Arlington County

Protection of Pedestrians

S 14.2-24. Playing on streets or highways; skating, roller coasters, etc.; County Manager may close streets for coasting, etc.

(a) No person shall play on a highway or street in this county other than upon the sidewalks thereof. No person shall use on a highway or street in said county, roller skates, coasters, or similar vehicles or toys or other devices on wheels or runners (including sleds, except as otherwise permitted in designated areas), except bicycles and motorcycles. The County Manager may, by placing of signs, signals, or barriers, temporarily close streets or otherwise limit their use by motor vehicles to the end that such streets may be used for parades, sledding, street dances, coaster derbies and other activities of this general nature. Operators of motor vehicles shall follow the directions of such signs or signals. Other users of such closed or limited area shall follow the directions posted.

(b) No person riding upon any bicycle, roller skates, toys, or other devices or wheels or runners shall attach the same or himself to any vehicle upon a roadway.

(9-1-59; Ord. No. 92-33, 7-11-92)

S 14.2-25. Penalty for violating section 14.2-24.

Any person convicted of violating any of the provisions of section 14.2-24 shall be fined not less than two dollars ($2.00) nor more than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for each offense.

(9-1-59; 1-16-67; Ord. No. 92-33, 7-11-92)

S 14.2-62. License and registration.

(a) An owner may voluntarily register his bicycle with the county.

(b) Application for registration of ownership and a license will be made to the county upon a form prescribed by the County Manager.

(c) Upon receipt of such application in proper form, the county shall provide, at the expense of the county, a tag bearing the number of the license issued, which should be securely attached at the time of issuance, or upon receipt, to the bicycle.

(d) Substitute for lost or mutilated tags shall be issued to a person entitled thereto upon furnishing satisfactory information.

(e) It shall be the duty of the County Manager or his designee to keep a record of the issuance of each bicycle license, showing the registration number and license number of each bicycle, the name and address of the licensee, and such other description of the bicycle as the County Manager deems necessary for the administration of this section.

(f) [Reserved.]

(Ord. No. 82-15, 4-24-82; Ord. No. 92-33, 7-11-92; Ord. No. 99-21, 10-2-99)

S 14.2-62.1. Disposition of unclaimed bicycles or mopeds.

(a) If any bicycle or moped is found and delivered to the police department, the police department shall, within a reasonable time, attempt to notify the owner and return the bicycle or moped to him. If the bicycle has a county bicycle tag affixed, then the recorded owner shall be notified directly.

(b) If any bicycle or moped is found and delivered to the police department by a private person and remains unclaimed for thirty (30) days after the location and description of the bicycle or moped has been published at least once a week for two (2) successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation within the county, the bicycle or moped shall be given to the finder.

(c) If any bicycle or moped remains in the possession of the police department unclaimed for more than thirty (30) days and the finder has not requested that it be given to him, the police department shall dispose of it by public sale or donate it to a charitable organization located in Arlington County which has made written request to the chief of police. The chief of police or his designee shall have sole discretion to determine disposition of property under this provision.

(Ord. No. 87-17, 5-16-87; Ord. No. 92-33, 7-11-92; Ord. No. 94-24, 9-10-94)

S 14.2-63. Defacing or removing serial numbers.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to deface, remove, or modify from any bicycle the serial number imprinted thereon.

(b) It shall be unlawful to sell or purchase any bicycle on which the serial number or identification number has been defaced, removed, or modified without first registering same as provided in section 14.2-62.

(Ord. No. 92-33, 7-11-92)

S 14.2-64. Equipment requirements.

(a) Every person fourteen (14) years of age or younger shall wear a protective helmet that meets the standards promulgated by the American National Standards Institute in the American National Standard for Protective Headgear for Bicyclists approved on March 12, 1984, or the Snell Memorial Foundations’ 1990 Standard for Protective Headgear, whenever riding or being carried on a bicycle on any highway as defined in [Code of Virginia, S] 46.2-100, sidewalk, or public bicycle path. A copy of these standards is kept on file in the office of the police department’s staff support section and may be examined from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on regular business days.

Violation of subsection (a) shall be punishable by a fine of twenty-five dollars ($25.00). However, such fine shall be suspended (i) for first-time violators and (ii) for violators who, subsequent to the violation but prior to imposition of the fine, purchase helmets of the type required by this section.

(12-7-74; Ord. No. 92-33, 7-11-92; Ord. No. 93-12, 7-1-93; Ord. No. 99-5, 2-20-99)

S 14.2-64.1. Establishment of bicycle paths and regulation of the use thereof.

(a) The existing and approved bike trails designated on the Arlington Bicycle Transportation Plan, adopted by the County Board of which not fewer than three (3) copies have been and are now filed in the office of the Clerk of the County Board and the Department of Environmental Services and may be viewed there during regular business hours on their regular business days, and the same is hereby adopted and incorporated as fully as if set our at length herein and such trails are hereby established as the bicycle paths of Arlington County.

(b) The use of such off-street bicycle paths by persons operating vehicles other than bicycles is prohibited and violations of this section shall be a misdemeanor. “Vehicle” as used herein means any motorized vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine, electrical motor, or other electrical device. The prohibition of this section shall not apply to county or park authority vehicles entering the off-street bicycle paths for maintenance, fire, and police patrol purposes.

