New Berlin, WI Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

New Berlin Code § 152-5 E(2)(a) squarely prohibits mobile vendors from making sales from a roadway median strip, safety island, or on foot into any street or roadway, including alleys where there is vehicular traffic, closing off the classic curbside hawking model entirely. Section 152-5 H(1)(c), which applies to direct sellers generally, adds that no direct seller shall impede the free use of sidewalks and streets by pedestrians and vehicles, and that where sales are made from vehicles, all traffic and parking regulations must be observed.

Read together with the chapter's other right-of-way rules, mobile vendors are also barred from selling along a list of named arterials, including Calhoun Road, Cleveland Avenue, Greenfield Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, Moorland Road, National Avenue and Janesville Road among others, and cannot sell within the right-of-way along single-family residential streets without a special event permit. A vendor working a sidewalk or curb lane in New Berlin therefore has to keep pedestrian and vehicle passage clear, stay off medians and safety islands, and steer clear of the named through-streets, on top of the permit and licensing requirements that apply to every direct seller under the rest of § 152-5. Enforcement runs through the Police Department, and repeated obstruction complaints can factor into revocation of the vendor's underlying direct sellers permit.