Laguna Niguel, CA Mobility & Curb Rules: Shared E-Scooter Rules (2026)

Laguna Niguel Municipal Code § 13-1-53 prohibits operating a motorized scooter, as that device is defined in California Vehicle Code § 407.5, on any hiking trail, horseback riding trail, bicycle path, trail or bikeway within the city, invoking the state's own trail-vehicle statutes, Vehicle Code §§ 21230, 21225 and 23127, as the enforcement basis. The ban reaches every unauthorized motor vehicle on those routes, not just scooters, and the city manager is directed to post warning signs and take whatever action is necessary to carry out the prohibition on hiking and horseback riding trails and bicycle paths.

The section is careful to exempt ordinary bicycle lanes striped on city streets: those are not treated as trails, paths or bikeways for purposes of the ban, so a scooter rider using a street-side bike lane is not violating § 13-1-53 even though the same rider would be violating it on a park trail or bikeway. Because the ordinance was adopted specifically to reach motorized scooters by name (Ord. No. 2005-139, adopted March 15, 2005), it applies equally to a personally owned kick scooter with a motor and to a scooter picked up from a shared dockless or docked rental fleet: the code does not distinguish ownership, only the type of vehicle and where it is operated.

The city has not separately adopted a shared micromobility franchise or permit program in the code; the trail prohibition in § 13-1-53 stands as the operative local restriction on motorized scooter use for both privately owned and shared devices citywide.