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June 18, 2019 - 4:45 PM
KELOWNA - Riding skateboards on Kelowna streets will become legal next week, but there's not likely to be any change in the number of tickets issued.
Right now, skateboards can only be legally ridden on pathways in city parks and in skateboard parks.
Yesterday, June 17, city council gave preliminary approval to allowing skate boards, long boards and push scooters in bike lanes, and on roads if there are no bike lanes. But they will continue to be illegal on sidewalks where they are frequently ridden now.
Not that a lot of the $35 tickets have been handed to boarders.
Only two tickets were issued for skateboard riding in the last year, bylaw services manager David Gatzke told iNFOnews.ca. Both were issued by an RCMP officer on patrol along with a city bylaw officer, and both were issued in May.
“They were probably on Bernard and riding them like crazy,” Gatzke speculated.
Given the City’s focus on encouraging people to take alternate forms of transportation, bylaw officers haven’t been keen on ticketing skateboarders unless they’re really upsetting people, in which case they will be warned off the sidewalks, Gatzke said.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2019