motorcycle discrimination

[upflying]

Last Tuesday, I had an appointment at a nice downtown Oakland highrise. Since gas is now back at $4/gallon, I decided to ride the BMW.

Oakland's reputation being what it is, I decided against street parking and drove into a nice "public parking" garage next to the high rise. I stopped at the gate, pushed the button for the ticket and watched as the gate rose. I secured the stub, drove another 20' before a frantic attendant flagged me down.

"Motorcycles are not allowed", said the polite man.

Geez, here I am, a paying customer who needs a secure place to park my steed.

He told me I would have to park on the street. What pray tell did I do to make him kick me out? Loud pipes, black leather jacket, beard, tattoos, ape hangers, outlaw mc club colors, beanie helmet, scantily clad babes? No, none of that.

I turn around and the attendant manually raises the exit gate so I can leave.

I park on a street metered space, 7.5 minutes for each of my very few quarters.

After the appointment, I come out, meter expired and some dude eyeing my bike.

Thankfully no parking ticket.

End rant.

[Roadwolf]

I had a somewhat similar situation, although at a resort in Myrtle Beach, SC (Marriott Ocean Watch, for those that care). My wife and kids left for the resort a couple of days before I did so I could finish up some work. Rode the RT down to the resort a couple of days later, pull into the check in covered awning to find out where they were in the place... man at the desk says that I need to get a banner for the bike so it indicates I am supposed to be there. Anyways, get back on the bike, find my van and I park next to it, right up the building where we are staying... I am no sooner than swinging my leg over the bike to get off when a security guy in a golf cart comes speeding up to me to say I can't leave my bike parked next to my van. I ask why... he says all bikes have to go into the parking garage. I say, this is my wife's van and I want to park next to so I can keep an eye on it... he says, no can do. Well, I unload the bike, get back on it and go to the front desk. I ask for the person IN CHARGE at the moment. Lady comes out and asks what the problem is... I tell her that I am irked at their policy on bikes and where we have to park them.... she says that is for my protection... I say, for my protection, I want to have it in plain view where I can keep an eye on it. She says that she can't change the policy, and that them's the rules. I say fine, but we will not be coming back again because of it. And haven't. She tried some reasoning about how during Bike Week they get a lot of visitors on H-Ds and that they assumed that the Chrome set would like the protection from the elements. I tell her that my bike is an all weather bike and I am fine with it outside in the elements. What I suspect was there were complaints from other residents about the sight of the loud pipes crowd and that screwed it for all motorcyclists. My take on it.

[marcopolo]

Rode to Las Vegas last summer and got the primo parking spot in the above-ground parking garage. It was the very first spot inside the automated gate. There were two spots there reserved for motorcycles. All other parking in the garage was valet, but obviously I got to park my own bike. Couldn't have been better (no parking ticket required either. Every time I came, or went, one of the valet parkers would open the gate). This was at the Vdara hotel.

[SuperG]

Absolutely..

Without trying to be politically correct I am 100% sure it is the HD crowd -or not to discriminate- but lets say the loud pipe crowd that causing the "no moto" policy in some of the "elite" or not so elite places like parking garages.

 

concrete parking garages are major echo chambers just like hwy under passes. It makes a loud bike even louder. Imagine 5 or 10 loud bikes pulling in. Now imagine an older couple gently stepping out of their Cadillac Deville may just got scarred beyond believe. Or if there is an establishment/restaurant above the garage parking, the residents or business will cry foul.

 

So instead of ruling: no loud bikes, no Harleys... for legal reasons they say no motorcycles.

Same goes for some gated communities or even some smaller towns.

 

without turning this trad to "loud pipes save lives"

it is in fact illegal in most states to modify a factory exhaust, but very few town/LEOs enforce it.

Yes a handful of bad apple can ruin the whole crop.

[Johnny Jetson]

I ride out to Vegas fairly often, and usually stay on the Strip and use self-park. Never had a problem at several hotels -- I cable lock the bike to some handy stationary parking structure and throw a dust cover over it. Never been told it's a Bozo-NoNo, never been messed with.

[Rocer]

... I decided to ride the BMW... What pray tell did I do to make him kick me out? Loud pipes, black leather jacket, beard, tattoos, ape hangers, outlaw mc club colors, beanie helmet, scantily clad babes? No, none of that...

End rant.

 

I think it's pretty obvious why he turned you back. Only one scantily clad babe at a time.

 

Oh, and what's a parking meter?

 

 

 

 

 

[Malthound]

Many Parking Garages in Denver encourage 'space sharing' with other motorcycles but still charge full price to each cyclist. Others have reserved motorcycle parking on the lower floors. I can't for the life of me see any logic in prohibiting motorcycles though. Is this unique to that garage, orare all of the garages that way?

[KTM Doug]

You should have shown your badge, like everyone else.

