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Bikers served $40 notice to clear out of Pearl Alley
Friday, May 30, 2008
BY BOBBY PIERCE
Motorcyclists and scooter riders say the tickets they found on their bikes Wednesday afternoon mean they’ve lost their parking haven Downtown. But Columbus officials say they’re trying to find ways to accommodate the smaller vehicles.
The city is considering scooter and motorcycle parking in Pearl Alley, on Gay Street and near Columbus City Center, said Mike Brown, a spokesman for Mayor Michael B. Coleman.
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Bikers served $40 notice to clear out of Pearl Alley
By: Walker
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Wow, a pro- cycle article, Nice!
also, thanks for the heads-up, I didn’t know they were starting to ticket. And I’m happy they are just ticketing instead of towing.
Yeah, it’s a shame that these folks had to get ticketed instead of issued a warning, but hopefully the stir will get the ball rolling faster on those dedicated parking locations for two-wheeled vehicles.
This is understandable, yet I feel like maybe they should find a solution before yanking out the rug.
You know, all the colleges here in town usually set out a space (usually the dead spaces where cars can’t park) in one or more of their garages for motorcycles. Wouldn’t be hard at city center and charge x/month x/year for a sticker. One of the private lots or garages could probably do pretty good business this way.
A warning would have been nice but I can understand if it’s become an issue. There are increasing number of bikers out there. Share the road, AND the parking spots! 8)
If you think about it, one ticket isn’t too bad if you’ve been parking there for a few months.
I think perhaps city officials don’t realize that motorcycles and scooters are actually trying to be sensible and accommodating by parking in alleyways and on sidewalks. If everyone who rode bikes used an entire metered parking space just for their tiny-ass bike, that would be the perfectly legal option, though enormously inconvenient. That would be ridiculous. So ridiculous city council might just notice it if perhaps, 50-100 or so motorbikes did so on a weekday in mid-june.
they try it, it’s called ride to work day, but no one seems to take part in it in columbus.
http://www.ridetowork.org/
What about the pedestrians?
I use the bike racks occasionally and I’ve had a couple of cops try to ticket me for it over the years. This is nothing entirely new, although the alleys used to be understood to be mostly fair game.
the secret seems to be that some cops care and some do not. I have seen many officers look at my bike chained to a rack (always placed not to block the rack for other bikes) and just walk away. My system was to keep an eye out and if you see a meter maid/dude lookin at your plate go talk to them and move it before the ticket. Most of them have been very nice about it.
There is kind of an understanding that if a bike is in a metered space, other bikes are invited. It’s polite to chip in on the meter. In a high traffic area that can mean one space can end up being a ‘cycle space just by default as usually 3-4 bikes (or 4-6 scooters) can share a space. I can easily picture that happening on gay st.
I can usually scoot my dumper truck between two parked cars. I’ll add some coin to the meter if it’s before 6 PM.
I’d like to see a metered street parking spot or two converted to metered 2-wheeler space. Could fit several bike/scooter spots into each car spot.
Would be even cooler to allow longer parking for two-wheeled vehicles to encourage riding them. Most of those Gay Street meters are limited to 30 minutes, an hour, or two hours. Would be cool if motorcycles/scooters could pop money into the meter at a reduced rate and have 10-hour parking.
The best way to encourage more fuel-efficient behavior is with people’s wallets.
What about the pedestrians?
I don’t know how many bikes are in this alley, but I’ve yet to see an alley so filled with bikes, or with riders so aggressive that there was any possibility of danger in Columbus. I’ve chained my bike up on the curb for the last eight years, always respectful of handicap ramps, doorways, walkways, etc.. and I’ve only received one ticket. I don’t think that bikes in alleyways pose any obstacle to the pedestrians. I think that the City of Columbus is sluggish to respond to an obvious need for service and instead individual agencies are responding to that need with penaltie$.
Support Motorcycle Parking. please.
I don’t know how many bikes are in this alley, but I’ve yet to see an alley so filled with bikes, or with riders so aggressive that there was any possibility of danger in Columbus. I’ve chained my bike up on the curb for the last eight years, always respectful of handicap ramps, doorways, walkways, etc.. and I’ve only received one ticket. I don’t think that bikes in alleyways pose any obstacle to the pedestrians. I think that the City of Columbus is sluggish to respond to an obvious need for service and instead individual agencies are responding to that need with penaltie$.
Support Motorcycle Parking. please.
