E-scooters in Santa Monica: Bird, Veo, the rules and the beach path

Which apps rent e-scooters in Santa Monica?

Santa Monica permits shared scooters and e-bikes itself. Its programme left the pilot phase on 26 September 2024 and, under the rules for operators updated on 7 November 2025, continues indefinitely, with permits under continuous review. Up to four companies may hold one, and at launch their combined fleet, e-bikes included, was capped at a daily average of 2,200 devices.

The City names Spin and Veo as its current operators; both have held permits since July 2021. The Santa Monica Daily Press reported in 2023 that Bird had bought Spin. On 22 October 2026 Spin’s open data for Santa Monica listed no vehicles and named Bird Rides, Inc. as its operator, while Bird’s own Santa Monica data listed about 490 scooters and 160 e-bikes.

• Bird: stand-up scooters and e-bikes, in the Bird app.
• Veo: stand-up scooters and e-bikes, in the Veo app.

At 11:18 a.m. on 22 October 2026 the Santa Monica map showed about 460 Bird and 350 Veo scooters: what was on the map at that moment, not the companies’ fleets. It shows stand-up scooters only, not e-bikes.

Visiting? Install the Bird or Veo app and add a card before you head for the beach, and bring your driving licence: the companies must check it. New to this? See how to rent an e-scooter.

How much does a scooter cost in Santa Monica?

Veo publishes its rate in its open data. Bird publishes none: its rental agreement says the app shows the price, which may include a start fee and a minimum fee, with time rounded up to the nearest minute.

End your ride in one of the City’s drop zones and the company must take $1 off. The City also requires low-income rates, ways to unlock without a smartphone and pay without a bank account, and a discounted helmet on request. Bird’s Community & Access Pricing covers people aged 65 or over, US veterans, people on Medicaid or SNAP, and people with an income-based utility discount.

Santa Monica scooter rules: licence, helmets, sidewalks and speed

California sets the basics, as the DMV and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) explain them; the City adds where you may ride and park.

Tickets. The City says riding an e-scooter on the beach bike path can get you a ticket, but its pages give no amount; Santa Monica College warns of a $300 ticket if you ride through campus. The City’s rules for operators set no night hours for scooters.

The Pier, the beach path and the Promenade: where you can’t ride

• The beach path and Ocean Front Walk. The beach bike path runs about three miles through Santa Monica, from Venice to Will Rogers State Beach, with Ocean Front Walk beside it. The City allows no e-scooters on either and says riding on the path can get you a ticket. Shared scooters also shut off or slow to 1 mph across the beach: on 22 October 2026 Bird’s open data marked it no-ride from the Venice line to just past the Annenberg Community Beach House.
• The Pier and Pier Bridge, where Colorado Avenue meets Ocean Avenue: no e-scooters, and shared ones shut off or slow to 1 mph. End your ride at the drop zone on Ocean Avenue at Colorado and walk on.
• Third Street Promenade. The same applies. Bird’s data also marked Santa Monica Place, the mall at its southern end, no-ride.
• Parks. The City keeps e-scooters out of its parks, and shared ones shut off or slow to 1 mph in all of them, Palisades Park on the bluff and Tongva Park among them. On 22 October 2026 Bird’s data didn’t mark Palisades Park, though the City’s map of no-ride areas does: the ban still applies.
• Faster streets. On a street posted above 25 mph, state law lets you ride only in a bike lane. The City’s speed-limit data, updated in September 2026, puts Ocean Avenue, Main Street and most of downtown at 25 mph. Wilshire, Santa Monica and Pico Boulevards east of Lincoln, Colorado east of 17th Street and Lincoln from Wilshire to Pico are at 30 mph; Lincoln south of Pico, Olympic and San Vicente at 35; Pacific Coast Highway at 45.

The apps must show these zones and warn you when you enter one.

Where to park: drop zones and the $1 discount

The City has mapped 184 drop zones, in the street, on the sidewalk and at bike-share stations, and the apps must show them. By the beach you’ll find them on Ocean Avenue at Colorado, Broadway, Arizona and Olympic, on Ocean Front Walk by Beach Lot 1 and at Marine Street, and at the Annenberg Community Beach House; downtown, at Arizona and the Promenade and by the Downtown Santa Monica station.

Otherwise, park upright in the furniture zone: the strip of sidewalk by the curb with the trees, poles, benches and bike racks. Never block a sidewalk, curb ramp, doorway, driveway, bus stop or hydrant: the City can impound a scooter left as a hazard. On the beach and Ocean Front Walk, in beach car parks and parks, and on the Promenade and the Pier, park only in a drop zone or at a bike rack; the app may not let you end your ride elsewhere.

Big Blue Bus and the Metro E Line

Metro E Line. The E Line runs from downtown LA to three Santa Monica stations: 26th St/Bergamot, 17th St/SMC and Downtown Santa Monica, on Colorado Avenue a few blocks from the Pier. The timetable gives 45 minutes to 7th St/Metro Center. A ride costs $1.75, with free transfers for two hours and caps of $5 a day and $18 a week. Metro bans riding any wheeled device in stations and on trains: end a shared ride outside.

Big Blue Bus. The City’s buses don’t take shared scooters, but your own folding e-scooter may ride along if it folds to 30 × 18 × 18 inches or less. A ride costs $1.25 by card, phone or TAP, with a free Big Blue Bus transfer within two hours, or $1.50 in cash.

Riding into Venice and the rest of Los Angeles

Ride south into Venice, or east into Mar Vista and West Los Angeles, and you’re in the City of Los Angeles, which issues its own permits and sets its own rules. Our Los Angeles guide has them, and the Los Angeles map shows the scooters there.

North of the city line, the beach path runs on to Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades, also in Los Angeles. On 22 October 2026 Bird’s open data marked the streets of Pacific Palisades no-ride.

Did you know?

• Bird started here. Rental e-scooters first appeared in Santa Monica in September 2017, from Bird. The City left Bird out of its second pilot in 2021; Bird later bought Spin, one of the companies it chose.
• E-bikes get the beach path. It is part of the 22-mile Marvin Braude Bike Trail from Will Rogers State Beach to Torrance Beach. In Santa Monica, shared class 1 and 2 e-bikes may use it; scooters may not.
• Big events change the rules. For the Coast open-streets festival, the LA Marathon and the Twilight Concert Series, the City can have the companies move parking and limit where you ride; the apps must tell you.