worthless moto parking in s'cruz

on Walnut St in Santa Cruz, there are two metereed diagonally striped
motorcycle spaces across from 99 Bottles and the Walnut Street Cafe. Its
a one way street on that block, and the road crown is pronounced, so I've
always turned around and backed in so I don't have to push my 550lb bike
out of the space, further, I park rather more perpendicular to the curb
than the diagonal stripes allow...

Today at lunch, I'm doing exactly that, and a meter maid informs me I
can't back into a diagonal space on a one way street. I ask her how she
expects me to back a 550 lb bike uphill when I'm ready to leave, she
shrugs and says "I don't ride a motorcycle". She also tells me I have to
park parallel to the diagonal stripes, and not at a bias to them,
perpendicular to the curb like I did... I explain that on the bias, my
bike's side stand would be very off balanced due to the steep crown of the
road and gutter. She starts getting nasty on me, so I say fine, pull out,
go across the street and park my bike smack dab in the middle of a
standard parallel full sized car space. hell, the meter was the same,
$0.25/30 minutes, and you could fit 4 bikes into that car space for the
same $0.50/hour instead of 1 meter per space at the two bike spaces..

Those 2 motorcycle spaces are WORTHLESS. Take a full car space if you
can, please.

 

She's full of shit. It's the same issue as parallel parking. At some
point, you're backing up.

Also full of shit. Best I know, the only rule with parking is "between the
lines, wheel no more than 6" from the curb".

Or ignore the nasty meter maid. She tickets you, you challenge it in city
court. If they can't find the ordinance, you get it dismissed. Get her
badge number and call the supervisor, if need be.

Geo
--
George Mealer | DoD 2170 | '00 Suzuki GSX1300R
geo*AT*snarksoft*DOT*com

"Alright, it's Saturday night...I have no date, a two-liter bottle
of Shasta, and my all-Rush mix tape. Let's rock!" -- Philip J. Fry

 

Actually, thinking about the spaces in question, she might be right on
that, if at any time you turned your bike around so it was facing traffic.
If you're straight perpendicular, though, I don't think she has a case.

Geo
--
George Mealer | DoD 2170 | '00 Suzuki GSX1300R
geo*AT*snarksoft*DOT*com

"Alright, it's Saturday night...I have no date, a two-liter bottle
of Shasta, and my all-Rush mix tape. Let's rock!" -- Philip J. Fry

 

I hope you did so while executing a smoky burnout, preferrably
spraying MM with schmutz. I can dream...

It truly does sound like a bunch of crap, as Ive done that quite
regularly with no badness. Of course as we're seeing in SF, they turn
the screws on the parking fascists to generate more cash when things
are tight.

Something -else- everyone might not be aware of is that they've
started running the meters on SUNDAYS! Bastards.

Just make sure you park in the middle, else some retard in a Land
Rover will try sharing the spot...


cds

 

This reminds me -- has anyone else parked their bike in an empty space
next to one of those Nimitz-class SUV's and seen some car nearly plough
into it 'cuz the driver:
A) Couldn't see your bike
B) Was pulling in too fast

I've started not pulling all the way forward into the space and avoiding
spaces between behemoth-mobiles (but I can't stop them from parking
next to me). Of course this doesn't work someplaces ... where the
bike's wheel must touch the curb (e.g Capitola ... in front of Zelda's)

JGB

 

spaces are WORTHLESS. Take a full car space if you can..

Not to mention Capitola, where I have been ticketed a number of times, never
legitimately either. And when you attempt to contest the ticket they tell
you that they have no process for contesting a ticket, nice, eh?

I got one for erasing chalk marks once, a 150 ticket, because I parked in a
line of bikes after the meter maid had already marked the ones there. She
came back around and assumed I had removed the mark from my tires. I was
blown away by the sheer nerve of that MF.
The ticket was immediately forwarded to a collection agency in Hintington
Beach who had no authority to dismiss it. SO I was screwed.
Assholes of Capitola, a new song title , maybe?