If you notice I did just that. I mentioned one possible solution. If you read the article, this action was prompted by someone who was careless in their parking and blocked access to the door way.
NOOO!!!! That is my 100% free downtown parking spot directly next to where I work. :-( Who had the big bike with the sidecar?
I think this is a case where things go a little too far. Bike with side car who parked in front of a door= not good…. everyone else is fine.
Just to let everyone know we were all parking on a side unusable by pedestrians or cars around a dumpster…. I’m forming a scooter lobbyist group to retain young professionals. (“young professional” being the distractive part..)
Riding the bus in the winter is enough, I need to have my scooter summers.
Why am I not surprized a Harley Davidson ignited the fuse on the fiasco?
Okay, what’s the game plan though. Do we wait a week and start parking there again?
Or have we found alternative digs?
An amusing follow up to this issue:
yesterday afternoon my lovely wife and I went to Mac’s for 1/2 price meat pies and a scotch egg followed by a trip to Jeni’s across the street. I was parked in one of the metered parking spaces in the lot next to the building, totally legal (for a change).
Upon return to my Steel Sled-dog, I found a note written in the “bubble” style of young feminine handwriting I know VERY well from grading hundreds of undergraduate geology assignments saying “PLZ DO NOT PARK IN CAR SPACES!!!”
LOL!
Not the first time i’ve gotten crap from some car-driving nimrod for following my legal parking requirements. Got me thinking no matter where I go i’m going to either piss off some car driver who can’t find a space or some cop who is going to write me a ticket. The thought simply makes me think “Sick sad world” and laugh. I’ve heard tales of bikes being wrecked by irrate car-folk for daring to take a space, though.
Yep. It would really be great to have some cycle parking around town where we would be free from hassle by THE MAN
BOOOO HISSS. I don’t know why people need to unnecessarily stir up trouble. I’ve parked my scooter there a few times and see scooters and bikes parked there all the time. They are never in the way of anything and people walk on the other side of the alley. Are they going to start handing out jaywalking tickets now too?
Whatever happened to that Columbus Green city initiative? This kind of stuff seems to pointing the city the wrong direction.
Very sad to see this. I have parked my scooter in Pearl Alley a couple of times per month for 2+ years. I have never seen any parking done which impeded the pedestrian access. As was pointed out, the area being used is not a pedestrian-used zone. It is between a bike rack and a dumpster.
The issues:
#1 Timing. The city is working on a solution, but felt compelled to crack down before finding or offering a solution. That’s backwards. It is not an emergency that required immediate action.
#2 The Basis for the crackdown. 1 vehicle, larger than all the other (as it had a side-car), parks so that it blocks access to a door. The problem is one of respecting door access, or vehicle size, not a scooter parking vs. pedestrian movement. If it had been a delivery truck, would they have ticketed the scooters/cycles nearby? Or if a delivery truck blocked a doorway, would the police then ticket every UPS/Fedex/etc. truck that stops on a road or alley (which is usually illegal) but doesn’t impede traffic? Overreaction.
#3 Bad policy. A. Every scooter or motorcycle in an alley is one more customer for the local businesses which does not require its own full-sized parking spot. Even if the rider is not patronizing a particular business, it cuts down on car-parking competition, allowing other customers to park nearby. B. It helps promote downtown living and greener living via less parking demand and better gas mileage. C. The meter option ignores the problem of theft. Scooters are not very heavy and can be picked up and thrown in a van. Therefore, most folks choose to lock them or park them within eye-sight in front of a store. Meters are often too far on the curb to lock to, or if you use a long lock, they can simply be lifted over the meter.
#4 The multiple-scoot/cycle at 1 meter option. This one is interesting, as it seems very reasonable. Yet a few years back motorcycles sharing 1 metered spot were all ticketed at Comfest. Aparently there is a law prohibiting multiple vehicles from being parked at 1 meter. So they all received tickets (ignoring that maybe 1 cycle parked legally and the others jumped in on the spot). So just as parking in the alley is illegal but does little or no harm, so is the multiple at 1 meter option. Just one complaint away from having tickets issued.
I do hope an “official” solution is reached. However, it appears an imaginary problem. Given the patio seating, sandwich-signs, newspaper racks, etc. which line our urban sidwalks & alleys (all good things), our city could probably accomodate 50 scooters per block on the sidewalks/alleys without significant impact on pedestrian movement.
Finally, I would like to say “thanks” to all the police and meter-reading folks who have given us a pass over the past few years.