A bit of history. When the Governor's Bicycle Council started the effort to update the Wisconsin State Statutes with respect to bicycles in the late 1980's / early 1990's, one of the main concerns was the variety of laws related to bicycling from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Prior to the 1995 enacted changes there was a statute which basically gave local jurisdictions unlimited authority to regulate the operation of bicycles. Thus one of the prime goals of the statutes update was to ensure uniformity of laws related to bicycle operation throughout the state. The current state statutes modified the section mentioned above so that the authority of local jurisdictions to regulate the operation of bicycles is limited to ". . . enact and enforce any traffic regulation which is in strict conformity with one or more provisions of chs. 341 to 348 and 350 for which the penalty for violation thereof is a forfeiture." In my reading, then, unless a local ordinance conforms to state statutes, or unless the state statutes gives express permission to local jurisdictions to deviate from state statutes (for example, local jurisdiction have express authority to regulate the operation of vehicles on sidewalks), the local ordinance would have no legal standing.
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