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Do you park your motorcycle on the sidewalk?

No, yes, maybe -

Not right now where I live I don't need to and it would be bad form with the neighbors. I am not certain but it may not be legal in my neighborhood.

I have in the past I have in other cities. London for example it was legal near the business I worked at briefly and illegal in the neighborhood I lived. Go figure.
 
Usually at Wal Mart..... now!

...Since the 2009 Great Chicken Rally near Huntsville, AL sucks. Big rally and a big newer Wally World nearby. So what occurs on a Saturday
of the "bird crap gig" with about 500+ (easily!) of us visiting town... many of us at the same time for a few hour period visit the joint!
And what do find about the parking lot at this "up scale" establishment... oil / antifreeze laden, slick & littered, tight parking spots. No matter
how "newer" it seems. So I arrive to see multiple bmw's parked on the "end caps", those larger areas with yellow striped lines with the light
poles at the end of the parking rows. Maybe 8 to 11 bikes along the full width of the Mart here & there... so I see no reason to plow up & down
the lanes to take a cage spot & join the fray in one of the end caps. Their organized so that your not interfering with handicap parking access...
so I think it will be fine also. It's boiling hot on that asphalt & the big wide sidewalk of concrete looks good near the building, some of it even in
the shade! In FLORIDA, on a motorcycle...that's WHERE YOU PARK! Enough lawsuits from bikes falling over in soft asphalt lots caused that...
there is an expectation the designated parking spots will support a motor vehicle I guess. Anyhow... a bunch of us come out to find the law
writing tickets faster than I thought possible... he got nearly all of us; others arriving noticed & avoided the rather expensive parking violation....
... if you chose to anti-up the coin; my alleged paperwork must have "blown" across the lot... it wasn't under the wiper blade!!!...:whistle

"travel'in" john
 
Multiple bikes in one space is illegal in many places as the towns want their money. They really don't care if you're making more space for cars. I'll stick to the sidewalk in what I believe to be an intelligent manner. Laws are not necessarily concerned about intelligence as some are there primarily to generate revenue like not allowing multiple bikes in one spot. I've never been ticketed anyway for it although I assume it is illegal in most areas. And, laziness has zero to do with it. When I'm in the car I'm usually in the farthest spot you can get away from the store. Dings you know...

I've done the sidewalk thing for years. If I get a couple of tickets in my lifetime I don't think I'll lose any sleep over it. When done intelligently not a big deal. If I'm not mistaken I think you probably have to have the store file a complaint anyway. Many moons ago when I was a bag boy I parked on the sidewalk in front of the store every working day.

Here's where the fun comes in. If you live/work in Manhattan how many have driven on the sidewalk? Bike and/or car?
 
...Since the 2009 Great Chicken Rally near Huntsville, AL sucks. Big rally and a big newer Wally World nearby. So what occurs on a Saturday
of the "bird crap gig" with about 500+ (easily!) of us visiting town... many of us at the same time for a few hour period visit the joint!
And what do find about the parking lot at this "up scale" establishment... oil / antifreeze laden, slick & littered, tight parking spots. No matter
how "newer" it seems. So I arrive to see multiple bmw's parked on the "end caps", those larger areas with yellow striped lines with the light
poles at the end of the parking rows. Maybe 8 to 11 bikes along the full width of the Mart here & there... so I see no reason to plow up & down
the lanes to take a cage spot & join the fray in one of the end caps. Their organized so that your not interfering with handicap parking access...
so I think it will be fine also. It's boiling hot on that asphalt & the big wide sidewalk of concrete looks good near the building, some of it even in
the shade! In FLORIDA, on a motorcycle...that's WHERE YOU PARK! Enough lawsuits from bikes falling over in soft asphalt lots caused that...
there is an expectation the designated parking spots will support a motor vehicle I guess. Anyhow... a bunch of us come out to find the law
writing tickets faster than I thought possible... he got nearly all of us; others arriving noticed & avoided the rather expensive parking violation....
... if you chose to anti-up the coin; my alleged paperwork must have "blown" across the lot... it wasn't under the wiper blade!!!...:whistle

"travel'in" john

Now that's something I never do... park on yellow stripes. I figure those stripes are there for a reason. Example: Turning radius of a truck. Also, if I see multiple people parked on the sidewalk I park somewhere else because multiples are just itching to be ticketed. Intelligent low key parking wins the day most of the time in my self-admitted little parts of the world where I have lived and/or worked.
 
When I owned a boxer, I often parked on the sidewalk . Never had any problems. With my K bike, I rarely park on the sidewalk. Times have changed. In my area of the country, state and local governments are so worried about filling their coffers, you have to be careful. There seems to have been a shift from stopping crime to raising revenue. JMO
 
My answer is that it depends. There is a electronics superstore type place near me that the motorcycles regularly park on the very large and wide sidewalk up by the building. It is an area that seldom has people walking. The nice part is that it is in the shade and also direct view of the security cameras. So I'm more comfortable leaving gear on the bike. However at the local grocery store I park in the lot with the cars. They used to have an out of the way area that was good for bikes, but as there business expanded they moved the cart storage there and it isn't good for bikes since they would be in the way. Which is too bad since the extra shoppers means full parking lot and I'm taking up a full spot. But I'd rather take up a full spot than be that "biker" that is on the sidewalk and in the way.

