Bergen County, NJ Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Article III(z)(1) of the Bergen County Parks System Rules and Regulations, 'Motorized Vehicles or Devices,' defines that term in Article I to include skateboards by name, listed alongside cars, trucks, bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, unicycles, all-terrain vehicles, segways, scooters, and carts, even though a skateboard has no motor. Whatever the label, the operative bar in (z)(1)(A) is unambiguous: no one may use or operate a skateboard, or any of the other listed devices, upon any path, multi-use path, shared-use path, cartway, or designated pedestrian path, sidewalk, or sidewalk area anywhere in the Bergen County Park System.

The single carve-out is a permanent or duly authorized temporary driveway, which in practice gives a skateboarder nowhere lawful to ride within a county park, since driveways are built for vehicle access, not recreation. Subsection (z)(1)(B) caps the speed of any covered device at 10 miles per hour where it is otherwise permitted, and never faster than a posted limit or a limit set by the state Motor Vehicle Commission. Subsection (z)(1)(C) separately bars using park premises to teach or learn to operate any of the listed devices, so a parent cannot use an empty parking lot to teach a child to skateboard either.

The county's separate Article II list of 'Regulated Uses' includes roller skating as an activity permitted only in County-designated times and areas, underscoring that wheeled recreation generally is confined by the Department rather than left open to any park path. Because a skateboard cannot be authorized under (z), a rider who wants a legal place to skate in Bergen County needs to look to a municipal skate park rather than county park pathways.