Bike & e-scooter hire in Birmingham
Lime runs both the hire bikes and the e-scooters, and both are hired in its app. The e-scooters carry a real catch for a visitor: you must be 18 or over and hold a valid UK driving licence, and they exist only in Birmingham and on the University of Warwick campus. The e-bikes cover the wider region and ask for no licence. Neither locks into a dock. You end a ride in a marked bay shown in the app, and parking badly brings a warning first, then a charge that can reach £20. Tickets, passes and contactless are on the Birmingham page.
Dockless vehicles park on-street inside app-approved zones; there is no station to return them to.
West Midlands Cycle HireDockless
- Vehicles
- E-bike
- How you pay
- In the app, on your registered card.
i
tfwm.org.uk fetched 23 Jul 2026li.me fetched 23 Jul 2026 - How you get one
- Dockless — find one on the street through the app. Unlock by app.
- Cost
- Pay-as-you-go (unlock fee + per-minute rate) or in-app time-bundle Passes (LimePass) offering a cheaper per-minute rate than PAYG and no unlock fee, for an unlimited number of rides within the pass period, plus extended reservation time; a separate 'Lime Access' programme gives eligible residents a discounted PAYG rate. Rates change often; the app shows the current price before you unlock.
- Worth knowing
- West Midlands Cycle Hire (Lime e-bikes) launched on 1 April 2026, operated by Lime, replacing Beryl, which had run the scheme since roughly 2021.
West Midlands e-scootersDockless
- Vehicles
- E-scooter18+ · licence required
- How you pay
- In the app, on your registered card.
i
tfwm.org.uk fetched 23 Jul 2026 - How you get one
- Dockless — find one on the street through the app. Unlock by app.
- Cost
- Pay-as-you-go (unlock fee + per-minute rate) or in-app time-bundle Passes, offered in four fixed-duration tiers; prices stated as frozen for the scheme's first two years. Rates change often; the app shows the current price before you unlock.
- Worth knowing
- 18+, driving licence required · E-scooters are available only in Birmingham and on the University of Warwick campus — Birmingham-specific, not the wider West Midlands region the bike side of the scheme covers.
What is not recorded
- Check the minimum age in the app before you unlock.