Motorcyclists are to be charged to park at new “secure” bike stands.
At present, riders can park at the roadside free of charge, while car drivers have to pay up to £4 an hour. Motorbikes are also exempt from the C-charge.
Now 45 stands are to be installed in central London, mainly around Covent Garden, in an experiment by Westminster council.
Bikers will be able to lock their bikes to the stands, which are rigid U-shaped bars cemented into the ground.
Initially they will be free, but from next spring riders will have to pay £1.50 a day, £5 a week or £150 a year (the equivalent of 50 pence a day if they use them for 300 days).
Does this mean the end of free bike bays I wonder ?
Its a joke, along with that Westminster council are campaigning for an emissions tax, so they can tax anything with an engine. All of this is supposed to be introduced in 2008.
Worth it though if you have your “own” space for the day, without twats gouging chunks out of your pride & joy by jamming their bikes into non-existent space alongside your bike?
Like a car bay metre, pay for the individual space.
With the emission tax, they expect you to pay like the congestion, everytime you want to drive through the city, I think its starting in Westminster then will spread to central London if it proves a success, ie they get enough money from it and not to many move over to cycling.
we are just part of the ‘raise money from vehicles because no one does anything about it’ brigade
It is sadly inevitable with Ken Livingstones hatred of everything driving into London and yes another way to get money out of us without us (and I mean all road users) having any say in it whatsoever…
The greenies are increasingly screwing up our lives…roll on the fuel cell when they will have no argument whatsoever…apart from the safety angle…
Thats the suggested price at the moment, give it 6 months and if you ain’t subscribed the the annual payment it will double, same as the congestion charge!
I don’t want to pay for something that’s currently free, BUT, to add a little balance:
existing bike bays aren’t actually enforceable (i.e. if a car parks in one it isn’t against the law). As I understand it, the new bays will have a “proper” legal existence (i.e. if a car parks in one it will get a ticket), and this requires some sort of legal palaver to register the new bay/change its status
it’s maybe fair to expect to pay a little for proper security (but imho they should leave some of the existing bays and give people the option of parking for free in a bay with no security or of paying to park in a more secure space)
there will be setup costs (legal, as above, and also installing security). It’s understandable that the council will want to recoup these. But once the setup costs have been paid back, then it’s just an exercise to make money out of bikes, which doesn’t exactly fit in with the idea that bikes reduce congestion and keep cars off the roads (not to mention that they relieve our already overcrowded public transport system)
