Lawrence, MA Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Section 9.08.080, adopted as prior code Section 20-14A, prohibits riding a bicycle, roller skating, or riding a skateboard on sidewalks anywhere inside a specific downtown business district. The ordinance defines that district street by street: Amesbury Street from Canal Street to Haverhill Street; Broadway from Essex Street to Common Street; Common Street from Broadway to Union Street; Essex Street from Union Street to Broadway; Jackson Street from Canal Street to Haverhill Street; Lawrence Street from Canal Street to Haverhill Street; and Union Street from Common Street to Essex Street. Together those seven street segments trace the core downtown shopping blocks around the intersection of Essex Street and Broadway, meaning the ban targets the busiest pedestrian sidewalks in the city center rather than residential sidewalks citywide.

Because the section is confined to that district, skateboarding, roller skating, and sidewalk cycling remain unregulated by this particular provision on sidewalks outside the named boundary; the code does not extend the same restriction citywide. The section sits in Chapter 9.08, Property Offenses, alongside other public-way conduct rules such as the ban on playing ball games in the street (Section 9.08.070) and the ban on coasting on sleds (Section 9.08.060), and like those neighboring sections it does not specify its own dollar fine in the text.