The Chicago Sun-Times reported today that the city of Chicago has solved motorcycle parking issues forever with an amazingly in-depth and carefully developed two-tier plan:
- Electronic meter receipts will have… wait for it… ADHESIVE ON THE BACK so they can be affixed to headlights.
- Motorcycles are encouraged to park PERPENDICULAR to the road.
Pathetic. The first point addresses one tiny fraction of the concern motorcyclists have about meter receipts, the main complaint being that a driver (or Chicago’s notorious wind) could simply snatch a receipt from a motorcycle headlamp and place it in his own car (the wind, technically, does not own a car, but if she did…).
The second point is even funnier, as it is presented in this quote:
“It [creates] more spaces for all motorists. Why take up a whole space if you can park it perpendicular?” City Revenue Director Bea Reyna-Hickey said.
Why, indeed, Bea? Any motorcyclist, anywhere in the world would naturally park perpendicular to the curb, but IT’S ALWAYS BEEN ILLEGAL IN CHICAGO. Assumedly, the law is (finally!) being changed, and that’s fantastic news, but don’t insult motorcyclists by suggesting that the idea had never occurred to us, or that the motivation for change was altruistic. Electronic meters make it possible to collect six full-price parking fares revenue when six motorcycles park in one parking space. Thanks for the favor!(And thanks to Team Wysocki for the link to the story)
As we’ve mentioned, the Chicago Department of Transportation and the Chicago Department of Environment are hosting a Chicago Scooterist Roundtable at the Chicago Center for Green Technology (445 North Sacramento Boulevard) on Friday, May 4, 2007 from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm. We encourage every scooterist in Chicago to take the afternoon off work and join us, email 2strokebuzz to find out how you can get involved in our planning for the meeting.