Milpitas, CA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Adopted by Ordinance No. 43.211 in June 2009, § V-100-9.05 of the Milpitas traffic code bans loitering within the median of any city street or other city-maintained thoroughfare. The section defines loiter broadly as lingering or remaining within the median strip for any purpose, expressly including panhandling, other than briefly stopping there to let traffic pass while crossing the street. Median strip is defined just as broadly, covering any non-landscaped, paved, planted, or otherwise landscaped strip of ground that divides a street or highway into lanes by direction of travel, which reaches medians on major Milpitas corridors as well as smaller landscaped dividers.

The ban does not apply to authorized public officers or employees, or to utility employees, who need to be in the street or median while performing their duties. Because § V-100-9.05 sits in Chapter 100's Section 9, on pedestrians, rather than Section 10's parking rules, it carries the chapter's general misdemeanor penalty at § V-100-1.02 instead of the civil-penalty track that Section 10 uses for stopping and parking violations. The Milpitas Police Department enforces the median loitering ban alongside the rest of the pedestrian rules in Section 9, including the crosswalk and right-angle crossing requirements in §§ V-100-9.01 and V-100-9.02.