Shelby County, TN Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Shelby County Code Sec. 24-12, in Chapter 24's Article I general traffic provisions, states flatly that no person on roller skates or a skateboard, or riding a coaster, toy vehicle or similar device, may go upon any roadway except while crossing a street on a crosswalk. When a rider does cross at a crosswalk, the ordinance grants that person the same rights and subjects them to the same duties that apply to pedestrians, meaning yielding rules and crosswalk protections run both ways. The rule dates to the county's 1990-era traffic code (Ord.

No. 90, § 1, adopted 8-5-1991), carried forward as Code 1992 § 20-12 and renumbered to its current section. A companion rule in Sec. 24-13 separately bans any person on roller skates, a skateboard, sled or similar device from hanging onto or catching hold of a moving vehicle to be towed along the street, and Sec. 24-14 bars boarding or alighting from any moving vehicle. Together these sections treat skateboards and roller skates as roadway hazards rather than vehicles: riders have no right to travel in the street, in a bike lane, or in a marked traffic lane, and their only lawful roadway use is the brief crosswalk crossing itself.

The ordinance does not regulate skateboarding on sidewalks, in parking lots, or on private property; it is limited strictly to public roadways within unincorporated Shelby County.