Parking in Chicago: Clear answers

We’ve been talking about scooter parking in Chicago for ages now, here and on the boards, and arguing over laws and interpretations, but Grace just found this (new?) page on the City of Chicago site that clearly spells out a few details in black and white (pixels).City of Chicago Since the URL is six hundred characters long and they’ve already changed the URL twice since I first linked it up, I’m going to post the entire contents here for reference, hopefully it’ll help when people are Googling “Chicago Scooter Parking”

Information About Parking Your Scooter In Chicago

Is My Motor Scooter Required To Display A City Sticker?
Yes. If you live in the city and own a motor bicycle, motor tricycle or moped, you are required by ordinance to purchase and display an annual motorbike tag on your vehicle. The price of a motorbike tag is $45.00 and can be obtained online at www.chicityclerk.com Motorbike tags are also sold in person at any Chicago City Clerk facility or at the Department of Revenue payment facilities. For location information see Payment Locations or call 312-744-PARK.

Is My Scooter Required To Display A Residential Parking Sticker?
No. Only cars, trucks, and similar vehicles are required to purchase and display residential parking stickers.

Is My Scooter Excused From Parking Restrictions In The City of Chicago?
No. Scooters are required to abide by the same parking laws as other vehicles [emphasis ours]. Some confusion has resulted from the reliance of some scooter owners on a provision in the Illinois Vehicle Code that likens the operation of a scooter to the operation of a bike. Because bikes can park on the sidewalk, some think that scooters should be able to park on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, the provision does not apply to parking (as parking a scooter does not equate to “operating” a scooter) or to other provisions of the Illinois Vehicle Code “which by their nature…have no application to [scooters].”

Whether or not you like these rules, there they are, clear as day, so hopefully that will put some arguments to rest. Ignorance of the law is no longer an excuse. Don’t forget the scooter roundtable coming up in May, where we’ll have our best chance ever to get involved and talk to the city.

UPDATE: The city link now links to PDFs of a City of Chicago motorcycle/scooter brochure AND a list of “motorcycle-friendly” parking facilities.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The city’s site architecture utterly blows, and they keep changing the (several-thousand-character-long) URLS, try these:

FAQ with Scooter PDF and Parking Garage PDF
Scooter PDF and “Share the Road” PDF links
Parking meter info