Marin County, CA Mobility & Curb Rules: Bike Lane Rules (2026)

020 makes bicycle riding in the unincorporated county a matter of state law: anyone operating a bicycle, electric bicycle, or motorized bicycle must comply with every California Vehicle Code provision that applies to those vehicles. That incorporation pulls in the state's bike lane and roadway rules rather than restating them in a separate county fine schedule. 05, the parks and trails rules, rather than by the general Vehicle Code cross-reference. 030 then adds two flat sidewalk bans that sit outside that Vehicle Code incorporation. First, no one may ride a bicycle on a sidewalk inside a business district that the county has zoned for that purpose, regardless of age.

Second, no one fourteen years of age or older may ride a bicycle on any sidewalk anywhere in the unincorporated county, leaving sidewalk riding open only to children under fourteen outside business districts. The Board of Supervisors can carve out exceptions by resolution, naming specific sidewalks where riding is allowed; any sidewalk exempted this way carries an automatic 15 mph speed ceiling unless a lower limit is posted for that location. Both the bike-lane compliance duty and the sidewalk bans apply countywide in the unincorporated area only; incorporated cities inside Marin, including San Rafael and Novato, enforce their own separate bicycle codes and are not covered by this chapter.