Bike & e-scooter hire in London
Every bike and scooter scheme here unlocks through its own app. Santander Cycles also has a terminal at each docking station and a key fob, but the terminal only releases standard pedal bikes; an e-bike comes out through the app alone. Lime, Voi and Forest have no docks. Rented e-scooters carry the real restriction: they are legal only in the London boroughs taking part in TfL's trial, and TfL's trial page lists which boroughs those are. Tickets, passes and contactless are on the London page.
Docked means the vehicle lives in a station and must go back to one. Dockless vehicles park on-street inside app-approved zones.
- Vehicles
- Pedal bikeE-bike
- How you pay
- In the app, on your registered card.
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tfl.gov.uk fetched 19 Jul 2026 - How you get one
- Docked — pick one up at a station and return it to one. Unlock by app, dock terminal or key fob.
- Cost
- Four purchase tiers, all structured as an included time-block with per-block overage charges: Single ride (one ride, up to a fixed time block, extra charged per additional block), Day Pass (unlimited rides within the time block for 24 hours, extra charged per additional block), Monthly subscription and Annual subscription (both unlimited rides within the time block for the membership period, extra charged per additional block). Rates change often; the app shows the current price before you unlock.
- Worth knowing
- TfL describes the scheme as covering 'central London' with docking stations across roughly 800 locations (12,000+ cycles).
- Vehicles
- E-bike
- How you pay
- In the app, on your registered card.
- How you get one
- Dockless — find one on the street through the app. Unlock by app.
- Cost
- Check the operator’s pricing page. Rates change often; the app shows the current price before you unlock.
- Worth knowing
- Two distinct footprints.
- Vehicles
- E-scooter18+ · licence required
- How you pay
- In the app, on your registered card.
- How you get one
- Dockless — find one on the street through the app. Unlock by app.
- Cost
- Check the operator’s pricing page. Rates change often; the app shows the current price before you unlock.
- Worth knowing
- 18+, driving licence required · Two distinct footprints.
- Vehicles
- E-bike
- How you pay
- In the app, on your registered card.
- How you get one
- Dockless — find one on the street through the app. Unlock by app.
- Cost
- Pay-as-you-go priced per minute with no separate unlock fee for either e-bikes or e-scooters; prepaid minute bundles/passes are also offered as an alternative to metered pay-as-you-go. Rates change often; the app shows the current price before you unlock.
- Vehicles
- E-scooter18+ · licence required
- How you pay
- In the app, on your registered card.
- How you get one
- Dockless — find one on the street through the app. Unlock by app.
- Cost
- Pay-as-you-go priced per minute with no separate unlock fee for either e-bikes or e-scooters; prepaid minute bundles/passes are also offered as an alternative to metered pay-as-you-go. Rates change often; the app shows the current price before you unlock.
- Worth knowing
- 18+, driving licence required
- Vehicles
- E-bike
- How you pay
- In the app, on your registered card.
i
forest.bike fetched 19 Jul 2026 - How you get one
- Dockless — find one on the street through the app. Unlock by app.
- Cost
- Pay-as-you-go: a fixed unlock fee that includes a bundled block of ride minutes with the first bike selected. No subscription/membership tier is mentioned on the page checked. Rates change often; the app shows the current price before you unlock.
- Worth knowing
- Operates across 19 London boroughs per Forest's own site ('the biggest bike area of all bikes in London'), with thousands of e-bikes in the fleet.
What is not recorded
- What Lime charges is not recorded. The price is shown in the app before you unlock, so read it there.
- Check the minimum age in the app before you unlock.