Eugene, OR Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

450, part of the Eugene Code (current through Ordinance 20739, passed June 8, 2026), defines a skateboard as any board with wheels ridden and propelled by human power, then bars riding one on the sidewalks of a defined downtown zone bounded roughly by Lincoln, 8th, Willamette, Pearl, Broadway and 13th Avenue. The same section prohibits skateboarding inside any multi-level parking facility, within ten feet of a major bus transfer station, and on Alder Street and East 13th Avenue near the University of Oregon between 12th and 14th Avenues.

Skateboarding in the travel lane of a street is also prohibited except when crossing at a crosswalk or right angle. Outside those specific zones, sidewalk riding is legal but subsection (3) creates the separate offense of "unsafe operation of a skateboard on the sidewalk," committed by riding where prohibited, failing to yield the right of way to pedestrians, or riding carelessly in a way that endangers people or property. Eugene police and code enforcement can cite riders under either the zone prohibitions or the unsafe-operation standard depending on the facts. The section was last substantively amended by Ordinance No. 20538 in 2014, extending the restricted zone description then in place.