Blacksburg Police say many residents have misinterpreted new Virginia Tech bicycle and skateboard policies, causing many to break town laws in the confusion.
According to Sgt. Nathan O’Dell of the Blacksburg Police Department, students have recently been following Tech’s new campus policies, which allow cycling and skateboarding on sidewalks, throughout the downtown area.
Meanwhile, Blacksburg’s policy remains unchanged.
“We’ve had this town ordinance ever since I’ve been here, since 1993, for about 16 years now,” said O’Dell. “We want to let everybody know that now, even though Tech has made a change, there’s still a difference.”
The town still has the ordinance in effect, in which students are not allowed to operate a bicycle, skateboard or in-line skates on the sidewalks. Skateboards and in-line skates are also banned on public roads. On the other hand, bicycles are allowed on public roads, but must act as if they were vehicles, and the riders must obey all traffic laws as if they were driving a car.
One of the town’s ordinances is for bicycle use on sidewalks in a specified downtown area. Outside of that area, it is acceptable, O’Dell said. As far as public roads in the state of Virginia, the use of in-line skates and skateboards are prohibited according to the state code.
“Not by enforcement, but by education, officers are stopping and letting people know about the ordinance and that they can’t be riding those in those areas,” O’Dell said.
The police department has received some complaints from the downtown merchants about the use of skateboards, in-line skates and bicycles in the downtown area.
O’Dell said that people are most likely to receive a warning or an explanation of the ordinance.
“We have new students and new people to our community every four years, so it’s an educational process,” O’Dell said. “If people are doing something that’s obviously in clear violation and poses a safety hazard either to the motorist or to a person, that stands a good chance thatthat person could receive a citation.”
The police department tends to handle problems with these uses more by issuing warnings, O’Dell added.
“That far outnumbers the ordinance citations we issue,” O’Dell said. “It’s the officer’s discretion. It’s what the officer observes and what he feels is going to work best for that situation: if they’re going to use it as an educational tool or if they’re going to use it as a reprimand tool.”
People using skateboards and in-line skates are allowed on sidewalks outside of the specified downtown area, but not on the roadway. There is a town skate park for the recreational use of skateboards and in-line skates near Blacksburg High School.
O’Dell said that as far as the two differences in policies, the main purpose is for safety reasons — for the safety of the skateboarders, in-line skaters, bicyclists, as well as the motorists and pedestrians that are in the “congested downtown area.”
“We just don’t have the sidewalk space to safely accommodate all users,” O’Dell said. “That’s where the ordinance is generated from. It’s more from a safety standpoint than just saying, ‘No we don’t want skateboarders or bicyclists in our downtown area. That’s not what we’re saying.
This is for safety reasons.”