The streets of downtown Victoria can be chaotic with tour buses, bicycles, rented motor scooters, horse-drawn carriages and jaywalking tourists competing for road space with the cars, trucks and vans. Adding skateboards to the mix wouldn鈥檛 be a good plan.
Mayor Dean Fortin has mused that it might be time to lift Victoria鈥檚 22-year-old ban on skateboards in the downtown core, and council has endorsed a call to have city staff look into the streets and traffic bylaw.
鈥淭wenty 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,鈥� said the mayor.
He says the city should consider whether it should maintain the ban or 鈥渕aybe more appropriately say it鈥檚 a legitimate form of transportation and it has to obey the rules of the road like bikes.鈥�
It鈥檚 good to review bylaws periodically to ensure they are still relevant. Victoria鈥檚 streets and traffic bylaw regulates human-powered devices such as skateboards, inline skates, roller skates and non-motorized scooters, and prohibits their use on sidewalks, or on paths or streets designated for pedestrians only. In 1991, Victoria banned skateboarders completely from the city core after merchants complained they were frightening customers.
A skateboard is an efficient, low-cost, environmentally friendly mode of transportation, and it enhances the user鈥檚 physical fitness to boot. Experienced skateboarders can do amazing things, and many are adept and agile.
But skateboards don鈥檛 mix well with other traffic. They are intimidating (and sometimes injurious) to pedestrians, and when it comes to conflicts with motorized vehicles, skateboards usually come out second-best.
Theoretically, skateboarders have to follow the same rules as cyclists, which means wearing helmets, not a rule universally followed. While helmets, elbow pads and knee pads help reduce the severity of injuries in recreational skateboarding, they aren鈥檛 much protection against buses and cars.
Collisions involving motor vehicles and motorcycles or bicycles often occur because of visibility problems 鈥� they don鈥檛 register with a motorist鈥檚 awareness as quickly as a car or a truck would. A skateboarder is even less visible than a motorcycle or a bike, and would not stand out amid busy city traffic 鈥� especially when crouching.
It seems that one element of the original ban on downtown skateboarding 鈥� fears expressed by customers 鈥� was related to the stereotype of skateboarders as rowdy nonconformists. But this isn鈥檛 about discriminating against kids who wear their pants at half-mast, it鈥檚 about safety, for the skateboarders as well as others involved in the churn of downtown traffic. A skateboard is inherently unstable, with no brakes or mechanical steering. No matter how adept the skateboarder is, he or she cannot bring to a sudden stop a 170-pound human rocketing down the street on a thin board and four small wheels.
Downtown streets are not engineered for skateboards. Small obstructions and bumps in the road surface that wouldn鈥檛 bother a car or truck can easily trip a skateboarder.
These are factors Victoria city staff members will likely consider when they analyze the bylaw, but there are other aspects as well. A vibrant community should have room for all kinds of people and interests, and skateboarding is a lively and entertaining activity. Some skateboarders take their passion to the level of art 鈥� ballet on wheels, if you will. They shouldn鈥檛 be dismissed or marginalized because of some stereotype.
But this isn鈥檛 about inclusivity and subcultures, it鈥檚 about public safety. The laws of physics and common sense should govern this bylaw.
