Parking Ticket?

Fobia

Has anyone ever received a parking ticket on their bike?

Today, I parked where a good few bikes park every day in Galway (anyone from Galway will be familiar with it) - in front of the Spar across from Supermacs, at the bottom of Mainguard street. I've parked here umpteen times over the past two years for periods ranging from 5 minutes to 6 hours+. I came back an hour later to find a pink piece of paper wedged into the handlebars, just above my keys. It informed me I had received a parking fine (40 euro) and was to pay it within 28 days. The 4 or 5 bikes parked there next to mine all had a similar pink slip wedged.

I thought it was absurd and laughed at first, a) This is a place where bikes have parked as long as I've been in Galway, b) We all park parallel to the bicycles on the bicycle rack so couldn't possibly be obstructing emergency services or gardai, c) It's 10 seconds walk from Mill Street Garda station, so you get guards passing by every few seconds, I'm sure one of them must have noticed the bikes..d) ....it's a moped, since when did you get parking tickets on a moped?!

The ticket says it's for "Parking a vehicle in a pedestrianised area", indeed Maintguard street is pedestrianised, so I take it there's no point in fighting this?

It all strikes me as a tad ridiculous..if indeed we can't park in pedestrianised areas then doesn't that mean that bikes have to park in multistory car parks in each city? Pavements are pedestrianised and we can hardly use pay and display..

Anyone experience anything similar? What did you do about it?

agent_smith

I would drop down to your local garda station in galway and ask to speak to one of the biker guards. Nicely and politely explain your situation. As a fellow biker he should be sympathetic to the plight of bikers and parking. Parking a bike in a parallel parking car zone, or anywhere near parked cars is dangerous. Explain to him in this regards that it was out of consideration for other road users parked near by that you did not park your car beside the cars.
Ask him/her if there is anything you can do about it.
If not and it isa traffic warden i personally would fight tooth and nail on the general principle.

a_ominous

I think I've read here on Boards, but in Dublin you are prohibited from parking a motorbike in a parking space. Even if you paid a ticket that the wind blew off, Gard

See Dublin City. Section 2, no. 13

a motor cycle, with or without a sidecar, or a pedal cycle shall not be parked during operational hours in a ticket parking place.

Maybe something similar applies in Galway? So you can ask where are legal bike parking spaces??? :mad:

I got a ticket on Patrick Street in Cork. Anyone else from Cork here will probably know the spot just up from burger king theres a pedestrian crossing and up from that a taxi rank(the bike zones were full). I was parked between them, no yellow lines or anything there. I was only there for 5 minutes and a traffic warden gave me a €20 ticket. B@*tard.:mad:

Garibaldi

I got my one and only parking ticket in Lourdes. Where was God then, eh?

madrab

God is a cager!

egan007

Sounds like a new warden is in town.....
ridiculous +1

Steffano2002

Garibaldi wrote:

I got my one and only parking ticket in Lourdes. Where was God then, eh?

I grew up in Lourdes! Horrible city to live in... *yuk*

faceman

Let us know how you get on with the gardai OP

Sputnik

I got a ticket on Patrick Street in Cork. Anyone else from Cork here will probably know the spot just up from burger king theres a pedestrian crossing and up from that a taxi rank(the bike zones were full). I was parked between them, no yellow lin

Yeah there's always someone parked there when the weathers good.

If the the bike zones on patrick street are taken I always just park outside the crawford. Very close to patrick street and the bike spaces are never full.

galwaytt

Holy ****, they're still not at that, are they??

My wife got a ticket years ago in Eyre Square for parking where we've parked bikes since time immemorial.

She was livid. She moved the bike, and parked in the alley at the rear entrance of the Eyre Square Centre (near the bottom of the escalators). Then a note was left under the saddle strap - on torn of piece of Corpo headed paper - and in un-joined-up writing, it said, 'no bikes allowed' or some such tosh............

So, not long after, we went on our (2) Vespa's to Roches Stores Car Park, and were refused entrance - this is a partially owned/managed municipal car park, remember - so knocked off our bikes at the barrier, and sat there until we were let in. We were verbally abused over it. By the staff, that is...........I believe the phrase was 'no ****ing bikes allowed'...........

So, I wrote to the Corpo, explained that we can't park on the street, we can't park on the path, and now we can't use multi-storey's, either, and that the ticket would not be paid. I pay my taxes and I'm entitled to a space just as much as the next cager.........

Mr Gavin, then City Manager, wrote back saying he'd look into the provision of motorcycle spaces in Galway, but I never heard back...........and the ticket never progressed, either.

So, no, don't frickin' pay it. But don't ignore it, either.

First, for your offence, I would refer to your machine as a 'cycle'. Look at your tax book, it could well say that. Also, get a copy of an official reference to motorcycles from a dept (e.g. the Motortax call your item a 'cycle' - see here: https://www.motortax.ie/mtoapp/pdf/motortax_rates_2004_en.pdf and you were parked in a cycle parking area - so the ticket was improperly issued.

I'd also go back, park your bike there again, and take a pic of it to support you're parking it in a cycle bay....remember, your machine is not a motorcycle, because it's under 50cc ...............

Ammunition, dear boy, ammunition.........


Jeez, I just hate **** like that.................they obviously have NOTHING to do all day............

btw, was it a Garda ticket, or Corpo one?

Fobia wrote:

Has anyone ever received a parking ticket on their bike?

