Arguments for why bikes should have their own parking spots

mahnoy

mahnoy

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I got a warning letter on my bike today for parking on a yellow crossed line at work. I've always parked at the crossed line, but usually on the other side of the parking spot, in a corner, and it's less visible. I guess this one was more visible.

I want to walk in the security office, and call out my company for being a bunch of hypocrites and demand them to have a designated parking area for motorcycles. They claim they care for the environment, and one of the steps they're taking to show that is by encouraging people to carpool by having a designated carpool parking spot right in front of the freakin building. Do motorcycles use less gas and emission than cars? Because if I want to use that argument. They also take less room, so they don't need a whole row in the parking lot just for them.

What other arguments can I use? If they tell me I should take it up to HR, I will. I'm going to write them a letter stating all the reasons why we should have our own parking area and start a petition going.
 
They aren't that much more efficient than cars for emmissions but the argument is that a nimble motorcycle takes up less road space and is more efficient transport if you take into account road damage costs and less traffic congestion etc. If motorcycles were allowed to filter at stoplights then there's a small argument as to less idling time and therefore less emmissions I'd guess.
 
mahnoy said:
Do motorcycles use less gas and emission than cars? Because if I want to use that argument. They also take less room, so they don't need a whole row in the parking lot just for them.
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Let's talk about sole-occupant vehicles, car or bike. Some motorcycles use less fuel. That said, many motorcycles actually use much more fuel than the latest small cars on the market.

Emissions-wise, even the latest bikes are still dirtier than cars.

The company wants to encourage car pools? Now you're putting multiple occupants into a car that even with just one occupant will typically use less fuel and be less polluting than a bike. With multiple occupants those per-occupant fuel usage and pollutant emissions numbers tip the scale even more firmly in favour of cars and away from bikes.

You say bikes use less space for parking? Great, but many riders are picky about when they ride. Raining? Many park the bike and take the car. Cold? Park the bike, take the car. Snowing? Store the bike, take the car.

Those "bike-only" parking spaces would see virtually no use at all for six months out of the year. Where are the space savings in winter?

Even in the "good" riding weather months those spots would see little use on rainy days as fair-weather riders abandon the bike in favour of their nice warm and dry cars. Where is the space savings when that happens?

You might want to think hard about your arguments in support of bikes-only spaces. The ones you're offering up here won't pass muster when viewed objectively.
 
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turbodish said:
Let's talk about sole-occupant vehicles, car or bike. Some motorcycles use less fuel. That said, many motorcycles actually use much more fuel than the latest small cars on the market.

Emissions-wise, even the latest bikes are still dirtier than cars.

The company wants to encourage car pools? Now you're putting multiple occupants into a car that even with just one occupant will typically use less fuel and be less polluting than a bike. With multiple occupants those per-occupant fuel usage and pollutant emissions numbers tip the scale even more firmly in favour of cars and away from bikes.

You say bikes use less space for parking? Great, but many riders are picky about when they ride. Raining? Many park the bike and take the car. Cold? Park the bike, take the car. Snowing? Store the bike, take the car.

Those "bike-only" parking spaces would see virtually no use at all for six months out of the year. Where are the space savings in winter?

Even in the "good" riding weather months those spots would see little use on rainy days as fair-weather riders abandon the bike in favour of their nice warm and dry cars. Where is the space savings when that happens?

You might want to think hard about your arguments in support of bikes-only spaces. The ones you're offering up here won't pass muster when viewed objectively.
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I guess you can also say that about bikes. We have spots for bicycles to park in the parking lot but close to the entrance, but it's not like anyone ride their bike to work in the winter time or on rainy days. I know the University of Windsor has a parking spot designated for bikes and motorcycles. It was the size of a one car parking spot. No need to buy a parking pass. Companies should do the same - integrate bicycle and motorcycle parking. Maybe expand it to two cars parking spot. Oh, and that whole lot where the bicycles are parked, is all reserved for expecting mothers.
 
It's more likely someone will knock over your bike. Someone is rushing back from lunch, sees a spot and turns in, she doesn't see the bike until it is too late *crash*

I'd be teed-off if my company did that to me, but it's not likely that anything you say or do will change their mind. Someone with too much authority and nothing to do must have had a bad day.
 
mahnoy said:
I guess you can also say that about bikes. We have spots for bicycles to park in the parking lot but close to the entrance, but it's not like anyone ride their bike to work in the winter time or on rainy days. I know the University of Windsor has a parking spot designated for bikes and motorcycles. It was the size of a one car parking spot. No need to buy a parking pass. Companies should do the same - integrate bicycle and motorcycle parking. Maybe expand it to two cars parking spot. Oh, and that whole lot where the bicycles are parked, is all reserved for expecting mothers.
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Expectant (well, truly expectant) mothers are a whole lot different than motorcycle or bicycle riders. The difference is physical comfort vs laziness. Do you really have difficulty walking a few steps more if you have to park further away?

And bicycles are zero emissions, zero fuel, aren't they? An individual bicycle also tends to take a lot less space than an individual motorcycle, and bicycle riders don't piss and moan when the next bicycle that comes along parks right beside or even rubs up against their bike.

Mohawk college has a few dedicated motorcycle spots but those spots are small. Also, try and park a motorcycle in among the bicycles at Mohawk and see how long you last. Guelph U is similar.

Bottom line is that motorcycles are motorized vehicles. You want special treatment? Why exactly do you think that motorcycle riders should be entitled to such? The arguments thus far really don't do much to advance your cause.
 
jc100 said:
They aren't that much more efficient than cars for emmissions but the argument is that a nimble motorcycle takes up less road space and is more efficient transport if you take into account road damage costs and less traffic congestion etc. If motorcycles were allowed to filter at stoplights then there's a small argument as to less idling time and therefore less emmissions I'd guess.
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Wait, it's illegal to filter at reds? Been doing it for ages.
 
Organize a group of a 100 or so riders with really loud pipes to show up when a very important meeting is going on. Have a megaphone with someone saying "Warrriorrrrssss....come out and playyyeeeyyayayyyyy" while clinking some bottles together. That always works with companies. Oh, and everyone must dress similarly and have 70's hair.
 
throttle said:
Wait, it's illegal to filter at reds? Been doing it for ages.
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One trial saw it as being sufficient to support an HTA172 conviction. http://www.canlii.org/en/on/oncj/doc/2009/2009oncj620/2009oncj620.pdf
[51] I now consider whether he endangered any person by ‘driving a motor vehicle in a manner that indicates an intention to drive, without justification, as close as possible to another vehicle’. In my view, he did endanger himself, the other motorcyclists and persons in the cars stopped at the traffic light by being in such close proximity to other vehicles. With a distance of only 2 feet from the lead motorcycle he would have had no time to take appropriate evasive action had the lead motorcyclist swerved to his right. A collision would have been likely. Similarly, had any person be it a child or an adult opened his or her car door when Mr Bunda passed to the right, that person or Mr Bunda may have been injured. As I found above, there was no room for Mr Bunda’s motorcycle to be to the right of the cars and as such there would be no expectation on the part of a person opening a car door that a motorcycle would suddenly appear beside them.

[52] The wording of the legislation in subsection iii states that the driving of the motor vehicle must be in a manner which ‘indicates an intention’ to drive without justification as closes as possible to another vehicle etc. Therefore, this is a mens rea offence pursuant to R. v. Sault Ste Marie (City), (1978, 40 C.C.C. (2d) 353, (SCC). As a result, this Court need not consider whether Mr Bunda has a defence of due diligence. I note that Mr Bunda in any event did not offer such a defence.
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turbodish said:
Expectant (well, truly expectant) mothers are a whole lot different than motorcycle or bicycle riders. The difference is physical comfort vs laziness. Do you really have difficulty walking a few steps more if you have to park further away?

And bicycles are zero emissions, zero fuel, aren't they? An individual bicycle also tends to take a lot less space than an individual motorcycle, and bicycle riders don't piss and moan when the next bicycle that comes along parks right beside or even rubs up against their bike.

Mohawk college has a few dedicated motorcycle spots but those spots are small. Also, try and park a motorcycle in among the bicycles at Mohawk and see how long you last. Guelph U is similar.

Bottom line is that motorcycles are motorized vehicles. You want special treatment? Why exactly do you think that motorcycle riders should be entitled to such? The arguments thus far really don't do much to advance your cause.
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You won't feel any discomfort until you hit your 3rd trimester.

And it's not about laziness. We have a little golf cart that picks up people who are parked further away, so it was about laziness, I would just hop on one those. Parking further away means you have less visibility of your bike. I feel safer parking with other bikes or close by so I know I can see it from the window of my cubicle, and I'm sure many here would agree. A careless driver can easily knock over your bike in a car parking spot because he didn't expect it there, and you won't know it until the end of the day and there probably won't be any witness if you're parked all the way in the back. Even at the mall back in Windsor has a blocked area just for motorcycles big enough to fit 15 bikes. Let's just say there are probably more employees at my company than there are at the mall. If other places have it, why aren't we adapting it?

I don't know about you, but I definitely don't like coming back to see my mirrors misplaced and wonder what else they did to my bike. Especially when I used to work at a grocery store. I just parked right up to the sidewalk because I don't want shopping carts to be accidentally flying into my bike. People are less likely to **** with yo **** when they know others are looking.
 
