Parking Question

Hi,

Potentially a stupid question on parking, but just want to make sure I understand everything correctly.

Each Borough has its own parking rules. What I dont understand is in Boroughs which only allow to park in Mororcycle bays (like City or Kensington) - does it mean that we cant park in the street all the time or we can do it on weekends (outside of restricted hours)?

I.E. when the sign says that “no parking in defined time” - outside of this time can we park there or do we always have to use only motorcycle parking bays?

Hope that is somewhat clear…

Thanks!

The usual rule is that you can park where ever a car can legally park, but there will no doubt be exceptions. If there is no sign saying you can’t park, it would be difficult to enforce a ticket against you. For example, car bays don’t normally say they are only for cars, unlike bike bays which normally say “motorcycles only”. However, this is usually unenforceable anyway against cars (Westminster within the hours of bike bay operation is an exception as they have made parking orders excluding cars in the hours shown on the signs, usually half an hour longer than the hours for which bikes are charged). Yes, it is unnecessarily complicated!

What about motorcycle bays in car parks…do we have to pay for these when there is a manual ticket to be had??? Surely not as there is nowhere to display it where it can’t be stolen by someone else wishing to use it (when the registration is not upon it).

Again depends on the car park and who runs it.

Westminster CC run car park or bike bay - charging applies during hours of operation - £1.50 per day

Most councils have good info on their website - K&C has a map showing where you can park a bike - but watch out for Resident only bike bays as without a permit you’ll get a ticket.

Minefield/nightmare come to mind

Thanks, so just to clarify, for example in South Ken, on Sunday (so outside of normal hours when parking is limited to residents only) - I can park everywhere where cars can?

Yeap, if it is outside the hours of control, then you can park anywhere the cars can, but in South Ken you have to be careful, dont park in a M/C Permits only bay at ANY time, they can still get you there I believe…

Probably!

I wish motorcycles can park for free anywhere anytime, as long as it is sensible…

You mean like in almost every other European country?

http://www.motorcycleparking.com/parking_london.shtml