E-scooters in Szeged: Lime, where the city bans riding and parking, who is fined and how much, and Hungary’s rules

Which e-scooter apps work in Szeged?

Lime rents e-scooters (elektromos roller) in Szeged, through its app. Szeged was the first of Hungary’s big cities outside Budapest where Lime’s scooters could be ridden, from the Whitsun weekend of 2021, and SZKT (Szegedi Közlekedési Társaság), the city’s transport company, signed a logistics contract to charge, move and maintain them, Telex reported on 3 June 2021. It began as a four-month trial, Telex wrote.

At 06:09 on Monday 2 November 2026, Hungarian time, the Szeged map showed about 380 Lime scooters as last counted.

Lime shows its Szeged price in its app. Lime also rents scooters in Budapest, under the same national rules, and in Hódmezővásárhely, which has its own map. New to shared e-scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.

Where can’t you ride an e-scooter in Szeged?

Szeged’s assembly adopted the rule on 28 November 2025 as decree 42/2025. (XII. 1.), which amends the city’s decree on the basic rules of community life, 27/2016. (XI. 16.), for the safety of road users, its preamble says. It has applied since 1 January 2026. It covers e-scooters and every other electric or motor-driven sport, leisure or tourist device used to get around, segways, hoverboards and electric skateboards among them.

Get off and push in pedestrian areas. On footpaths (gyalogút), in pedestrian zones and on the part of a shared foot and cycle path kept for people on foot, where signs mark the area, you may not ride: get off and push or carry the scooter. Breaking the rule can bring an administrative fine of up to HUF 200,000.

Neither this rule nor the parking rules below apply to devices used by law-enforcement bodies or by people with reduced mobility, or to those used in road-authority checks and paid-parking checks.

All the city had asked of riders, deputy mayor József Binszki said, was not to use scooters and bikes on pavements, in public spaces where they are banned or in pedestrian zones, Telex reported on 9 September 2026.

Where can you leave a rental e-scooter in Szeged?

End the ride where the Lime app allows, and never where the city’s decree bans it. You may not leave an e-scooter:

• on public green space (közhasználatú zöldterület);
• on a pavement, footpath, cycle track, shared foot and cycle path, pedestrian zone or shared pedestrian and cycle zone in a way that hinders people moving safely there.

Either can bring a fine of up to HUF 200,000. When the assembly voted, Telex gave the strips that guide blind and partially sighted people as an example of where a parked scooter is in the way (28 November 2025).

Who is fined. For a scooter left in a banned place, the decree holds the scooter’s keeper (üzembentartó) liable. The keeper is let off if it proves whom it had handed the scooter to, with that person’s name, place and date of birth and address, and the penalty is then imposed on that person. It is also let off if the scooter was taken from it unlawfully before the offence and it had already asked the authorities to act, or if it proves in a formal document that the scooter has a new keeper, who is then penalised instead.

Szeged’s e-scooter fines: from warnings to HUF 47,000

When the assembly voted on 28 November 2025, deputy mayor József Binszki said riders breaking the rules would at first only be warned, and the fine of up to HUF 200,000 would come only if that didn’t work, Telex reported. Councillor Edvin Mihálik had said earlier that he hoped the change would cut residents’ complaints, Telex added, citing the local news site Szegeder.

On 9 September 2026 Telex reported, citing Szegeder, that about 150 people had been fined in the past month and that breaking the rules with an e-scooter or a similar device cost a flat HUF 47,000. The city’s public-space inspectors (közterület-felügyelők) had begun fining a month earlier and planned to keep up a strong presence in the streets.

Hungary’s e-scooter rules: alcohol, speed and a KRESZ review

In a release of 1 July 2026, Somogy County police reminded riders of some of Hungary’s rules:

• Alcohol is forbidden to e-scooter riders too, and riding drunk can, depending on the level, bring criminal proceedings.
• Faster scooters: one with a design speed over 25 km/h counts as a moped (segédmotoros kerékpár), so a licence, insurance and a helmet are compulsory.
• Attention: listening to music or using a phone while riding draws a rider’s attention from dangers on the road.
• Gear: e-scooter riders are among the least protected road users, so the police ask them always to wear proper protective gear; a brightly coloured helmet also makes a rider easier to see.

The police magazine Zsaru’s advice to riders, on 2 September 2025: hold the handlebar with both hands, use lights and reflectors in the dark or in poor visibility, slow down among pedestrians, and choose quieter streets or cycle lanes.

On 16 July 2026 Dávid Vitézy, minister for transport and investment, presented a public road-safety questionnaire, open until early September, Telex reported. On e-scooters it asked whether their rules should come before the full review of the KRESZ, Hungary’s highway code, whether to split them into two vehicle categories, whether to make head protection compulsory, and whether to allow riding from 12, 14, 16 or 18; he said the laws would be finalised in the light of the answers.

Taking an e-scooter on trams, buses and trains

Before you take your own e-scooter on a tram, trolleybus, bus or train, check the operator’s rules for it, and end a Lime ride before you board.

When Lime arrived in 2021, SZKT, whose trams and trolleybuses ran in the city, told Telex that the scooters were no rival to them but complemented public transport well. It expected tens of millions of forints a year from its Lime contract, paid by performance.

Did you know?

• Lime’s first day in Szeged had free rides. On the first day, in 2021, scooters could be ridden free from the entrance of the university library, the Study and Information Centre, Telex reported on 3 June 2021.
• In 2021 a ride cost HUF 250 to unlock and HUF 50 a minute, while a single ticket for the city’s trams, trolleybuses and buses cost HUF 320–450, depending on where it was bought (Telex, 3 June 2021).
• Fines for cycle paths. In September 2026 Telex reported, citing Szeged.hu, that the money from the fines went to developing the local cycle-path network.
• The decree reaches rickshaws too: any device with three or more wheels that carries passengers for hire, whatever drives it, counts as one of its vehicles (decree 42/2025).
• 367 road accidents involving e-scooter riders were recorded in Hungary in 2024, and 176 in the first five months of 2025; e-scooters caused or suffered 3 to 4% of the country’s road accidents, the police magazine Zsaru wrote on 2 September 2025.