Knoxville, TN Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Sec. 17-51 works in two parts. Subsection (a) is a city-wide rule: no one on roller skates or riding a coaster, toy vehicle or similar device may go onto any roadway except while crossing a street on a crosswalk, and while crossing that way the rider has the same rights and duties as a pedestrian. Subsection (b) is district-specific and stricter: it is unlawful to use skateboards, coasters, or any similar vehicle, toy or article on wheels or a runner anywhere within the Central Business Improvement District, defined at Sec.

2-1072 as the special assessment district created by the city's downtown improvement ordinance. That subsection carves out one exception in its own text: roller skates are not prohibited by the CBID ban, even though they are restricted elsewhere in the section to crosswalk crossings only. The rule dates to the Code of 1962 and was amended in 1993 by Ord. No. O-83-93, and it sits in Article II of Chapter 17 alongside the general traffic rules that apply to pushcarts, animal-drawn vehicles, and other non-motorized road users under Sec. 17-50. Chapter 17 does not set its own penalty for a Sec. 17-51 violation, so it falls under the city's general penalty clause.