Columbus, GA Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Columbus, Georgia Code of Ordinances §§ 18-24 through 18-27 set out the city's skating and skateboard rules in Chapter 18, Streets and Sidewalks. Section 18-24 bans skating, playing and skateboard use by 'persons of any age' in any roadway, meaning any portion of a city street used or intended for vehicular traffic; there is no exception for early morning hours, low-traffic streets or supervised events.

Section 18-25 adds a narrower sidewalk ban that names specific downtown blocks rather than the whole city: Front Avenue from Ninth to Fourteenth Street, Broadway from Ninth to Fifteenth Street, First Avenue from Tenth to Sixteenth Street, Dillingham Street, Warren Avenue, and Tenth through Fifteenth Streets west of First Avenue. Skating on sidewalks anywhere else in Columbus is not restricted by this chapter.

A broader sidewalk ban that once covered skaters age 15 and older, originally codified as section 18-26, was repealed by Ord. No. 78-7, § 1, adopted June 18, 1978, so that citywide age-based restriction no longer applies; only the named-street list in § 18-25 remains in force today. Section 18-27 then carves out a specific exception inside that named sidewalk district: riders under 15 years old who are skating along the sidewalks in the regular course of skating may still cross private driveways and may cross roadways at regular street intersections, even within the banned blocks.

Both core prohibitions trace to a 1931 skating ordinance and were reaffirmed by Ord. No. 78-3, §§ 1, 2, adopted January 10, 1978, which is the currently codified authority behind §§ 18-24 and 18-25.