Raleigh, NC Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 13-3016 is Raleigh's general smoking-regulation ordinance, and subsection (b)(1)(j) extends the indoor smoking prohibitions to outdoor public land: smoking is prohibited within 'all City parks and greenways and structures associated with parks and greenways,' with smoking permitted only in areas of those parks and greenways specifically delineated as automobile parking areas. The same subsection separately bans smoking within 25 feet of any boarding platform or area at a transit facility, such as Moore Square Station or other multi-bus stops, under paragraph (k). Clear and conspicuous signage must be posted wherever the prohibition applies, per (b)(2) and the signage standard in (k), which requires letters at least one inch tall or the international no-smoking symbol.

The section defines 'smoking' broadly in (a)(18) as inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, or other tobacco product in any manner or form, language broad enough to reach more than traditional cigarettes. Enforcement falls to subsection (l), which places responsibility on the proprietor or person in charge of a regulated place to make reasonable efforts to prevent smoking in nonsmoking areas, while subsection (m) sets the penalty for anyone who actually violates the section: guilty of an infraction, punished by a penalty not greater than $50.

The parks and greenways prohibition was added by Ord. No. 2011-834 in 2011 and the transit-platform buffer was part of the same 2019 update under Ord. No. 2019-911.