Sugar Land, TX Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Section 4-42 sits in the peddlers and solicitors article, in the general provisions division rather than the door-to-door licensing division that governs salespeople approaching a house. It targets a narrower activity: anyone who stands or sits in a roadway or roadway median to ask motorists for money, or to hand material through a car window, is committing an offense the moment they do it, and there is no permit that makes it lawful. The rule only reaches what the section calls a roadway, defined as a public street with more than two main travel lanes or a posted speed limit over 30 miles per hour, so median activity on a narrow, slow residential street is not covered by this particular section even if it raises other concerns.

It sits alongside Sec. 4-41, which separately bars selling goods on a sidewalk or other public property without a permit, so a person soliciting drivers from a median and a vendor selling from a sidewalk cart are governed by two different sections of the same article. Because Sec. 4-42 does not set its own punishment, a violation falls back on the Code's general penalty in Sec. 00 fine and treats each day of continuing conduct as a separate violation.