Bradenton, FL Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Article V of Chapter 62 is titled Prohibited Activities That Interfere With Public Safety and the Primary Purpose of Public Roads, and § 62-109 applies it to all public roads and rights-of-way within the City of Bradenton. Section 62-111(a) makes it unlawful, unless a permit or license was issued by an appropriate governmental entity or the state department of transportation rules authorize the use, to use those roads in a way that interferes with the safe and efficient movement of people and property. The listed prohibited uses are storing, selling or attempting to sell goods, merchandise, other materials or any services; sitting, standing or occupying any part of the right-of-way, including a road, median, alley or sidewalk, while making an express or implied threat of injury or property damage or impeding another person's passage; physical interaction between a pedestrian and a driver or occupant on the traveled portion of a high risk road; and occupying that traveled portion.

Subsection (a)(2) spells out the threatening conduct. It includes confronting or accosting a person in a way that would cause a reasonable person to fear imminent bodily harm or a criminal act, using obscene or abusive language, and touching a person or that person's motor vehicle, bicycle or wheelchair without consent. The article never uses the word panhandling. It regulates by conduct and location.

Section 62-110 defines a high risk road for pedestrians by reference to the Bradenton Police Department Pedestrian Traffic Safety Study dated October 24, 2019. The list includes 26th Street West, 59th Street West, Cortez Road West, Martin Luther King Avenue, 13th Avenue West and East, and Manatee Avenue East and West. The traveled portion covers shoulders and bike lanes, and a median includes traffic islands whether paved, unpaved, curbed or painted.

Subsection (b) carves out city, county and state workers and contractors doing road work, public service personnel such as firefighters, law enforcement, EMS and solid waste crews, streets closed for a permitted special event, and people entering or exiting a bus or other public transit.