E-scooters will return to Nottingham as Dott announced as new operator

January 22, 2025

Nottingham City Council is excited to announce the re-launch of e-scooters across the city. Dott has been chosen to operate the e-scooter scheme in Nottingham, offering a greener travel option to help take cars off our roads and improve air quality. The striking blue and red e-scooters are approved by the Department for Transport (DfT) and are used in other UK cities such as Bristol and Milton Keynes. The e-scooters are expected to be on the streets in early spring 2025 and will join e-bikes already available to hire.

Around 1300 e-scooters will be available to hire from approximately 300 mandatory parking locations across the city. Key lessons around parking have been learnt from previous e-scooter trials. Using money from the Transforming Cities Fund, the council has recently installed 275 racks for e-bikes and e-scooters to help signpost and improve parking. In addition, the original e-scooter parking spots have all been audited and reviewed, and those not meeting the council’s parking criteria will not be reactivated in the new scheme.

The e-scooters will have pay-as-you-go pricing, with no unlock fee and costing 29p per minute to ride. There are several pass options available such as £2.99 a month for unlimited £2 rides. Discounts will also be offered to key groups such as NHS workers, people on low incomes, and students.

Dott will provide many education and training options for first-time riders, including a mandatory onboarding quiz, tutorials on the app, a beginner’s mode (reducing vehicle speed for the first three rides), and regular in-person training events led by trained experts. There will be a transparent user disciplinary process so any riders found breaking the rules will be given fines. 24/7 customer support will be available via in-app reporting, chatbots, email, social media and a free phone number.

The e-scooters will be fitted with technology so they won’t operate outside Nottingham City Council boundaries. This also enables the council to create ‘low speed’ or ‘no go’ zones. Nottingham is one of many cities trialling e-scooters, and learning made in the city will be used to plan the smooth integration of e-scooters into cities around the UK, if they are legalised in the future.  The government’s e-scooter trial is due to end in May 2026. The e-scooters can be used on roads, cycle lanes, carriageways and other areas where cycling is permitted but not on pavements. Anyone wanting to hire an e-scooter must be over 18 years old and hold at least a provisional driving licence.

Nottingham City Council Leader and Executive Member for Strategic Regeneration, Transport and Communications, Councillor Neghat Khan said: “We are thrilled that e-scooters are returning to Nottingham, providing a convenient, sustainable, and affordable transport option. By offering an alternative to car journeys, e-scooters will play a key role in easing congestion and lowering harmful emissions in our city. This aligns with our commitment to improving air quality and promoting greener travel for all our residents and visitors.”

Peadar Golden, UK General Manager at Dott said: “We are very excited to work with Nottingham City Council to provide another efficient and sustainable transport solution to get people out of their cars. As a responsible operator, Dott is bringing its experience from more than 400 cities to ensure its service is carefully integrated into the city, offering safety and reliability for riders together with orderly streets for pedestrians.”

For more information on e-scooters, visit this page.

 

Related news

Lime-e-bike-parking-edit-scaled

More than 275 racks for e-bikes and e-scooters to be installed across Nottingham

Funded by the Transforming Cities fund and in preparation for the return of the e-scooters, Nottingham City Council is installing 275 racks for e-bikes and e-scooters to help improve parking.

Find out more
Dott-for-NottinghamPR

Electric scooter rental trial

Find out about how to hire an e-scooter in Nottingham.

Find out more
DT-AT-Hire-a-bike

Hire a bike

Want a fun, sustainable way to travel across the city? Bike hire operator Lime has launched an electric bike (e-bike) rental scheme in Nottingham, in partnership with Nottingham City Council. Users can pick up and return Lime e-bikes from a network of designated e-bike-hire bays across the city.

Find out more

Sign up to the transport newsletter

Roadworks bulletin every Friday
and monthly project updates.

Sign up for email updates

 

Enter your email address below to sign up for updates or to access your subscriber preferences.