Bike Parking in UK Cities

[hindle8907]

whats the law on pushing your bike onto the pavement ? and leaving it there ?

Originally Posted by hindle8907

whats the law on pushing your bike onto the pavement ? and leaving it there ?

Actually spent a little time looking at this, and it depends upon the definition of highway, are you inside the building lines, or on private property. Apparently parking on top of a manhole cover owned by the electricity board means you are on private land and can tell police to fluff off as the road markings have no force. Wouldn't like to try it myself though.
search pepipoo, there are threads on there.
Parking into a bicycle only bay is legal if the signage doesn't say bicycles only.

In Manchester city centre there are a few, free, designated bike bays, though not enough to actually accomodate the 2-wheeled traffic that comes into the city day by day IMO.

I regularly come out after work though to find that some inconsiderate t*** has parked across the bay and blocked it (so far I've managed to get out without causing damage to the cars but I won't be particularly sorry when one day I do...). I came out of work last night to find a woman in the process of parking across the bay and completely blocking me in, and when I challenged her about parking there she told me a traffic warden had told her to park there - charming!

[Stingo]

Plymouth is pretty good it's fair to say. Quite a few bays, in car parks and roadside. There's also a good sized area on the pavement where bikes park at the top of Royal Parade - don't know if it's legal but lots of bikes park there everyday and to date I'm not aware of anyone getting a ticket for it.

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by AndyW

...
Apparently parking on top of a manhole cover owned by the electricity board means you are on private land and can tell police to fluff off as the road markings have no force.
...

Very, very unlikely. The cover may belong to the electricity company, but the land it's on is still most likely highways/council etc. and covered by all the other usual rules. The electricity company just have special permission to locate their assets their (prinicpally the New Roads and Street Works Act for highways.)

You may be surprised to hear that electricity companies generally own very little land outside substations (and often don't even own them). They just have a raft of consents from land owners/occupiers to have their stuff installed where it is.

wolverhampton council have some wierd parking system, if you support wolverhampton wolves football team you get a parking ticket for illegal parking, if you run for charity you will also get a parking ticket for illegal park but if you go the a religious festival (forget the religion event other than an it was an asian based event) noone got ticketed for illegal parking even though it people was parked in the same place as the other two events!
and bikes park anywhere other than 3 places in the city centre for any public service use or public car park they get ticketed, pay and display in large multistory car parks is easy to bypass the fee, dont park in the bay and you dont pay and they dont care. but you as a road user can park in any car park as long as you pay and display because its illegal if they dont let you park there.

i know a guy who had the front of his wheel just over the white line and he got fined for taking up two parking spaces, even since hes taken up 4 if there wasnt a place for bikes to park!

Originally Posted by AndyW

Double yellows only control on road parking. As long as it isn't liable to trip up Joe Public or in the way should be fine. (But don't hold me to that if you get nicked!)

Sadly not. Double yellows 'logically' extend up to the first wall/perimeter fence that they are in front of/perpendicular to, so they cover the pavement, adjacent grass verges etc. too. In some places, if you've parked considerately on the pavement, traffic wardens will turn a blind eye, but they are technically allowed to ticket you for it.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the whole bike parking problem is the disparity from city to city and even borough to borough. I work all over. Tomorrow, I'll be in Westminster. I know from reading here and the motorcyling press that they have some ludicrous bike-parking system that barely works and they charge you for. I only work out of Westminster 2-3 times a year tops, so it's a real ball-ache to register for pay by phone (when I can't use the same system anywhere else in the country), particularly as all the bays will be full by the time I get there at 10.30am. In reality I will probably end up trying to charm staff at the club I am going to to allow me to park within their grounds, or failing that, go and park somewhere else and walk a few miles into Westminster.

We should do what any sane country does and accept bikes take up vastly less parking space (and that if everyone used motorcycles, there'd be no parking problem) and allow people to park bikes anywhere so long as it is done considerately and just ticket people the people who box others in, park horizontally in bike bays, etc.