It could be time to lift Victoria’s long-standing ban on skateboards in the downtown, says Mayor Dean Fortin.
“We are really out there trying to promote alternate means of transportation. Skateboarding has, over the past 20 years, really become a legitimized form of transportation,” Fortin said.
“During the summer, you often see a whole bunch of people using long boards, as they call them — commuter boards — to come into downtown.”
Councillors last week endorsed a call to have staff revisit the bylaw governing downtown skateboard use.
Skateboarders generally have to obey the same laws as other non-motorized vehicles, such as bicycles, Fortin said. “That means on the roads, curb lanes and must have helmets.”
But Victoria’s streets and traffic bylaw has, since the early 1990s, prohibited skateboarding in the downtown red zone — an area of downtown roughly bounded by Wharf Street; Herald and North Park streets; Quadra Street, and Blanshard and Belleville streets. The bylaw, which was reviewed by council in 2008, also allows officials to seize skateboards from violators.
It also contains guidelines for “human-powered devices” [skateboards, in-line skates, roller skates or non-motorized scooters] that call for no use on a sidewalk or on a street or path designated for pedestrian use only.
“Twenty years ago, there was perceived to be a major issue with a young rowdy crowd of skateboarders, and their response was to ban all skateboarding in the downtown core,” Fortin said.
“So, it’s an issue where do we want to maintain that ban or maybe more appropriately say it’s a legitimate form of transportation and it has to obey the rules of the road like bikes.”
A suggestion by Coun. Lisa Helps to bypass getting a report and simply direct staff to amend the bylaw to allow skateboards in the downtown failed to get support. “I don’t think we need to waste time, money and energy on a staff report,” Helps said.
But Coun. Geoff Young said councillors need to hear from staff before making a decision.
“We’ve looked at it before. There are significant implications to having human-powered devices, excluding bicycles, either on the sidewalks or on the roads. We need to know what those are,” Young said.
