I don’t find this particularly offensive.  Motorcycles and scooters take up way less space on the street, so they shouldn’t be charged nearly as much for parking.  If a free pass at the muni-meter convinced a few people on my block to trade in their cars for Vespas, I would be ecstatic, both from a street-space perspective and from a safety perspective (I personally find motorcycle and scooter riders to be far less obnoxious than car drivers when I’m biking in the city)

Vallone’s self-entitled whining and culture-war-double-standard is gross, for sure. 

But saying motorcyclists have it good isn’t right. According to the NYC ped safety report, motorcyclists make up 11% of city traffic fatalities. That’s 50% more than bicyclists, in large part because they are extremely likely to die if involved in a traffic crash. Motorcyclists should be turned into safety allies, not demonized.

Given the INCREDIBLE danger they represent to their riders, the AMAZING speeds I see these things routinely clocking while weaving in and out of traffic, and the DEAFENING engine revving volumes many owners CHOOSE to have their motorcycles emanate in an aggressive, offensive and disruptive fashion, I think motorcyclists should be happy they are allowed in New York City at all. I would be one of the first people on line to sign a petition to ban them entirely. I consider them a public nuisance,and given that something like 92% of motorcycle owners also own a car/truck, I find any connection to sustainability a dubious one – these are primarily recreational or at least optional secondary vehicles for the vast majority of their owners. I feel differently about motorized scooters which have much lower top speeds and, while sometimes irritating sounds, generate nothing like the booming of motorcycles that set off car alarms as they roar down the street. My advice to motorcycle advocates would be to not push publicly for more rights in urban areas lest you risk losing the peace-destroying privileges that you already enjoy.

As a motorcyclist until recently, I am sympathetic to this, even if Vallone is behaving like a buffoon (shades of Al D’Amato and Rudy G “buying crack” back in the 80s?).

The problem with muni slips is that there’s simply no way to secure them on a bike – the DOT has done nothing to offer solutions beyond a pouch that can’t always be easily affixed to bikes (or in a consistent location, which means agents can miss it), and there’s no way to prevent theft of a slip.

The system is flawed by design.  In other cities (see: SF), there’s dedicated motorcycle parking where you park in slots and the machine tracks payment-by-slot without any paper slips.  Much more effective.

Motorcyclists in NYC are definitely second-class citizens.  Talk to any responsible motorcycle owner, and you’ll hear all the same tales of woe regarding selective enforcement by the NYPD and dangerous drivers that are so familiar to cyclists.

Parking is as much an issue for motorcyclists as it is for cyclists, simply because there is nowhere to park – wedging a bike or scooter between cars is a recipe for getting your ride knocked over – too many drivers “park by feel” – which can cost thousands of dollars in damage (personal experience there).  

So yea.  Is Vallone being a posturing jerk?  Sure, but he’s a politician.  That’s what they do.  

I’d be happy to pay at a muni-meter for motorcycle parking if it was dedicated and I could ensure my bike wouldn’t be knocked over.

A motorcyclist whining “The bicyclists get miles of bike lanes,” is about as absurd as a bicyclist complaining that pedestrians get miles and miles of sidewalks.

“We pay $42.50 in registration fees and pay our taxes, too. We make our
contribution and we’re not getting anything back. We just want a level
of equality.”

I’ve long been interested in knowing how much the processing of motor vehicle registrations costs the state. My guess is that it’s under the costs of the registration itself.  That’s certainly what I think every time I hear some poor motorist (four- or two-wheeled) lament the costs of that registration and pretend that paying that amount should give them some great privilege.

“The bicyclists get miles of bike lanes,” he said. 

If only someone would build some kind of roadway for motorized transportation and recreation! Give me a fucking break.  We have, as a country, literally been falling all over ourselves to  destroy our cities, towns and open spaces for an entire generation to provide – at minimal cost to the people who use them – a safe and efficient pathway for cars, trucks and motorcycles from sea to fucking shining sea. And even after a half century of efforts, the number of people killed in auto “accidents” is measured in the tens of thousands.   And as if that wasn’t bad enough, our desire for cheap and easy travel has put us on the path to global ecological catastrophe.

Free plastic pouches for everyone!   

This is only a real issue in Midtown/Downtown Manhattan where nearly all curb space is metered/regulated.

In the outer boroughs, there’s almost always an alternate side parking area nearby where a motorcyclist can find a space between cars and park for free.

I also agree with Pete.  Just as NYC is almost done replacing all single-space meters with Muni Meters, the Munis are obsolete.

Also, if you put together a chart of global cities with high motorcycle/scooter usage, I’ll bet $10 that you get a list of places that we’d all be pretty glad to live in.

And, add three very nice cities to the list of moto-friendly places we ‘d all be very happy to live in:  London, Paris, San Francisco.  All three have extensive scooter and motorcycle parking.  All three are very eco-friendly.

If you make riding a scooter or motorcycle difficult, then only difficult people will do it.  Think about that.  If you make it easy, and don’t needlessly torture folks, you might find an alternate way to get rid of some of the cars and light trucks on the road.

Well, lets all hope that Matt Den Dekker can do more for us than Mike Den Dekker!

By the way, great job Streetsblog for the photo caption of the year.

“equating a motorcycle with a bicycle is like equating a Sea-Doo with a swimsuit.”Technically I think it’s more like equating a Sea-Doo with a kayak. A swimsuit would be akin to a pedestrian or a runner.  The point is still valid though. 

All right, give them free parking in NYC but outlaw motorcycles in state parks. A fair tradeoff IMHO.

I’m actually a big fan of SF’s extensive designated metered zones for motorcycles and scooters and advocated for them in my tenure on Manh. CB2. They are great for daylighting intersections, improving sightlines for peds and bicycles while preventing large trucks from parking in what was supposed to be a daylighted spot. The motorcyclists that I worked with were not opposed to paying a small fee for their parking (à la San Francisco), but really just wanted recognition of their struggles with Munimeters and knock-overs.

One amenity that we need in NYC that is not as much a factor elsewhere: some provisions for locking. Much as bike theft is more a plague in NYC than in other cities, so are the brazen thieves who pull up with a truck and simply lift up the cycle and make their getaway.

As far as the environmental aspect, my experience is that most moto riders are driving their cycle rather than taking transit, so the favorable comparisons to driving a car is moot. Nonetheless, responsible moto riding is preferable to putting more cars on the road and deserves attention.

Finding a way to affix a slip of paper to your motorcycle is simple enough. As a motorcycle rider, I’ve found ways of getting it done. However, I don’t see how it is fair to charge a vehicle to occupies 1/8th the space of a car the same “rent” to park the car there. Bridges have special rates for motorcycles. No motorcyclist would park in a parking garage that charges you the same rate as the mom pulling in behind you in an H2 hummer.