Seattle municipal officials and riders of 2-wheeled vehicles met this evening at Seattle City Hall to discuss the good—and bad—points about riding in the Emerald City. The Bertha Knight Landes room at City Hall was filled nearly to capacity, a show of hands by attendees confirming that nearly everyone in the audience got there on two wheels.
Councilmember Jan Drago, chair of the City Council’s transportation committee, opened the discussion by speaking of the need for transportation alternatives, pointing out there is no one solution to the Seattle area’s growing traffic congestion. City Councilmember Sally Clark pointed out that scooters “emit less pollution, take up less space, use less gas and oil.” All good things, she added, and all things that would contribute greatly to Seattle’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Seth Bedwell, president of the Mosquito Fleet, spoke of the unique problems faced by moped owners, namely the ease with which their bikes can be stolen if there’s no solid object to chain up to. To prove his point, Bedwell showed a picture of Allstate Bill holding a moped over his head, explaining there’s nothing like the ignition/headset lock you’d find on a scooter or motorcycle. And that a moped can be pedaled, even with the engine off.
Susan Richardson, owner of Scoot About scooter rentals, shared statistics about scooter and motorcycle ridership in the state of Washington. According to the Motorcycle Industry Council, she said, Washington ranks 7th in the U.S. in scooter sales. She also talked about parking, asking the city to set aside more regular spaces and more dedicated scooter spots.
Dan Nolte, Councilmember Clark’s legislative aide, talked about the scooter situation in Milwaukee, Wis. and Cleveland, Ohio, cities similar in size to Seattle. He also mentioned Portland’s motorcycle/scooter citizens’ advisory committee, and San Francisco’s dedicated motorcycle parking, which utilizes numbered spaces and a special parking meter.
Capt. Fred Hill, a 39-year Seattle Police veteran and head of the department’s traffic enforcement unit, admitted he hadn’t heard of any instance of a parked scooter being moved so someone could park in the space. Hill, who said he owned a Vespa in the ’60s, admitted there is not much the police can do to prevent such actions, but did say the best thing to do if you see someone disturbing your scooter is to call 911 immediately. He also noted that fully half of motorcyclists and scooter riders pulled over in Seattle are not properly licensed, urging anyone who doesn’t have a motorcycle endorsement to take a class and get one.
Mike Estey, manager of the Seattle Dept. of Transportation’s parking operations division, admitted the city’s approach to parking has been “reactive,” saying the city does not distinguish between cars and motorcycles/scooters in making policy decisions. Parking is arguably the biggest headache for the Seattle scooterist; Estey said his department is trying to figure out better ways of accommodating scooters and motorcycles. As to the issue of allowing scooters and mopeds to park on sidewalks, Estey pointed out the way the scooter gets to its sidewalk parking space is a serious issue, the safety of pedestrians on sidewalks being paramount.
Lauren Briel of the Urban Mobility Group spoke briefly about her organization’s mission to connect people with information necessary to make informed decisions about getting around. She talked about the number of parking facilities in downtown Seattle offering reduced-rate parking for 2-wheelers, and the relative lack of knowledge about those facilities. Estey said his department would work to make such information available via an online map at the City of Seattle’s Web site.
Following a comment period, Councilmember Drago ended the discussion by saying, “I think I learned more than anyone.” Good. Let’s hope this new-found knowledge will result in some quick action…
(Check back later for links to video from KING5 and Seattlechannel.org)
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March 12, 2008 at 7:15 am
The Moped photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtasbestos/698536987
March 12, 2008 at 10:12 am
As a moped rider/owner I understand the issues with moped parking. Where as it’s true that most people will not move a bike on to the sidewalk if it’s parked in a spot, it’s more of a problem for mopeds. I am only 135 pounds and I can lift my ~100 pound moped and bring it up three flights of stairs to store in my apartment, what says you can’t move it on the sidewalk. If people steal parking stickers why not just take the whole spot, double park and move the bike. It’s as easy as that. I have gotten 3 tickets for parking to bike racks in Seattle. One was a bike left overnight due to it braking down because of the rain. So not only did I cab home, but came back to find my bike ticketed. This is something that a environment conscious citizen and moped enthusiast faces day to day. I think that globing other bikes with mopes is a tricky business. When I am being passed 10 miles over the speed limit by a car that feels that I am in the way I don’t feel like a motorcycle, so I feel compelled to have a similar reaction to a parking ticket as I pedal away on my BMX sized bike. I wonder what the fuss is. Safety? A moped unlike a scooter having the potential to be propelled via the pedals in the exact same way as a bicycle but with a gear ratio meant to pull it’s weight will never reach 15mph without engine assistance. As it’s legal to bike on the sidewalk as long as you are mindful of pedestrians then what does it matter that my bike happens to have a motor. It’s like saying just because it’s a boat plain it’s flying. It could just be sitting on the water, right? To what do I bring this up? Consider the puzzled looks I get from both Bike and Motorcycle stores as I scavenge for parts to keep my bike running. A Moped being a vintage predecessor of both Scooters and Motorcycles is commonly mistaken for both and treated as ether. Here is something no other type of two wheeled vehicle face on a day to day basis. It’s true that I rely on objects such as a bike rack to station my bike in a secure fashion, to insure it being there when I return.
March 13, 2008 at 11:35 am
Chicago erased the lines in metered spaces and put in electronic meters, so if there’s room, you can park between cars. They even put gum on the ticket so you can display it on your headlight. That doesn’t do much to help with theft, vandalism, and getting backed into (in fact, it encourages the latter), and most meters are short-term, so it doesn’t help with full-day parking, and scooters still pay the full rate of a car (so the city makes 4x the cash from scooters), but other than that, it worked out great, ha.
They DID allegedly tell all city-licensed garages and lots that they must allow scooters and motorcycles, yet many display “no motorcycles” signs, and others charge full-car-rate and squeeze you in a corner or between cars.
And just the other day, another quasi-legal parking place was eliminated because scooters are getting too popular and it was overcrowded (on our first day over 40° this year)
March 13, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Great comment at the forum regarding Seattle’s roads.
March 14, 2008 at 5:55 pm
We are at the opposite end of the USA from you and we just want to say “it is great that your area is meeting regarding parking for scooters and motorcycles”. Wish more areas would do it. Our beach just installed meters called Smart Park with a fee of $1.75 an hour. We city residences can purchase beach parking cards (only $5 a yr.) that allow us to park for up to 6 hours at a time on the beach. Problem is that the ticket that comes out of the machine has to be displayed on the dash of your car. This presents a problem for scooters and motorcycles as we would have to carry tape with us to secure the ticket and with the beach breeze we might need a lot of tape. Anybody experienced this in their area? Got any good solutions?
March 14, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Seattle has replaced nearly all of its parking meters with kiosks that spit out tickets. The ticket has an adhesive backing that you peel off and use to attach the ticket to your driver’s side window (car) or headset (scooter). In the latter case, there’s the possibility of someone “liberating” your ticket, so the police tell you to write your license plate number on the ticket. I’ve never had that happen, but the subject came up at the forum. In Portland, the ticket has a part you tear off and keep as a receipt, but the SDOT parking people decided not to do the same here because they didn’t know it was an issue.
May 14, 2008 at 11:20 am
Regarding the theft of parking stickers: I think that motorcycle and scooter riders should be proactive about this and write on their stickers “scooter” plus their license plate number. That should discourage others from taking them.