Well thanks to the media and the actions of some of the more idiotic amongst us, the average British voter sees us as a noisy and dangerous nuisance, so we’re hardly likely to gain the sympathy of any politicians or local government officials.
We’re effectively a heavily discriminated against and disliked ethnic minority, who, thanks to the less responsible amongst us, firmly occupies the moral low ground in the eyes of the masses.
okay but I dont think riders here are any different to the rest of europe and in fact compared to Italy almost saintly
Unfortunately it’s because the government and authorities are so pc and don’t look at the realities anymore. I’ve never heard of anyone being injured as a result of a bike being parked on a pavement. I do think there should be something to stop inconsiderate pavement parking but don’t think it should have been banned altogther (this fits with some of the London councils who turn a blind eye provided you park considerately). I have heard whispers about Paris starting to look at the issue (I recently gave an interview to a journalist from M6 <one of the major French TV companies> who is aware of potential moves to change the free-for-all in Paris). A delegation from Japan also recently came to UK to see the Westminster model…
My sister has lived in Paris for 16 years and over the past couple of years things have been changing.
On her road they have started doing little touches like taking the slatted backs off benches and replacing then with solid ones to stop bikes being chained to them.
They have covered other street fixtures in the anti-climb paint for the same reason
I rode into town recently to do a bit of shopping and i got really confused where i could park and where i couldnt?
There were bikes parked in lots of different places i couldnt work out who’s legal, who’s not and who doesnt actually give one!
This was why I set up motorcycleparking.com back in 2003, so many rules and regulations, how is anyone supposed to know what’s legal and what’s not! Essentially the only safe place now is in the solo motorcycle bays (other than in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea)!
Is this thread a p1ss take?
Bikers have been parking illegally in alleyways for years, and now they’re moaning because the loophole has finally been closed. FFS! Some people would celebrate the fact that they’d been getting away with something for free for all that time, but nope, others would rather moan about it. It’s no wonder (as is said above) that people in general aren’t all that sympathetic to bikers.
And as for “Oooh it’s so confusing where you can park and where you can’t park” line…all it takes is to recognise that YOUR BIKE IS A MOTOR VEHICLE. So: you can park anywhere where other motor vehicles can park, OR you can park in one of the places specifically for motorbikes. If someone really has trouble with working this out, I’m sorry, but I’d question whether they’ve got the sense to be on the roads at all.
I agree that lots of other countries have a much laxer approach to bike parking. But unfortunately we live HERE, and it won’t do us much good to point out how good the French have it.
I don’t think it’s a wo-is-me story but just the fact that what harm has been caused by bikers parking in alleyways? If there were enough spaces provided elsewhere then alleyways wouldn’t be needed. The point is biking should be promoted not discouraged (even Boris thinks that, hence the reason he’s looking into the use of bus lanes).
True but breaking the law is breaking the law, and lets face it the alleyways and the pavements in the city aren’t exactly specious.
I think this one will have to be let go with a wry smile for getting away with it for so long.
"And as for “Oooh it’s so confusing where you can park and where you can’t park” line…all it takes is to recognise that YOUR BIKE IS A MOTOR VEHICLE. So: you can park anywhere where other motor vehicles can park, OR you can park in one of the places specifically for motorbikes. If someone really has trouble with working this out, I’m sorry, but I’d question whether they’ve got the sense to be on the roads at all. "
errrrrrrrr well its not that simple because rules change from borough to borough, for instance in City you pay to park in pay and display spot and Hackney they are free and in some places (such as Sun street) the council line runs down the middle of the road and the rules for bikes are not displayed anywhere on Sun street (for Hackney). In camden motorbike spaces are free and again they are borders with Westminster where you have to pay. Maybe you study parking regulations in your spare time but it is not that obvious to everybody about what rules apply where.
In addition some councils apply rules about private land (glasslights etc) and some don’t if you dont find this confusing good for you, but I personally did not know all the rules and I was a courier ands would going in 6-8 boroughs a day and sometimes didnt have a clue what law applied anymore.
What a crock, this is simply a money making exercise. The reason the spanish, etc. authorities don’t do this is because they haven’t the wit to figure out they could charge hand over fist for the privelege to park.
Yay capitalism!
And it is precisely because bikes are 2 wheeled motor vehicles that some confusion exists. There are bike bays. Do we not get pissed off when some A hole parks his car in them? A car parked on the pavement is clearly an obstruction. A bike is not necessarily (unless it is a Triumph Rocket). But you can make money from denying this.
My point, but better expressed (thanks). There are plenty of things to campaign for, as bikers, but imho this isn’t one of them.
Re the point about different regs in different boroughs (superoli). I take your point, but it is easy enough to work this out if you buy one of the excellent PIE parking guides, or look it up on one of the parking sites. And basically, like you would in parking a car, you exercise a bit of caution until you know what the rules are.
