Bessemer, AL Mobility & Curb Rules: Bike Lane Rules (2026)

Sections 106-6 and 106-7 sit in Chapter 106's Article I, right after the city's adoption of the state rules of the road and its business-district crosswalk rule in section 106-5. Section 106-6 is a flat prohibition: no person may ride a bicycle along or on any sidewalk anywhere within the city limits, which pushes cyclists into the street rather than onto pedestrian infrastructure. Section 106-7 then regulates how a bicycle may be ridden on the street: any person riding a bicycle on a Bessemer street must have a warning device attached to the bicycle, and must actually sound it when approaching any person on the street, not merely carry it unused.

Both sections trace back to Code 1973 §§ 21-40 and 21-41, so this sidewalk ban and warning-device mandate predate the current codification and have not been revisited to add anything about dedicated bike lanes, painted lanes, shared-lane markings or bicycle-specific traffic signals. A search of the current Code turns up no separate bike-lane ordinance or bicycle-infrastructure chapter, so for a Bessemer cyclist the operative rules remain these two: stay off sidewalks, and carry and use a warning device on the street. Riders wanting protected infrastructure are relying on state law and city public-works striping decisions rather than any ordinance in this Code.