Charlottesville, VA Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Section 15-246 splits into two prohibitions covering the same stretch of Main Street. Subsection (a) bars riding a bicycle, an electric power-assisted bicycle, a motorized skateboard or scooter, or a moped on any sidewalk or area reserved exclusively for pedestrians, expressly naming the pedestrian mall between the Ninth Street bridge and Ridge-McIntire Road, with an exception only for on-duty police officers and uniformed emergency personnel. Subsection (b) is aimed specifically at wheeled recreation gear without a motor: it bars riding or using rollerskates, rollerblades, skateboards, scooters or similar wheeled or runnered devices on that same Downtown Mall stretch, regardless of whether the device is motorized.

Both prohibitions trace to a 1993 ordinance and were most recently amended December 2, 2019, when the city folded motorized skateboards and scooters into the same framework as bicycles. Subsection (c) sets one civil penalty for the whole section: not more than fifty dollars per violation, enforceable by Charlottesville police patrolling the mall. The ban does not extend citywide, it is limited by its own text to sidewalks and pedestrian-only areas plus the named mall segment, so skateboarding on an ordinary street or in a bike lane under § 15-243 is regulated separately and is not swept into this section's prohibition.