Re: City council voting on getting rid of free parking for motorcycles today
G'day,
I'm new to the forum, ride a BMW F800GS, live and work downtown, ride my bike 8-9 months a year and don't own a car. Great to meet you all.
I wrote to Mike Del Grande as soon as I heard about this, Tuesday evening. This is my email:
Hi Mike,
As Editor-in-Chief of EatSleepRIDE.com, an online motorcycling news nexus and community catering to, and advocating for, motorcyclists of all type, I'd like to comment on your proposal to reintroduce parking fees for riders.
You were quoted in Tuesday's Sun (http://www.torontosun.com/2011/11/29/motorcycle-free-parking-faces-to-ban) regarding motorbikes and scooters as saying, “They burn gas just like everybody else. You take a parking spot, you pay what you pay for cars.”
Indeed both do burn fuel, albeit a lot less for scooters and motorbikes, and as for taking a parking spot, we can fit 5-7 bikes in the space of one car spot. Our bikes also take up much less space while driving on the road, and damage that road far less than a car or truck does. And the inherent nimbleness of a bike makes travel faster and less frustrating than going by car. As well, a new generation of long-range, highway-capable electric motorcycles are poised to hit the market next year, and they neither burn gas nor make a sound. We expect them to become a common sight on our streets.
There's also the problem of placing the parking coupons. What's to stop someone stealing one off a bike? What happens when it rains, the coupon paper dissolves and we have no way to prove we paid for parking if we get ticketed?
It just seems counterproductive that a city struggling with ever-growing gridlock would want to add a disincentive to those of us who ride two-wheeled motorized transport. When you think about it, motorcycles are a key part of the gridlock solution, and one that the city and province would be wise to support and encourage, as opposed to cars, as transport. Cities all over the world are realizing this and acting accordingly.
And let's face it: The TTC's a disaster -- an overloaded, unpleasant and unreliable mode of transit, with no fixes in sight. Condos keep going up all over the core. The roads aren't being expanded, because there's nowhere to expand them. What else is there available to reduce road clutter other than encouraging people to walk or ride -- whether bicycles, motorbikes or scooters?
There's much more to the story of how motorcycles can help this city, and I invite you to read our recently completed Manifesto here: http://eatsleepride.com/c/4418/We+the+Motorcycles+Are+Here+to+Save+Toronto.
Hoping you'll consider these points and change your mind on parking fees for bikes.
All the best,
Paul
And this was his reply:
Thank you for your point of view.
Why is in Toronto everything is expected for free and everywhere else
it is not?
Twitching a bit as I struggled to keep my head, I responded with:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your rapid reply.
To your point of everything in Toronto being expected for free, I'm
afraid I'm not familiar with that statistic.
But in the case of motorcyclists wanting free parking, from our point
of view it's because:
- We already pay disproportionately higher road taxes than cars,
considering the negligible adverse impact we have on the roads
- We already pay higher insurance rates than cars, and have to buy a
full year's worth of insurance even though we can't possibly ride a
full year, due to snow and salt on the roads
- We take up around 1/5 the space of a small car when parked, so
there's a basic real estate factor at work
- There are no practical ways to secure a parking coupon to a bike --
they tend to get stolen and destroyed by rain
- The previous admin understood that if you give people a little
incentive not to drive a car, they'll take you up on it. I was one of
those people, and now see new cost and hassle being added to an
already (illogically) expensive mode of transport
Sir, motorcycle ownership should be actively encouraged in Toronto by
people such as yourself and the mayor. It offers the only realistic,
immediate and inexpensive relief to ever-worsening gridlock -- for at
least 8 months of the year. Compared to the vast expense of expanding
public transit and expanding the road network, the loss of parking
income from bikes is a pittance.
If you have fact-based counter-arguments to these points, I would be
delighted to engage you on them.
All the best,
Paul
And his reply to that:
Then a review would be in order.
So, I guess Mike and I kept it civilized. And I am hoping the man and his City Hall associates may be willing to listen to reason.
The lesson would seem to be: If you're writing or speaking to politicians on this matter, keep it polite, yes, attack their ideas with reason and facts, but do not call them names, or accuse them of things, or attack their characters.
As soon as you loose your cool, they'll just brand you (and likely other riders) a dangerous biker kook and you'll never have a chance at their ear again. It's in our interest to demonstrate that we are normal citizens who happen to ride motorcycles, and not hellraisers or whiners who want more freebies from the gov.
This is a biggy, and if we fight the good fight with facts, logic and a sense of humour, we'll maybe just win it.
And it's worth remembering that when politicians hear from one voter, they multiply the opinion expressed by the voter by 100 or 1,000. Writing and calling them most definitely does make a diff.
So, to war.