 

Old story. 1964 at Cal Poly. A bunch of us went to a movie and parked our Honda 50's and such in one spot, thinking of others. When we came out, 3 tickets. Needless to say the next weekend about 8 of us went back to the movie theatre. Yup, took 8 spots. Wow, what an uproar from folks talking about how inconsiderate we were. College students! We showed them our previous tickets. As I remember it, we were then told by the fuzz (what we called them in the 60's) to only take a couple spots from then on and there would be no more tickets. Our small protest ride. Now that I think of it, that was the largest 60's protest I was involved with.

[kmac]

Back when I was a "loud pipes saves lives" HD rider, most of the crowd would think it was funny to rev up through the concrete parking garages and see how many car alarms they could trip.

 

Biting all of us in the butt now ehh.

 

I still get teased by the few HD guys that I ride with occacsionally about my quiet sewing machine. They usually ask me have I started it up yet or tease me somehow...I usually say "hang on a second I am hemming my skirt" and then leave them in the dust...

[steveknapp]

I thought MCN had a bit on this a few years back. The concern was liability for the gates. The sensors which keep them from closing on your car didn't deal well with bikes, so while entering/exiting it could wack you on the head or cause a crash.

 

"Bike friendly" garages had shorter gates so you can ride around, even when closed, preventing injury.

 

Example: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-05-14/news/bs-md-motorcycle-parking-20100513_1_garages-motorcycles-ramps

 

[scout6]

I was doing the run back and forth from west to east Michigan to see my dad in the hospital. Took the bike on the first nice day. Not allowed to park in the hospital lot. They told me that they could not set the gate to be safe to motorcycles. The wood gate had the habit of hitting cyclists in the head. Instead of fixing it, they just banned bikes.

[elkroeger]

Love the rant Bob.

 

Several years ago I went to a doctor's appt. downtown. I went to the parking garage, punched the button, took the ticket, parked the bike in the first stall I saw. 2 hours later, I came out to a PARKING TICKET on my bike. WTF??? A parking ticket, inside a pay parking garage? On my way out the attendant charged me $2 and said that I was supposed to park in the cycle parking. Needless to say I got on the horn later and gave the parking supervisor a piece of my mind. Apparently there was a sign around the next corner that said motorbikes are only allowed in certain areas. I told him that I just went through the gate and parked in the stall right there. I never saw any of the cycle parking nonsense. He eventually tore up the ticket.

 

On another note - I have parked my bike in garages all day for free or a couple bucks. Just stop and ask when you go in. Usually they tell you to park in the hash marks.

 

The best was when we went to Disney World on our honeymoon. The wife and I pulled up on our bikes and waited at the parking booth. The guy in the booth was working both sides (two lanes). We pull up, and he takes money from one... two... three cars in the other lane. DAMNIT. This is worse than getting stuck at a light! We wave at him, and he sees us, but doesn't pay any attention. Moments later, another guy marches out from the main office, clearly the manager. What now? Jesus, we have two bikes, and we just want to pay like everyone else and use a spot. What on earth have we done wrong? So this guy walks up to my new bride and says "Give me your money." She says "Well, how much?" He says "give it to me" And she says "No. How much?" And then he says "Just hand it over." So she, on the verge of a fist fight, and ready to pounce when he runs off, hands him $20. Then he turns and passes the cash to me. He says "I ride too. No charge for bikes. You guys go down in front and you'll see some bikes parked there with metal kickstand plates (so your bike doesn't melt into the hot asphalt). That's employee parking. Park all day and enjoy your stay."

 

I used to hate Disney with a passion (going there was the wife's idea). But now I just sorta dislike it. ;-)

[kmac]

I fixed this problem...I just ride up the handicap aprons and ride down the sidewalk and park right next to buildings doors...no parking garage or fees...

[Nice n Easy Rider]

I thought MCN had a bit on this a few years back. The concern was liability for the gates. The sensors which keep them from closing on your car didn't deal well with bikes, so while entering/exiting it could wack you on the head or cause a crash.

 

"Bike friendly" garages had shorter gates so you can ride around, even when closed, preventing injury.

 

Example: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-05-14/news/bs-md-motorcycle-parking-20100513_1_garages-motorcycles-ramps

 

I can relate to that concern. A prematurely closing gate on the parking deck at work almost took my head off a few weeks ago. I had to duck down way to one side at the last minute and try to keep my balance at the same time. Not a fun experience.

[szurszewski]

Many Parking Garages in Denver encourage 'space sharing' with other motorcycles but still charge full price to each cyclist. Others have reserved motorcycle parking on the lower floors. I can't for the life of me see any logic in prohibiting motorcycles though. Is this unique to that garage, orare all of the garages that way?

 

The "public" garages here in Portland have a similar setup, except they tell you to park in the little leftover corner pieces - so at best you get half a weirdly shaped spot, and sometimes this is shared with another bike or two - and still charge you full price. I've only availed myself of the service maybe twice, but it irked me both times (Portland also has motorcycle only metered spots that are perpendicular to the curbs downtown - so four bike spots in one car spot, but all charged full rate) - not sure what would happen if I parked in a regular spot in such a way that I took up the whole thing...