There are other places I park on the sidewalk, but it is always in an area that is already accepted as an okay places for bikes and never where it will inconvenience pedestrians.
 
Where we live the nearest sidewalk is over 50 miles away. And I don't park on the sidewalk there anyway. It must be a "city thing".
 
Regardless of what you think of this kid, the cop is an arrogant jerk and his attitude reflects negatively on other officers.

He's breaking the law (at least as far as I interpret it), and he doesn't give a rat's behind.

Does a cop not have to give his badge number if requested by a citizen?
 
I spent the day running around for work and kept bumping into this thread in practice. FOL University has several areas that are sidewalks and designated motorcycle parking. The sidewalk next to the FOL paper's N side is posted for motorcycle parking as is one place in frequented in down town. Had a chance to talk with a parking enforcement officer (we were meter maids or parking monitors when I worked as one in college) and his response was ...it depends on signage, but motorcycles are expected to follow the same parking rules as cars unless otherwise signed.

As to the kid or the cop being jerks - who knows based on that limited input?
 
Parking

I have to say it depends where you are, the grocery store where I frequent encourages me to park under the portico, which I do when and if there is space for cars to get past me. Its about 20 steps to the door. Some cities nearby have stricter rules, one needs to be aware of this local attitude. The city in which I live has better things to do than worry about where I park my bike, however I do show respect and never park in front of a store of which I am not going to enter, unless its vacant. And I never park where I obstruct those walking. I once parked on a walkway in front of a city marina, once inside the cop who was hanging out there said to me "I can give you a ticket for parking there" I said "yeah I know but I doubt if you will as I can be out of here before you can write it". So he left without another word. Again caution and common sense, the hell with the dudes that say I am lazy. I almost guarantee you if you go to a classy hotel with a super car or motorcycle the valet will park your ride in front of the front door. Tip necessary.....
 
Regardless of what you think of this kid, the cop is an arrogant jerk and his attitude reflects negatively on other officers.

He's breaking the law (at least as far as I interpret it), and he doesn't give a rat's behind.

Does a cop not have to give his badge number if requested by a citizen?

As I said earlier, to each their own on this 'bait & switch' post. It's designed to morph into cop bashing - not an unusual occurrence on this Forum. I'll just try to answer your questions.

"He's breaking the law......." So does every one of us every day when we go 26 MPH in a 25 MPH zone. As cops, we 'forgive' many transgressions in 8 hrs. of patrolling - speed, not signaling at least 150' (WI) before a turn, rolling stops, not turning into the correct lane - the list is endless. The bummer is there are no stats for all the violations we let go - only the ones we don't.

It's all about degrees of tolerance. We 'citizens' demand it from the cops, but rarely extend the same courtesies to them. Instead, we dominate this Forum with discussions of speeding, radar detectors, beating the 'rap' in court, the 'injustice' of red light cameras, etc. While LEO's are held to a higher standard in many areas of behavior, they also risk far more than 90% of everyone on this Forum does on a daily basis, so that we can sleep secure at night.

I don't really care if that officer was getting a slurpee, interviewing a witness, calling his kids to say he'll have to miss another school event or taking a whiz - in big cities, motor officers can't afford to park their cycle 1 1/2 blocks away - and then be expected to respond to an emergency call. While I too see he was annoyed by this kid, I hardly find this to be an example of horrific abuse of police authority - unless that is all one sees whenever they observe the police. It's the old adage of "If all you've got is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts to look like a nail."

As for giving up a badge number, that varies from department policy to department policy. There is no 'law' that specifies the detail of how we identify ourselves. As for 'genius kid,' the badge number is .....duh..... on the badge, in plain sight - never concealed by the officer - on his video, not to mention he could have filmed the license number of the cycle if he wanted to - not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

None of this will appease those who always view law enforcement in a negative context. As LEO's, we learn that paradox before our first year of duty is in the books - the door never swings both ways. We then spend the rest of our careers living with that 'fact.' Some say there's no such thing as an honest cop. Given the "26 in a 25 zone" analogy, there's really no such thing as an honest citizen. Like I said - degrees of tolerance. :wave
 
Bait & switch???

Hello Greenwald,

"He's breaking the law......." So does every one of us every day when we go 26 MPH in a 25 MPH zone. As cops, we 'forgive' many transgressions in 8 hrs. of patrolling - speed, not signaling at least 150' (WI) before a turn, rolling stops, not turning into the correct lane - the list is endless. The bummer is there are no stats for all the violations we let go - only the ones we don't.

I assume you are a LEO, you have my respect and I know you have job to do. But don't give us that BS about breaking the law, I see every day that I am on the road police officers in their marked cars doing exactly what you have listed above. Plus not using turn signals, not turning on there head lights when their wipers are on (FL state law) Parking marked their take home cars in front of their homes (city code says no no) blowing through red lights etc. and paying no attention to others that do the same. Maybe you can explain that to us citizens.

Oh BTW, if I park my motorcycle on your front lawn am I in violation of something??? After all its not on the sidewalk...............

There are so many nit picking laws no one can obide by all of them, not even the cops and no one can enforce all of them, the jails won't hold us all.
 
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