(c) The prohibitions of this section do not apply to vehicles being used by handicapped persons when such use is necessary because of the handicapped condition of the person or persons using such vehicles.

(1-25-75; Ord. No. 92-33, 7-11-92; Ord. No. 99-5, 2-20-99; Ord. No. 04-25, 10-2-04)

S 14.2-65. Riding and parking regulations.

Every person riding a bicycle upon a roadway has all the rights and is subject to all the duties applicable to the driver of a motor vehicle except those provisions which by their very nature can have no application.

(a) Speed. No bicycle shall be ridden faster than is reasonable and proper, but every bicycle shall be operated with reasonable regard for the safety of the operator and every other person upon the streets and sidewalks of the county.

(b) Observation of traffic regulations. Every person riding or propelling a bicycle on any public highway in the county shall observe all authorized traffic signs, signals, and traffic-control devices. Whenever signs are erected indicating that no right or left or U-turn is permitted, no person operating a bicycle shall disobey the direction of any such signs, except where such person dismounts from the bicycle to make any such movements or turns, in which event such person shall then obey the regulation applicable to pedestrians.

(c) Stop signs. All persons riding a bicycle on a sidewalk or a public high way shall stop at all stop signs.

(d) Riding on bicycles. No person propelling a bicycle shall permit any person to ride on the handlebars.

(e) Riding on sidewalk. Persons of any age may ride a bicycle upon any sidewalk, except for those sidewalks designated by the County Manager on which bicycle riding is prohibited. Signs indicating such prohibition shall be conspicuously posted in general areas where bicycle riding is prohibited.

(f) Bicycle lane. Where the County Board has by ordinance designated a bicycle lane for the exclusive use of bicycles, a motor vehicle may cross a bicycle lane for the purpose of entering or exiting adjacent property, for making a turn, or for the purpose of parking, but no person shall stop, stand or park a motor vehicle in a bicycle lane, nor shall any person drive a motor vehicle in a bicycle lane for a distance of more than one hundred (100) feet.

(g) Parking. No person shall stand or park a bicycle upon the street other than upon the street roadway against the curb. No person shall stand or park a bicycle upon the sidewalk other than in a rack to support the bicycle, or attached to a streets sign, or light post, or against a building, or at the curb, at back edge of the sidewalk. This will be done in such a manner as to afford the least obstruction to pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

(Ord. No. 92-33, 7-11-92; Ord. No. 99-5, 2-20-99)

S 14.2-65.1. Designation of bicycle lanes.

The County Board hereby establishes bicycle lanes upon and along the following streets, at the following locations, which lanes shall be of such dimensions as determined by the County Manager and which lanes shall be for the exclusive use of bicyclists:

(1) Patrick Henry Drive between Wilson Boulevard and North George Mason Drive.

(2) North Rhodes Street between Arlington Boulevard and Wilson Boulevard.

(3) North Scott Street between Lee Highway and Key Boulevard.

(4) Key Boulevard between North Scott Street and North Nash Street.

(5) Yorktown Boulevard between North George Mason Drive and 26th Street North.

(6) North Veitch Street between Lee Highway and Wilson Boulevard.

(7) South Eads Street between South Glebe Road and 23rd Street South.

(8) South Abingdon Street between 31st Street South and 34th Street South.

(9) 34th Street South between South Abingdon Street and South Stafford Street.

(10) South Stafford Street between 32nd Road and 34th Street South.

(11) Wilson Boulevard between North Oak Street and North Washington Boulevard.

(12) Clarendon Boulevard between North Washington Boulevard and North Oak Street.

(13) Fairfax Drive between North Glebe Road and Wilson Boulevard.

(14) 15th Street South between Crystal Drive and South Joyce Street.

(15) South Hayes Street between Army Navy Drive and 18th Street South.

(16) 18th Street South between South Eads Street and South Hayes Street.

(17) North Pershing Drive between North Washington Boulevard and Arlington Boulevard.

(18) Walter Reed Drive southbound between South Pollard Street and South Four Mile Run Drive.

(19) South Randolph Street between South Arlington Mill Drive and 31st Street South.

(20) North Quincy Street between Lee Highway and Wilson Boulevard.

(21) Nelly Custis Drive between Lorcom Lane and Military Road.

(22) Military Road between Nelly Custis Drive and North Old Glebe Road.

(23) North Ohio Street/McKinley Road between North Washington Boulevard and Wilson Boulevard.

(24) Yorktown Boulevard between North George Mason Drive and Little Falls Road.

(25) John Marshall Drive between North Little Falls Road and Lee Highway.

(26) Lorcom Lane between Military Road and North Edgewood Street.

(27) Crystal Drive between 27th Street South and 15th Street South.

(28) Lee Highway between North Quincy Street and North Kenmore Street.

(29) North George Mason Drive between Wilson Boulevard and 10th Street North .

(30) Williamsburg Boulevard between North Glebe Road and Westmoreland Street.

(31) Old Dominion Drive between Lee Highway and 26th Street North.

(32) Kirkwood Road between Washington Boulevard and Lee Highway.

(Ord. No. 01-17, S 1, 7-28-01; Ord. No. 02-4, S 1, 3-23-02; Ord. No. 02-14, S 1, 6-8-02; Ord . No. 03-05, 3-15-03)