E-scooters in Winston-Salem: Lime, the no-ride places, the age of 16 and parking

Which e-scooter apps work in Winston-Salem?

At 3:54 am Eastern Time on Tuesday 3 November 2026, the map of Winston-Salem showed about 250 Lime scooters as last counted.

Under Ordinance 2024-4, no one may rent out a shared scooter, bike or other dockless device on a public right-of-way or other City public area without a permit from the City (§ 78-368). Each year a selection committee may grant up to two permits for each kind of device: e-scooters, dockless bikes and newer dockless modes. It may grant more if it finds demand for more devices than the permittees offer (§ 78-371(a)). A permit lasts one year (§ 78-372(d)).

Before you ride, the company must show you what you may be charged: minimum charges, the rate per minute, hour or mile where that applies, any maximum and the charges for extra time (§ 78-370(h)). Check the price in the app before you unlock.

No smartphone or credit card? The permit holder must offer several ways to pay, among them options for people who have neither, and make them available at several places around the city (§ 78-369(b)). It must also keep enough scooters in the City’s low- and moderate-income census tracts to meet demand there (§ 78-369(a)). New to shared scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.

E-scooter rules in Winston-Salem in 2026

Ordinance 2024-4, which the City Council approved on 4 March 2024 and which took effect that day, replaced Article XIV of Chapter 78 of the City Code in full. The rules here are its provisions as adopted. Most of them govern the companies; a short list of duties falls on riders.

The age, helmet, traffic and give-way rules of § 78-377 are written for riders. The bans of § 78-369(c) apply to any “person or business”, so they bind you and the company alike: the company may not offer scooters for rent in the barred places either.

Speed. No company may rent out a scooter or e-bike that can go faster than 20 mph (§ 78-369(c)(2)), but the ordinance itself sets riders no speed limit. Each scooter must carry GPS able to slow it down or bar parking by location, which the company must use when the City asks (§ 78-369(i)). The company must also be able to tell when its scooters are in restricted areas and let the rider know during the trip or at its end (§ 78-369(e)).

Penalties. The ordinance’s $250 civil penalty falls on companies: on a permittee for each breach of the article or its permit, on anyone renting out devices without a permit, and on the permittee when a customer abandons a scooter in breach of the parking rules (§§ 78-378(a), 78-379(e)). The City may impound any device left in breach of the article straight away (§ 78-376(a)); for a rental scooter, the company then owes $50 a day for each one on top of the penalty (§§ 78-369(d), 78-378(a), 78-379(d)).

Where can you ride an e-scooter in Winston-Salem?

• Streets, under the traffic laws. Give way to the traffic on a road before you enter or cross it, and to people on foot.
• Not on sidewalks. The ban covers every public sidewalk in the city. You may walk a scooter across one.
• Not on greenways. In the ordinance, a greenway is a path designated as a public trail for people cycling and walking, closed to the general public’s motor vehicles (§ 78-366(h)).
• Not in public parks or City parking decks, and not within Old Salem.

The article doesn’t cover rentals from a fixed docking station or a shop, nor a device that a person with a mobility disability recognized under the Americans with Disabilities Act uses to get around (§ 78-365).

Parking a shared scooter in Winston-Salem

When you end a ride on a public right-of-way or in a City public area, leave the scooter upright and make sure it does not (§ 78-369(c)(5)):

• Block the way of people walking or driving, or their access to the street or sidewalk.
• Block a crosswalk, a crossing button or an ADA ramp, or otherwise get in the way of people with disabilities.
• Stop anyone getting in or out of a car lawfully parked by the curb.
• Stand within 36 inches of a fire hydrant.
• Create a public safety hazard, or break any other law or regulation.

Whether a scooter breaks these rules is for the city manager to decide. Scooters are barred from greenways, public parks, City parking decks and Old Salem (§ 78-369(c)(1)), so don’t end a ride there. A scooter left unattended in one spot for 72 hours or more counts as abandoned (§ 78-366(a)).

Badly parked? Anyone may tell the company, by phone, email or an app. On weekdays from 6 am to 6 pm, the company then has two hours to move or re-park the scooter; at other times, at weekends and on holidays, it must do so by the following day, or as soon as it practicably can (§ 78-370(a)).

Broken or unsafe? A scooter that doesn’t work or isn’t safe must be off the street within an hour of the company learning of it, and an unsafe one must be locked remotely at once so nobody can rent it (§ 78-369(m)). The company must keep a hotline staffed around the clock, every day of the year, for safety concerns, complaints and questions (§ 78-370(i)).

What the permit holder must do

The permit holder’s duties under the ordinance include:

• Equipment. Lights that are always on at the front, sides and rear, white or red and visible from 500 feet; working brakes; a bell or horn; and a serial number or other identifier readable from 10 feet (§ 78-369(f)–(h), (l)).
• Upkeep. Regular inspections for wear and damage, with worn or damaged parts replaced at once (§ 78-369(m)).
• Weather and events. Take every scooter off the streets when the city manager decides that the weather or a special event calls for it (§ 78-370(c)).
• Your data. Give the City the anonymized trip data it asks for, tell you so before a trip, and get your opt-in before selling your data or passing it to anyone but the City (§ 78-370(d)).

The release. Before your first ride, the company must have you sign or tick a box agreeing to release the City and its staff from claims for injury, death or damage linked to your rental and to the company’s operations, among other matters (§ 78-370(l)). Read it in the app before you agree.

Riding on the Wake Forest campus

On 2 August 2022, Wake Forest University’s Facilities and Campus Services reminded the campus community of its rules for e-scooters and other small electric devices:

• Keep them outdoors. They may not be used, kept or charged inside a building, and any found inside are confiscated at once.
• Park at a bike rack, the nearest one, or the next nearest if that one is full. Never on the grass, on a sidewalk, in a courtyard or in front of a building.
• Obey the traffic laws, including stop signs and signals, and give way to people on foot.

The same notice requires e-scooters and similar devices to be registered with the university’s Transportation and Parking Services. These rules bind people on the Wake Forest campus only; on the public streets around it, the City’s ordinance applies.

Your own e-scooter in Winston-Salem

Ordinance 2024-4 is written mostly for rented devices, but § 78-365 extends some of it to privately owned ones: the bans on sidewalks, greenways, public parks, City parking decks and Old Salem, the parking rules, the City’s power to impound a device left in breach of the article, and the rider rules of § 78-377. The age of 16 applies to privately owned e-scooters but not to privately owned bicycles. Permits, fees, response times and the $250 penalty concern the companies only.

Elsewhere in North Carolina

Winston-Salem’s ordinance applies within the City only. For other North Carolina cities, see e-scooters in Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham.