Southfield, MI Mobility & Curb Rules: Bike Lane Rules (2026)

Chapter 126's traffic-control subchapter addresses bicycles in two adjoining sections rather than through dedicated bike-lane markings. Section 10.717J authorizes the traffic engineer to determine and designate specific streets where riding a bicycle on the sidewalk is prohibited, and to erect signs giving notice of the prohibition; the restriction runs street-by-street rather than citywide, so sidewalk riding remains legal wherever no such sign has gone up. Section 10.717I works the other direction: it lets the traffic engineer designate heavily traveled streets where bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles, and other nonmotorized traffic are barred from the roadway itself, again enforced only once appropriate signs are erected.

Read together, the two sections let the city steer cyclists off the sidewalk on some streets and off the roadway on others, without printing a single citywide rule for either. As with the rest of Chapter 126's sign-dependent regulations, Section 10.717O bars enforcing either restriction unless an official sign was in proper position and sufficiently legible to be seen by an ordinarily observant person at the time and place of the alleged violation. Chapter 126 also adopts the Michigan Vehicle Code, MCL 257.1 through 257.923, by reference, so state-law bicycle-riding rules that do not depend on a Southfield sign apply in the city as well.