Skateboarding in the City

The City promotes and encourages non-motorized forms of transportation, including walking, cycling, skateboarding/longboarding, and rollerblading.

For safety reasons, when boarding or blading, users must:

• Wear a helmet (except when wearing a helmet would interfere with a religious practice)
• Board or blade as close to the right side of the roadway or lane as is practicable
• Not use roadways or lanes where the speed limit exceeds 50 km/hr
• Not board or blade between sunset and sunrise

At times, non-motorized transportation modes can conflict with each other or with motorized transportation, posing safety hazards for users. As a result, the City has identified streets where skateboarding/longboarding and rollerblading would be unsafe i.e. streets where there are significant differences in speeds between different modes, where traffic volumes are heavy, or where there are steep slopes. As per the City's Streets and Traffic Bylaw No. 6243, boarding and blading are not permitted on any of the streets described in Schedule I of the bylaw unless the street has been closed to traffic.

The following is also a summary of streets and plazas where boarding and blading are strictly prohibited on both street and sidewalk:

• Lonsdale Avenue from 25th Street (Upper Levels Highway) to Carrie Cates Court (the water)
• Esplanade from Forbes Avenue to St George's Avenue
• Carrie Cates Court from Lonsdale Avenue to Chesterfield Avenue
• Chadwick Court
• Chesterfield Place
• Marine Drive from Bewicke Avenue to MacKay Road
• 13th Street from Lonsdale Avenue to St George's Avenue
• 15th Street from St. George's Avenue to Chesterfield Avenue
• 14th Street Civic Plaza
• 19th Street between Moody Avenue and Ridgeway Avenue
• St. Roch Dock
• Burrard Dry Dock Pier
• Goldsworthy Pier
• Roger's Plaza

Under the Street and Traffic Bylaw, the fine for boarding or blading without a helmet is $50. The fine for contravening the other stipulations described above is $100.

To report a boarding offence, please contact Bylaws at 604-982-8302, Monday to Friday, from 8:30am to 5:00pm.

The Mahon Skate Plaza opened in September 2022. The skate plaza is a permanent feature in Mahon Park with opportunities for all skill levels. It features a simple, street-focused design links together well-spaced obstacles. 

RDS granite bench

This sign is posted at Mahon Skate Plaza. If everyone plays by the rules, we avoid issues.