Parkng in S.F.

I occasionally find myself in San Francisco on my bike. That's about
the only time I have to park at a curb. My new bike is very heavy and
I have to back it up to the curb or else I won't be able to pull it
away. This is a skill I'm still learning.

I've noticed that most riders of big heavy bikes back up to the curb
at a 45-degree angle, facing the direction of traffic. My problem with
this is that because of the slope of the street, my bike sits on its
kickstand nearly straight up and I'm always afraid it will tip over if
someone brushes against it, or even from a stiff gust of wind. The
City seems to have much steeper slopes at the edges of streets than
here in the East Bay where I live.

I've read that you can park a bike any way you like so long as one
tire is touching the curb. It would be very convenient to be able to
park the bike facing the other way, towards traffic (at a 45-degree
angle) so the kickstand is on the downhill side of the slope. But I
just looked it up and it seems clear that you aren't allowed to park
facing the other way.

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22502.htm

The first paragraph says an MC has to have one wheel or fender
touching the curb. The 3rd paragraph says you can't park facing
against traffic.

Is it okay to do this? Am I the only one who has this problem? Does
everyone in the city go out and get their kickstand shortened?

(I'm not talking about M/C-only parking spaces. There the bikes are
at a 90 degree angle. But I tend to avoid those because the spaces
are very narrow and I have a hard time backing up, trying not to hit
bikes on either side. I ought to practice with cones or something.)

 

Motorcycles are best parked nose-out perpendicular to the curb.
Parking at a 45o angle always strikes me as rude, since you're
taking up way more space than you need to. You can park nose-in
if you want, and it's perfectly legal.

Having said that, if you chose to park more-or-less perpendicular
but angled a bit toward traffic, I don't think you'd get ticketed
for it.

Can you just park on the other side of the street?

-Patti

 

If the street has a slope to it, I park my bike as much pointing
up-slope as I can. If either my bike or I don't like the spot, then I
look elsewhere. Taking the extra time for a spot I'm comfy with is worth
it. (I am less tolerant of spots that slope up to the left. Up to the
right I can deal with by angling the bike. A guy I talked to at the DPT
says that the city considers the slope when they designate motorcycle
parking. They won't put up MC parking signs if the slope is too steep. I
Think that's decent of them even though it means I can't have designated
MC parking in front of my house. (I wouldn't park there anyway; it's too
steep!)

 

On Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:47:07 -0700, Blazing Laser wrote:

<snip>

On a hill, it's wise to have the bike facing uphill, so that the bike
is supported by the curb to some degree. With a car, you're required
to arrange things so gravity pulls the car into the curb rather than
into the street, as it's a lot easier to keep the vehicle stopped than
it is to stop it once it starts rolling. It also makes things simpler
when the time comes to ride away.

Al Moore
DoD 734