And re the point about getting pissed off with cars parking in bike bays, this isn’t one that I think most people would want to draw attention to. Current (I suppose that should read “before all this pay-for-parking malarkey”) bays don’t have any protected status, which is why cars can park in them. Making bike bays EXCLUSIVELY for bikes is one of the things that e.g. Westminster council are doing as part of their making us pay to park. Of course, I’d rather not pay at all, but this is one positive thing to come out of it.
I dont like the idea of paying for parking, but tbf I don’t think it’s realistic to think of free parking for ANYONE as being a right. We’ve had it for years, and now we don’t.
At least tfl haven’t thought about adding us to the congestion charge like they are when they introduce it in Manchester.
There seems to be to much moaning about things that have passed.
What we need to be doing is uniting to fight things that are to come. How many London authorities are now going to be looking at the income stream from Westminster introduction of parking charges and want to introduce it themselves?
The biking community want to be be more pro-active not re-active.
So how man y people have written to their MP/Councillor etc to complain about things? If you have not then why do you expect anything to change. I wrote about the chaos of every borough having different restrictions to my MP who took it up with the Department of Transport. I also wrote to TFL.
Regrettably the response I got was that the view of TFL and Central Government was that pressure on councils to improve consistency would simply result in all councils charging for parking as that is what they really all want to do.
I only ever leave my bike for short periods of time while going in a shop or something, so i always park on the pavement outside the shop as close as i can get 
If I can take it in the shop i would ;). If i left it in a alleyway i would not expect to ever see it again.
Re the point about different regs in different boroughs (superoli). I take your point, but it is easy enough to work this out if you buy one of the excellent PIE parking guides, or look it up on one of the parking sites. And basically, like you would in parking a car, you exercise a bit of caution until you know what the rules are.
What a pratt i am for finding it all a bit confusing, if only i had read my PIE guide or checked the ‘parking web site’ before leaving home it would all of been so much easier…
Jesus… I’m guessing literally hundreds of bikers will now be jostling for the inadequate number of unsecure bikebay spaces that the council provide.Since we are in another new parking crisis… Thefts, No security, Not enough bays, Charging, and now a ban on alleyways and leaded-lights, …perhaps we need to get together and unite behind some clear objectives.
More Bays
Secure Anchor Points in clearly marked individual bays (…if charged, or, free if not)
http://londonbikers.com/forums/Topic433324-58-1.aspx Please take a minute to read the longer posts.
ISTM there are 5 major issues affecting London Bikers
And then finally, we have lack of parking security. The problem with this is that nobody knows yet what actually works. Or even if people will use it. If you have an alarm and a disk lock, then all the proposals so far are useless and redundant. And the big problem is that the security devices whether rings in the road or rails cost real money. Which then leads us back to 4 and the fact that it becomes justification for introducing parking charges.
So if the choice is free parking without security devices or charged parking with security. I’ll choose free.
But if Security means parking bays in existing council car parks, that works because it both provides more spaces and it doesn’t cost any money.
What worries me is that by pushing for security devices that are actually ineffectual, we’re also pushing for charging, more control over us and actually less parking space.
And yes, I’m disappointed that the established groups in London aren’t doing more to fight for all 5 issues. This has all been going on so long that It’s time we got properly angry and caused a proper stink. I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!
“La lutte continue pour les motards encolere.”
My main motivation is that about a dozen bikers I know have had bikes stolen where there was no opportunity for any security. The best being a chain anchor. Charging seems inevitable (cos Westminster are ar£**oles) so if it’s going to happen lets have that security they promised. Obviously there’s no point if it’s ineffective security, but a solid anchor point for a chain woould have meant a few of my mates still had their bikes.
Charging seems inevitable (cos Westminster are ar£**oles) so if it’s going to happen lets have that security they promised.
Sorry. I’m being a bit schizo about this.
If we really can’t get out of charging, and the premise is that charging is to pay for security, then absolutely, lets hold them to their promise and demand to see the security.
But if we’re pushing for security and the option is “only if you pay”, I’d rather have free.
So did your friends have a hefty chain round the bike when it was stolen except it wasn’t attached to anything solid? Because I find it comparatively rare to see bikes in parking bays in London with any apparent attempt at security, even a disk lock. And if the council puts in security bars to attach a chain to but nobody uses them, is there any point? There’s an underlying comparison here with cars. Modern cars come from the factory with deadlocks, alarms, chipped keys and so on. We’d be really surprised if you were expected to chain a car to a bit of street furniture to prevent it being stolen from a parking space or to fit our own wheelclamps. And yet we expect to do this with bikes as well as paying extra to have an alarm fitted and now paying extra to have something to chain it to.
