Victoria is opening up downtown to skateboarders, but city staff are recommending they be required to follow the same rules that bicyclists are supposed to, including having lights after dark.
Victoria police also support skateboarders using helmets. City staff are recommending that council ask the province to amend the Motor Vehicle Act to make helmets mandatory for skateboarders as well as cyclists.
Mayor Lisa Helps said it’s unlikely many skateboarders will change their ways and start wearing helmets and lights simply because of a city bylaw.
“Our challenge is we’re caught between a rock and a hard place with the Motor Vehicle Act.
“The Motor Vehicle Act says that cyclists need to wear helmets and use lights, but it’s silent on skateboarders.”
Victoria banned skateboarders from the city core in 1991 after merchants complained they were frightening customers.
But council began to revisit the idea two years ago when long-time skateboarder Jake Warren organized a petition after having his skateboard seized by bylaw officers.
Last March, council decided to allow skateboarders to use downtown streets, and directed staff to give skateboarding on downtown streets the lowest bylaw-enforcement priority.
Now, city staff are recommending the city amend the streets and traffic bylaw to formally remove the prohibition against the use of skateboards in the downtown core; eliminate impound provisions that allow bylaw officers to seize skateboards, and to require users of skateboards “and other human powered devices travelling on city streets to follow the same rules of the road as cyclists.”
Skateboarding on sidewalks will still be illegal. Signage and bike-lane markings will be updated to indicate skateboarding is permitted on bicycle lanes.
Helps said once the city’s separated bike-lane network is built over the next four years, skateboarders will move there.
“They won’t be with pedestrians and they won’t be with the cars. They’ll be with the cyclists and I think that will create more safety for everybody.”
