Most of us here on this site ride bicycles and understand how to RIDE safely in this city, whether on a bicycle or a motorcycle. I personally always view bicyclists as the same on the road.

Grow the fuck up.

http://philapark.org/about-ppa/board-meeting-schedule/

Next on WHYY, PPA begins full on assault on sidewalk flowerpots.

Can’t wait to hear you harangue through your hangover!

Granted, campus cops are a lot more likely to give in to public pressure than the PPA, but it is worth a try. And it took a smaller number of us to take up a quarter of the good spots. Center City is crowded enough that losing 50 or 100 parking spaces for a few critical hours could get attention & news coverage.

Write the flyers carefully, and be polite. Tell drivers trolling for parking that you are following the new stupid law, and need their help or else it will become a permanent problem for everyone. Print LOTS of flyers.

before i left my house for the evening i read up on the ppa motorcycle parking policy and it declared, no parking on the sidewalk with in center city limits, which was something like south to market and broad to 25th. that leads you to believe that it is alright to park outside of these limits.

ok so i received a ticket. i appealed. the “judge” informed me that philadelphia code prohibits all vehicles from parking on the sidewalk. i couldnt argue that. but i appealed, to bring attention to the fact that there is no option for any motorcyclist to park. and hopefully drive my point clearly enough to gain sympathy from the person hearing my appeal.

My point were these 3 things,

why is the website suggesting that it is, without infraction, ok to park on the sidewalk outside of center city limits and does NOT declare it to be against code to park on the sidewalk anywhere in philadelphia.

why do the ppa “officers” not know the law and seem to make it up as they go. (ive asked 30 workers and they all said it was alright to park on the sidewalk outside of center city limits)

what do you expect people to do? print out one of those tiny tickets and try to wedge it somewhere on the bike and hope that one of 3 things happens,

-the ppa officer actually sees it, because their is not set place to put it on a motorcycle,in contrast to, a car, where it is to be place on the dash near the driver side window.

-THE WIND DOESNT BLOW IT OFF,or……

-somebody doesnt just take it and use it for themselves, or just because they are jerks.

the response i got was, you are supposed to get a ticket and put it in your pocket and when you get a ticket, contest it, with the ticket being your proof.

WOW! they expect you to take 4 hours out of your day(thats how long i was there) to contest a ticket every time you want to patronize business around center city. thats absurd and thats no incentive to give your business around the city which generates revenue through taxes which the city seems to be needing these days shutting down schools and all…..

i appealed this decision, this time i had the option of showing up or mailing in my appeal. I mailed in 2 pages of basically what i said here, and i got a letter back, stating that i did not operate within philadelphia traffic code there for i am liable to pay the ticket and that i could not contest the ticket again.

i dont think the point to be made should be, theres no place to securely lock your bike from theft. theres no place to securely lock it on the sidewalk either.

i think the point should be made that THERE IS NO OPTION,
besides special parking spaces in center city, but what do you do when those few spaces are filled? ITS A FLAWED SYSTEM and that should be the focal point of the argument. not that your shit can get stolen or damaged. that can happen anywhere anytime regardless of parking it on a sidewalk or anywhere.

in response to the last comment:
do you think ppa officers will differentiate the sidewalk from a sliver of concrete next to a building? i dont think so. you will get a ticket and you will not spend 4 hrs contesting it to have it possibly be thrown out.

thats my story,
peace yo and im out.

I will try to google the official State of PA definition of sidewalk and see what I can find.

Operating a motor vehicle on the sidewalk is illegal.
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/75/00.037.003.000..HTM

Parking a motor vehicle on the sidewalk is illegal.
http://philapark.org/motorcycles-scooters/

City Code _12-913. Prohibitions in Specified Places

(1) Except when necessary to avoid conflict with other
traffic or to protect the safety of any person or vehicle or
in compliance with law or the directions of a police officer or
official traffic-control device, no person shall:

(a) Stop, stand or park a vehicle:

***

(ii) On a sidewalk except that a bicycle may be parked
as provided in Section 12-807.

Note that those are city and state laws, not PPA “rules”. The PPA may
choose not to enforce them, but that doesn’t mean that sidewalk parking
is legal anywhere, and it doesn’t mean that the PPA makes the rules.

Any consideration that the PPA gives to the building owner or rider (about whether or not to issue tickets) is merely a courtesy, and is unofficial.

Since sidewalk parking is clearly illegal, think carefully about what to ask
for:

* Does it make sense to ask the PPA not to enforce the law? Sure, that
would be nice on a short-term basis, but there’s no guarantee
that their enforcement policy won’t change again.

* Does it make sense to ask for more MC/scooter parking (everywhere,
not just center city)? For me, if the parking isn’t secure
(some kind of metal hoop in the ground or a pole to which I can
chain my bike) I don’t want to use it.

* Does it make sense to lobby the city and state to change the law
regarding sidewalk parking. I think this has a vanishingly low
chance of success, and would require a lot of effort and re$ource$.

Personally, I like the idea of getting together a lot of riders and parking (legally) in car spaces, parallel to the curb, while paying the meter or kiosk. Think of the protests in New Hope a few years ago…. Instead of fighting the PPA alone and having car drivers think that we’re getting away with something by sidewalk parking, get the car drivers on our side by making it clear that MC sidewalk parking benefits them by freeing up parking spaces. Get the “other 90%” of people who are parking (cars) to lobby for us!