Spectre
The Deported
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2007
- Messages
- 36,832
- Location
- Dallas, Texas
- Car(s)
- 00 4Runner | 02 919 | 87 XJ6 | 86 CB700SC
I bet most local jurisdictions have laws against it though.
I'm not sure about that. I thought of the same thing too - I haven't been able to check Dallas city or county regs because their servers are apparently powered by a couple of asthmatic elderly gerbils on a wheel and the search timed out, but checking some of the larger suburbs around so far has turned up zero outright bans. Mostly the regs for riding bicycles on the sidewalk are things like:
"A person riding a bicycle on a sidewalk shall yield the right-of-way to all pedestrians and shall give an audible signal before overtaking and passing a pedestrian on a sidewalk."
Or things prohibiting people from riding them on sidewalks in public parks except designated areas:
"Use of vehicles, horses, bicycles, etc. in public parks. (c) It shall be unlawful for any person to ride, use or operate any horse, motorcycle, motor scooter or any other vehicle in and upon the public parks of the city, except in certain areas, drives, trails and pathways specifically designated for such purpose."
Most of the ones I looked at are actually silent on the matter. I did check the local most-stick-up-ass suburb around, Plano. If anyone had such a ban, I would expect them to have it - but even they don't have an outright ban. The closest they get is to ban them from two areas where the sidewalks are narrow and there are lots of pedestrians and one Veteran's Memorial. Otherwise the city is wide open for riding on the sidewalk.
Sec. 12-169. - Riding on sidewalks and other specified areas.
(a) Except as may be authorized by a special event permit, it shall be an offense for any person to use, ride, propel, or operate a bicycle on any public sidewalk, walkway, architectural feature, wall, plaza, steps, or railing within the following identified places as defined in section 14-7:
(1) Downtown District.
(2) Memorial Park that serves as a veteran's memorial.
(3) Legacy Town Center District, specifically public sidewalks adjacent to commercial businesses.
This subsection shall not apply to any authorized city employee while performing official duties or any person who walks a bicycle in the above-referenced areas.
The conduct prohibited in the above-referenced areas shall not apply to shared use paths as defined in section 14-7.
Downtown Plano is basically ten smallish blocks. Legacy Town Center is an outdoor shopping mall. Plano is a rather large suburb, so those and the memorial park are just a tiny part where people can't ride on the sidewalk.
Of course, then we have idiots like these folks who refuse to make their codes searchable online - "Go to our central library lol": https://www.garlandtx.gov/2001/City-Charter-Code-of-Ordinances Ugh.
Edit: Just found another reference to Dallas city code, even though their subcontracted code search engine is still broken. The city of Dallas only bans sidewalk riding in the downtown Central Business District... which makes sense as that's about the only part of Dallas with regular heavy pedestrian traffic during the day. https://dallascityhall.com/departments/transportation/bikeway/Pages/faqs.aspx
Are bicyclists allowed to ride on sidewalks?
Yes, provided riders obey traffic signs and signals, yield right of way to pedestrians, give an audible signal when overtaking and passing pedestrians, and travel in a safe, prudent manner at a speed appropriate to conditions. However, bicyclists are not permitted to ride on sidewalks in the central business district as described in Section 9.1 of the Dallas City Code.
So, yeah, it doesn't look like most municipalities, at least in my area, have any sort of blanket ban on sidewalk riding. To be fair, that's probably because we have very few pedestrians in most areas. Something to do with the regular weather here...