Gaithersburg, MD Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Section 15-9 of the Gaithersburg City Code makes it unlawful for any person to stop, stand, walk or otherwise enter the median area separating the drive lanes of a public roadway for the purpose of soliciting donations, alms, subscriptions, employment or business from the occupant of any motor vehicle. The section is narrowly written around a specific location, the paved or landscaped median strip between opposing traffic lanes, rather than around aggressive conduct such as following pedestrians, blocking a sidewalk or repeated approaches after a refusal; those broader behaviors are not separately criminalized elsewhere in the Gaithersburg code.

The provision was originally adopted in 1997 as Ordinance No. O-15-97 under the title 'Solicitation in roadways' and was retitled to its current 'Solicitation in medians prohibited' heading by Ordinance No. O-4-08 in May 2008, with additional amendments by Ordinance No. O-4-07 in February 2007 and Ordinance No. O-7-07 in June 2007. The concern behind the section is traffic and pedestrian safety: a person standing in a landscaped or paved median to solicit drivers stopped at a light creates a hazard both to themselves and to motorists distracted by the interaction.

Section 15-9 sits in Chapter 15, Offenses Miscellaneous, alongside the loitering and disturbing-the-peace provisions, and carries the same Chapter 15 penalty structure through Section 15-19.