Currently in Ogden it is illegal to ride a skateboard or longboard in the street. Aaron Wilcox and Aaron Kelly is trying to change this. He and his friends were riding in the bike lane one day when an Ogden police officer cruised up behind them and on the intercom and told them to get out of the street or they would be cited. The officer wasn’t doing anything wrong, he was just enforcing the law – and this law needs to be changed.
Officers say they have had reports of kids riding their skateboards in the middle of the streets at night, as well as skitching cars and that’s what they are trying to prevent. I think most skaters realize that it’s dangerous to do those things and would have no problem with those two things being against the law. Then the skaters can decide if they want to break those laws and suffer the consequences but skaters and longboarders riding in the bike lanes riding according to traffic laws could be legal. With more and more people trying to find green and economical forms of transportation, you can’t do much better than a longboard. It has zero emissions, can travel safely at speeds of 20+mph and it also keeps the rider in shape and it costs less than $200.
This is America. The land of the free. If there is an activity that a segment of the population wants to enjoy and it doesn’t hurt anyone it should be regulated and legal. If you want to send a message to Ogden, UT, and other communities who have decided that banning skateboarding is the best way to take care of a non-existent problem, sign this petition now. And then the Ogden police won’t have to tell law-abiding kids to get off their skateboards.