Company i work for has designated motorcycle parking, but i dont use it. I prefer to leave mine parked in the shadiest spot I can...just be thankful you have a safe place to leave it for the day/night while you work cuz it could be worse...
 
badjoke said:
Organize a group of a 100 or so riders with really loud pipes to show up when a very important meeting is going on. Have a megaphone with someone saying "Warrriorrrrssss....come out and playyyeeeyyayayyyyy" while clinking some bottles together. That always works with companies. Oh, and everyone must dress similarly and have 70's hair.
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I'm actually thinking next spring, for all the riders to take 1 car parking spot near the entrance. 10 bikes, 10 car spots. Just to make a statement. Of course, that means I have to wake up earlier....
 
mahnoy said:
You won't feel any discomfort until you hit your 3rd trimester.
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Ok, so you've confirmed the reasonable rationalization for expectant mother spots.

mahnoy said:
And it's not about laziness. We have a little golf cart that picks up people who are parked further away, so it was about laziness, I would just hop on one those. Parking further away means you have less visibility of your bike. I feel safer parking with other bikes or close by so I know I can see it from the window of my cubicle, and I'm sure many here would agree. A careless driver can easily knock over your bike in a car parking spot because he didn't expect it there, and you won't know it until the end of the day and there probably won't be any witness if you're parked all the way in the back.
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Everything you just said pretty much applies to ANY vehicle owner. Parking further away means you have less visibility over your shiny new car. Anyone could come along and door-ding or scrape it while pulling into a spot on either side of it and there probably won't be any witnesses around to see it. Therefore I should expect the company to provide me with a dedicated parking area specifically for shiny new cars and viewable from my cubicle window, and better yet that spot should be right by the front door too. That's ridiculous, isn't it?

If anything, given that a standard-width motorcycle is narrower than most cars, it should be LESS susceptible to sideswipe or scraping damage from cars pulling into neighbouring car spaces, assuming you park dead center in your standard car-width-sized spot.

Regardless, why should a motorcycle, which is ultimately just a piece of plastic and steel arranged in a different configuration than a shiny new car, be treated any differently because of risk of damage?

mahnoy said:
Even at the mall back in Windsor has a blocked area just for motorcycles big enough to fit 15 bikes. Let's just say there are probably more employees at my company than there are at the mall. If other places have it, why aren't we adapting it?
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Employees typically work a standard 8 to 10 hour day by the time you include lunch, right? That means there is not a lot of parking space turn-over in an employee parking lot.

Mall parking lots are different. Mall patrons come and go. Parking spaces can turn over within minutes, so a given parking space could see literally dozens of different occupants in the course of typical mall hours. That high turn-over would tend to trump supposedly higher employee counts.

Also, the mall is in business to attract patrons. Improving the customer experience in parking is one way to do so. Customers will quickly go elsewhere if it's more convenient for them to park elsewhere, regardless of car or bike being choice of transport.

There isn't near the same economic incentive to improve the employee experience. Are you going to quit if you don't get your dedicated parking spot for your motorcycle? Not likely.

mahnoy said:
I don't know about you, but I definitely don't like coming back to see my mirrors misplaced and wonder what else they did to my bike. Especially when I used to work at a grocery store. I just parked right up to the sidewalk because I don't want shopping carts to be accidentally flying into my bike. People are less likely to **** with yo **** when they know others are looking.
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Ok, but once again, doesn't that apply equally to shiny new cars? Even dirty old cars? Why is your bike more special than them?

You're going to need to work on your rationale a bit more.
 
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To the OP: I've fought for, and occasionally won, motorcycle parking zones at my places of work, from my days in the Army to my tenure as a Millwright and now as a trucker. I can sum up all my experiences by saying that, basically, if wherever you work at does not have someone influential on the Management side who rides, you're in for a long battle to get segregated parking for bikes. There are just no real convincing arguments to help your cause, especially if there's only a few of you that ride to work on a regular basis. How you get to and from work and where you park just isn't a top priority at any place of business and the fewer riders there are, the less effective your concerns and opinions matter.

However, one thing that might help is to volunteer to set up the bike parking area on your own, hopefully with the help of the other riders. If you show the company you're serious about protecting the bikes and will do so on your own time, that might tip the scales in your favour. At one of the companies I worked for as a Millwright, I was able to negotiate them dropping off several concrete curb lengths that I muscled into place and then made up some signs and posts to mark off the area. Ended up doing all the work myself, but the other riders had no problems making use of the parking - in fact, many of them started riding to work on a regular basis simply because they now had a safe spot to park their bikes.
 
turbodish said:
... And bicycles are zero emissions, zero fuel, aren't they? ...
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Not disputing your points Turbo, but this one remark reminded me of an article I read where a guy rode a Honda cub 50 while his buddy rode his road bicycle for something like a 180 mile route. The bicyclist consumed more "fuel", dollars wise, than the Honda!

OP: Arguments consisting of emissions, consumption, space utilization, etc. are moot when comparing to a modern car used for carpooling. The bike just can't compete. You'll have to think of something better than that.
 
great. another douchetastic motorcyclist who thinks others should be accomodating "us"
 
rukus said:
great. another douchetastic motorcyclist who thinks others should be accomodating "us"
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Lol!

If motorcycling was a more common means of transport you would see bike parking around the place.

I was just in Australia and noticed they had bike parking dotted around the city.

Here In toronto i know some companies provided motorcycle and scooter parking free.
 
At my old workplace, there was motorcycle parking the size of 4-5 parking spaces. On some nice warm days, we'd get about 30 bikes all crammed in there and everyone was good with spacing their bikes out. In the winter, cars would use the spaces. It was only on the rainy days that some spaces would be "wasted".
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