Roanoke, VA Mobility & Curb Rules: Bike Lane Rules (2026)

City Code Sec. 20-155, Method of riding, applies to bicycles, electric personal assistive mobility devices, electric power-assisted bicycles, mopeds, and motorized skateboards or scooters. Any of these operating on a street slower than the normal speed of traffic must ride as close as safely practicable to the right curb or edge, except when overtaking another vehicle, preparing for a left turn, avoiding hazards like parked cars, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or a substandard width lane, avoiding a lane that diverges right, or on a one-way street where riding near the left curb is allowed.

A 'substandard width lane' is defined as one too narrow for a bike and a vehicle to share safely side by side. The section also caps group riding at two abreast, and riders in that formation must not impede normal traffic flow, must move into single file as quickly as practicable when overtaken by a faster vehicle from the rear, and must ride in a single lane on a laned roadway. Sec. 20-158 separately requires anyone riding out of a lane, alley, or private driveway across a sidewalk to come to a full stop before crossing.

Sec. 20-150 bars riding a bicycle, e-bike, moped, or motorized scooter on any sidewalk or across a roadway on a crosswalk. Violations of this article fall under the general penalty at Sec. 00, except frame-number tampering which is a Class 3 misdemeanor.