This has to be among the most bizarre bike ordinances.

Milford Township regulates activities at Kensington Metropark through their ordinances. Besides requiring bicycle helmets only on the paved bike path, they have an ordinance that regulates the possession of bicycles within the park.

You basically cannot possess a bicycle within the park unless you’re riding it on the road or bike path.

The ordinance prohibits people from driving to the park with bicycles on their car. It’s not clear if you’re violating the ordinance when you stop riding your bicycle.

But as poorly written as this ordinance is, it probably isn’t legal under state law. Townships can only regulate the “licensing and use of bicycles” not their transport.

Sec. 20-147. Off-the-road vehicles and motor-driven cycles.
No person shall operate or have in his possession, within the boundaries of the Kensington Metropolitan Park, any bicycle or off-the-road motor-driven vehicle, including by way of example but not by way of limitation, any minibike, moped, motorcycle, dunemobile, snowmobile, converted snowmobile, all-terrain vehicle, amphibious vehicle or similar motorized device; provided that bicycles, motorcycles and other motor-driven vehicles lawful for operation under the Uniform Traffic Code may be used to provide transportation to the park if promptly parked in a designed parking lot upon arrival or if operated on the surfaced area of a roadway excluding any roadway posted for use of authorized vehicles only; and provided, further, that bicycles may be used on designated bicycle paths.
(Code 1992, 12-139; Ord. No. 107, 9, 5-9-1972; Ord. No. 107-A1, 10, 5-21-1986)

Tags: Bike laws, Kensington Metropark, Milford

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.