E-scooters in St. Paul: Lime and Spin, the rules, the season and where to park

Which e-scooters can you rent in St. Paul?

Electric scooter rental in St. Paul runs on yearly agreements with the City, which its Legislative Code requires (§ 141.02). On 6 May 2026 the City Council approved agreements with Lime and Spin for e-scooters and e-bikes for the 2026 season, with two optional one-year renewals. The City’s scooters page, last edited in April 2025, names the same two companies for 2025. Spin’s open data names Bird Rides, Inc. as its operator.

The agreements set a floor and a ceiling for each company in the city: 500 to 1,100 scooters for Lime, 300 to 1,000 for Spin, and 200 to 600 e-bikes each. At least 30% of each fleet must be spread through lower-income census tracts.

At 4:13 p.m. on Monday 26 October 2026 the St. Paul map showed about 940 scooters: roughly 40 Spin as they stood at that moment, and 900 Lime as last counted. That is a snapshot, not the fleets. At 4:21 p.m. every scooter and e-bike in Spin’s St. Paul open data stood inside the city, by the Census Bureau’s boundaries, and none of Spin’s Minneapolis vehicles stood in St. Paul.

For Spin the map shows each scooter’s position, charge and range, and its zones (see below); for Lime, position and charge. Scooters on a ride aren’t shown. First ride? See how to rent an e-scooter.

Not everything is on the map. ScootRadar shows standing e-scooters only. Besides 39 scooters for hire and 5 out of service, Spin’s open data listed 2 e-bikes that afternoon, and Lime’s agreement has it run e-bikes too: none of them is on the map. The City’s page names no other bike share.

How much does a Lime or Spin scooter cost in St. Paul?

On 26 October 2026 neither the City’s page nor Spin’s open data gave a St. Paul price, so check it in the Lime or Spin app before you unlock. “The city does not regulate rental rates,” the City says, and “if the scooter or bike trip starts or ends in a park there could be an additional fee.” Under the 2026 agreements each company pays the City $0.15 for every trip that starts or ends in the city, and $0.27 more when a trip starts or ends on parkland.

Riders with limited incomes may get cheaper rides through each company’s Access programme, the City says. Spin Access gives discounted fares once you send documents showing your status, and approved riders without a smartphone can unlock by text message.

St. Paul scooter rules: sidewalks, age, helmets and left turns

Minnesota law (Statutes § 169.225) gives a scooter rider the rights and duties of a cyclist, with a few rules of its own. The state rules below are as the City of St. Paul, the neighbouring City of South St. Paul and the Mankato Free Press (15 September 2024) set them out. The City adds that scooters and bikes are “ONLY permitted on city streets, bike lanes, and bike trails”.

Off the sidewalk, downtown too. Minnesota law bans riding a scooter on any sidewalk, except to reach the property beside it, and the City says scooters “should NEVER be used on the sidewalks”, except briefly to or from the boulevard.

When does the scooter season end in St. Paul?

The City’s page says the season runs “typically from mid-April to mid-November each year”. The 2026 agreements estimate the first scooters “on or around April 15th” and the end “on or around November 15th”, and the City may move either date with notice. A company that wants to run later must send the City a winter plan by 1 November 2026; the City may then let it run to 31 December. As of 26 October 2026 we found no word of one.

In 2024 Lime kept about 100 scooters out into December as an informal winter test, until it stopped on 18 December, the day before the City’s first snow emergency, the City’s report says.

There is no night ban, and the map marks none in St. Paul. The map counts only scooters standing for hire, so it shows at a glance who is still out, and none once the fleets are put away for the winter.

Minneapolis next door has rules of its own, among them, under its 2025 licence, a switch-off from midnight to 4 a.m., which the map marks there: see e-scooters in Minneapolis and the Minneapolis map.

Parking a Lime or Spin scooter in St. Paul

End your ride in the boulevard, the City’s strip between the sidewalk and the curb, paved or grass. The City’s page and its 2026 agreements add:

• keep a walkway at least 5 feet wide on the sidewalk or trail beside it;
• stand the scooter upright, and don’t park where the boulevard is less than 3 feet wide or there is none;
• don’t block curb ramps, fire hydrants, driveways, alleys, bus stops, doors, loading zones, disability parking or parklets.

You may start or end a trip anywhere in the city, the City says, except where it has marked no riding or no parking: check the app. Its agreements expect riders to bring scooters over from Minneapolis and the University and leave them in St. Paul.

To report a scooter in the way, contact the company first: Lime on 888-LIME-345, Spin on 888-249-9698. The companies must deal with a badly parked scooter within 24 hours, the City says. Once you have told the company, if the scooter blocks a sidewalk, a building’s entrance or traffic, you may also call Public Works on 651-266-6100 in business hours.

Spin’s no-parking zones: river bridges, Como Park and the Transitway

On 26 October 2026 Spin’s open data for St. Paul held seven no-parking zones, which the map draws at street zoom. You may ride through them, but not end a ride there:

• the Ford Parkway Bridge and the Lake Street–Marshall Avenue Bridge, over the Mississippi to Minneapolis;
• the Wabasha Street Bridge, where it crosses Raspberry Island;
• a block of East Exchange Street downtown, between Wabasha and Cedar streets;
• part of Como Regional Park around Como Avenue and Beulah Lane, the Como Regional Park Pool included;
• a strip along the Intercampus Transitway, from the Minneapolis line to Como Avenue, and an area on University Avenue at the Minneapolis line.

Spin’s St. Paul riding area covers the city and reaches over the city line into Minneapolis and a sliver of Falcon Heights. Its open data held no slow zones, so the map doesn’t show the 10 mph park areas, and it doesn’t show Lime’s zones: check the app.

Parks, downtown, the Capitol and the University

• City parks. Under the 2026 agreements, on park land you park at signed scooter parking or, if there is none, near bike parking, a parking lot or a transit stop, but never in the stop, its shelter or its waiting area. Each company may place at most 75 scooters in Harriet Island Regional Park and on Raspberry Island.
• Downtown. The companies must spread their scooters across the city: each may place at most 250 in the Downtown Entertainment District.
• State Capitol and the University. We couldn’t read the scooter rules for the State Capitol grounds or for the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus: follow signs there and the app.

Light rail and buses

Light rail: yes. Buses: no. Metro Transit’s Mobility Device Policy lets you take a shared e-scooter (“Lime, Spin, Veo”) aboard METRO light rail and Northstar trains, but not onto any bus, on its rack or inside. It warns you to check that your destination is in the company’s area, or face its penalty. The Green Line runs between Union Depot in downtown St. Paul and Target Field in Minneapolis, Metro Transit says.

Did you know?

• St. Paul first asked the scooters to leave. On 10 July 2018 the City asked Bird to remove the scooters it had put on the streets without a permit. On 1 August the Council approved a pilot to run “until no later than the first measurable snowfall of 2018”.
• About 327,000 rides in 2024. Riders took 327,247 rides on shared scooters and e-bikes in St. Paul in 2024, about as many as in 2023, the City reported; Minneapolis had nearly four times as many.