike paths unless they’re banned there, and we found no City or Valley Water rule on scooters on this trail: follow the signs at each entrance. The airport says you can reach the trail from Airport Parkway.

VTA, Caltrain at Diridon and the airport

• VTA buses and light rail. We found no VTA rule on scooters aboard. Its rules for riders say don’t ride bicycles, skateboards or rollerblades on VTA property; every bus has an outside rack for three bikes, and each light rail car takes up to six. End a rental before you board, clear of the stop.
• Caltrain at San Jose Diridon. You may bring your own scooter, at no charge: a folding one folded, at your seat or under it; a non-folding one, electric or not, in the bike car, parallel to the racks and held by a bungee. Don’t ride in stations or on platforms and ramps, and don’t take a scooter on an escalator, Caltrain says. With a rented scooter, end the ride outside the station. Off the train, the San Jose map shows the nearest Lime.
• Mineta San José International Airport (SJC). The airport names no scooter rule. VTA’s Route 60, the Airport Flyer, free when you board at the airport, links both terminals with the Metro/Airport light rail station, Milpitas BART and, for Caltrain, the Santa Clara Transit Center, the airport says. It has bike racks and lockers at both terminals; there is no foot or bike access along Skyport Drive.

Did you know?

• Five companies at once. By November 2019 the City had issued permits to Lyft, Bird, Lime, Spin and CLEVR for up to 5,600 e-scooters; Lime’s 2,300 were the most, a City report says.
• Three million trips in under two years. City staff estimated more than three million e-scooter trips in San Jose from February 2018 to November 2019. From June 2021 to November 2025 riders took about 1.4 million, nearly 28,000 a month, the Department of Transportation wrote.
• Most were parked right. In summer 2019 City staff checked 289 e-scooters on downtown streets: all but 18, about 94%, were parked properly.
• Scooters in the creeks. Between December 2018 and April 2019 the City’s Environmental Services Department pulled at least 41 e-scooters out of San Jose’s waterways.