City engineering boss signals agreement with motorcycle-parking activist ahead of rally

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      A Vancouver advocate of free parking for motorcycles and scooters claims he often bangs his head against a wall trying to get someone at city hall to hear him.

      When he spoke to the Straight on April 5, Ian Tootill from the Vancouver Scooter/Motorcycle Parking Initiative said he’s had “three years of silence” from Mayor Gregor Robertson, a fan of nonmotorized two-wheeled transportation, on the issue of motorcycle parking locally.

      On May 5 at 7:45 a.m., Tootill will kick off the 2012 2-Wheelers Spring Rally outside the West End Aquatic Centre at 1050 Beach Avenue.

      “We’re having this event on May 5 just to follow up our rally that was held at the end of April 2010 in order to garner support from the public and put this in the minds of the council that we’d like to have more parking, and we’d like to have a good portion of free parking, and competitively-priced parking,” Tootill told the Straight in a Kitsilano coffee shop. “By competitively priced, I mean cities like San Francisco, Portland in the past, Toronto in the present have all offered a substantial amount of free parking. In Toronto, it’s all free parking for motorcycles on the sidewalk. In San Francisco, in the words of their chief engineer, there is ‘thousands’ of parking spaces throughout the town, and many of them are free.”

      And they are free, according to Tootill, because the city sees an advantage in encouraging motorcycles, “because they consume less fuel, they occupy less space, they reduce congestion and they have a lower footprint on the street in terms of their weight—two wheels instead of four”.

      “There is less wear and tear on the roadways, so they see an advantage in encouraging motorcycle use.”

      Now Tootill said he wants to see more special spaces for motorcyclists and he wants to see parking spots for two-wheeled transportation like motorized scooters and motorcycles “on every block”.

      It only took city engineering services general manager Peter Judd 30 seconds to signal agreement with Tootill.

      “He’s gonna get that eventually,” Judd told the Straight by phone. “That’s my goal. I ride an electric scooter, and I’d like to see more parking as a matter of fact.”

      Judd noted he is “very familiar” with Tootill’s woes and desire to see more dedicated motorcycle spots.

      “Every time I go somewhere where there isn’t one, I phone our folks and I say, ‘We should really have one there,’” Judd said. “Ian has more friends than he knows. But there is more to this story.”

      Number one, motorcycles can park at any metered space, according to Judd, and if they use the city’s pay-by-phone service, they get 50 percent off their vehicle rate to park at any metered space. So it’s not that the only place they can park is in those motorcycle spots, the head engineer said.

      “And if there’s a bunch of them [riding], all they need to do is pay the meter in a vehicle space, and they can park as many motorcycles in one space as they can jam in.”

      Tootill said he found the overall pricing structure “confusing” and “discriminatory” toward motorcycle users. Judd confirmed there are around 200 special spaces, created for motorcyclists like Tootill, and some are metered and some are not.

      “They [motorcycles] don’t pay the same amount; they pay 50 percent,” Judd said of the pricing at metered spots. “They pay half. It’s nowhere near the same amount and does to some extent reflect that [motorcyclists are using the spaces and emit less greenhouse gases]. Even having said that, we will be reviewing the usage of the special spaces we put in, and we’ll be reviewing the rates and if there’s justification to reduce them, we’ll be reporting that to council.”

      Tootill said he’s always favoured having spaces at the front end of each block, which he claims has untapped potential. Judd said this is a provincial issue.

      “I would like to do that too, because frankly I’d rather have them in front of a vehicle, where a driver sees them, rather than behind a vehicle, where they might get backed into by somebody in a van who forgets that it’s there or something,” Judd said. “So I would much rather that we be able to put them in front. Right now there’s a limit to how close you can put them to crosswalks at that end of the block. So if he can help get the Motor Vehicle Act changed, so that legally we can allow them in the corner clearances at that end, I would be thrilled to accommodate him, because I agree with him.”

      Tootill said of Judd’s comments, “That’s great to hear.”

      Comments

      1 Comments

      Mikerrr

      May 2, 2012 at 1:43pm

      Yes its 50% off, but the rates are still so high that nobody uses the motorcycle parking spots. Its still something like $1 for every 20 minutes downtown. So $24 for 8 hours. That does not encourage anyone to give up their car for their commute. And because of these prices all the effort to make these designated spaces is being wasted.