Bethlehem, PA Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Codified Ordinances § 951.13, titled Roller Skates, states that no person shall roller skate, ride on a skate board or operate any recreational-type device on the Pedestrian Malls, nor permit someone else to do so. The rule applies within the Pedestrian Malls as defined in § 951.01, which covers specific downtown blocks including the Hinge Block bounded by Broad Street, Main Street, Walnut Street and Guetter Street. It sits among a dense set of mall-specific conduct rules in Article 951: pedacycles cannot be ridden on the malls either (§ 951.06), disorderly conduct and intoxication are barred (§ 951.07), and sound amplification requires authorization (§ 951.14).

Enforcement authority is assigned in § 951.22 to both the Department of Parks and Public Property and the Department of Police, who may issue citations for any Article 951 violation. The penalty section, § 951.99, sets the same tiered summary-offense schedule used elsewhere in the parks code: $200 or thirty days for a first violation, $500 or sixty days for a second, and $1,000 or ninety days for a third and each later violation, except that a violation of the separate activities section 951.03(h) carries a flat $15.00 fine instead. The ordinance traces to Ord. 2910, passed November 15, 1983, when the Pedestrian Malls conduct code was adopted.