Lexington, KY Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Chapter 18's traffic code treats roller skates, coasters, toy vehicles and 'similar devices', a category that covers skateboards, the same way it treats any wheeled conveyance that isn't a licensed motor vehicle: keep it off the roadway. Section 18-11 lets a rider cross a street only at a crosswalk, and while doing so the person has exactly the rights and duties of a pedestrian, meaning the right-of-way rules of §§ 18-96 through 18-105 apply rather than vehicle traffic law. Off a crosswalk, using the travel lane itself, riding down the center of a residential street, cutting across an intersection outside the marked lines, or weaving through moving traffic, is what the section forbids; sidewalks and off-street paths aren't reached by this particular rule, which is written around the roadway only.

The one built-in carve-out is for streets LFUCG has formally designated as play streets under §§ 18-14 and 18-15: on those, closed to ordinary vehicle traffic by posted signs, § 18-11's roadway restriction doesn't apply. 1, which names skateboards, roller skates, bicycles and coasters outright inside Triangle Park at the corner of South Broadway, Vine Street and West Main Street, backed by its own fine of $5 to $500 or up to 30 days in jail, steeper than the general traffic-code violation in § 18-11.