Today, I parked where a good few bikes park every day in Galway (anyone from Galway will be familiar with it) - in front of the Spar across from Supermacs, at the bottom of Mainguard street. I've parked here umpteen times over the past two years for periods ranging from 5 minutes to 6 hours+. I came back an hour later to find a pink piece of paper wedged into the handlebars, just above my keys. It informed me I had received a parking fine (40 euro) and was to pay it within 28 days. The 4 or 5 bikes parked there next to mine all had a similar pink slip wedged.

I thought it was absurd and laughed at first, a) This is a place where bikes have parked as long as I've been in Galway, b) We all park parallel to the bicycles on the bicycle rack so couldn't possibly be obstructing emergency services or gardai, c) It's 10 seconds walk from Mill Street Garda station, so you get guards passing by every few seconds, I'm sure one of them must have noticed the bikes..d) ....it's a moped, since when did you get parking tickets on a moped?!

The ticket says it's for "Parking a vehicle in a pedestrianised area", indeed Maintguard street is pedestrianised, so I take it there's no point in fighting this?

It all strikes me as a tad ridiculous..if indeed we can't park in pedestrianised areas then doesn't that mean that bikes have to park in multistory car parks in each city? Pavements are pedestrianised and we can hardly use pay and display..

Anyone experience anything similar? What did you do about it?

galwaytt

and even Statute refers to your machine as a bicycle, see here:

http://193.178.1.79/plweb-cgi/fastweb?state_id=1185409063&amp;view=ag-view&amp;docrank=2&amp;numhitsfound=5&amp;query_rule=(($query1)<=YEAR<=($query2)) AND (($query3)):legtitle AND (($query4)):number AND (($query5)):sectionno AND (($query0))&amp;query3=motor cycle&amp;docid=17236&amp;docdb=SIs&amp;dbname=Acts&amp;dbname=SIs&amp;sorting=none&amp;operator=and&amp;TemplateName=predoc.tmpl&amp;setCookie=1

It, S.I. No. 354/1984:

IMPOSITION OF DUTIES (No. 273) (EXCISE DUTY ON MOTOR-CYCLES) ORDER, 1984.
states, "motor-cycle" means a bicycle, tricycle or quadricycle, propelled by an engine or motor and includes a moped, a scooter, an autocycle or a cycle fitted with an auxiliary motor. So it is quite clearly a cycle, and motor is merely a qualification of it.

This is also why motorcycle are allowed into the City (Galway) on Car-Free Day.

Hotblack Desiato

galwaytt wrote:

remember, your machine is not a motorcycle, because it's under 50cc

:eek:
It very much is a motorcycle in the eyes of the law - or rather, a mechanically propelled vehicle - it doesn't matter if it's 2cc or 2000. The only difference is what driving licence class it falls into (and most so-called 'mopeds' don't fit into class M as they can exceed 45km/h.)

The 'cycle' thing might fool the local authority (worth a try) but not a guard. A 'mechanically propelled cycle' is not the same as a human powered bicycle!
If mopeds really were 'cycles' they'd be allowed in cycle lanes, bus lanes... but they're not.

Hotblack Desiato

galwaytt wrote:

and even Statute refers to your machine as a bicycle, see here:

Does that in the number plate regs too. Obviously they mean 'mechanically propelled bicycles' (which is all that any motorcycle is - a two wheeled cycle with an engine) as human powered ones aren't required to have number plates!

When they mean 'bicycle' in legislation they say 'pedal cycle'.
If you can find the by-laws creating the cycle parking spaces, see if they say 'pedal cycle'. If it just says 'cycle' then happy days, probably (obligatory disclaimer - I am not a lawyer.)

This is also why motorcycle are allowed into the City (Galway) on Car-Free Day.

Because they're not cars!
Dublin's given up on the idea, it was never more than a token gesture in the capital anyway.

galwaytt

ninja900 wrote:

:eek:
It very much is a motorcycle in the eyes of the law - or rather, a mechanically propelled vehicle - it doesn't matter if it's 2cc or 2000. The only difference is what driving licence class it falls into (and most so-called 'mopeds' don't fit into class M as they can exceed 45km/h.)

The 'cycle' thing might fool the local authority (worth a try) but not a guard. A 'mechanically propelled cycle' is not the same as a human powered bicycle!
If mopeds really were 'cycles' they'd be allowed in cycle lanes, bus lanes... but they're not.

Sorry, but it's not a motorcycle under the licencing laws, it's a moped. A motorcycle requires a motorcycle licence, classes A1 or A. A moped is not, and does not - it has a class of it's own - M. All of which is only by-the-by anway........

The 'cycle' thing might fool the local authority (worth a try) but not a guard. A 'mechanically propelled cycle' is not the same as a human powered bicycle!
If mopeds really were 'cycles' they'd be allowed in cycle lanes, bus lanes... but they're not.

We're not fooling anyone. The legal description is in the statute in black and white, and it matters not a jot what the Garda thinks - it's not up to him to interpret the law. If the space is, as you handily point out, for 'cycles', then you are legally entitled to park there.

As for cycle lanes.............mmm, there's a thought..........who's up for a fight with the greenies ??

Fobia

galwaytt wrote:

btw, was it a Garda ticket, or Corpo one?

Corpo.

Update: I talked to someone who got a few ridiculous tickets in his car and he said I should talk to the corporation, not the gardai (also, I didn't want to go to the station again as I was there last night...some kid threw a big rock at me from behind a wall while I was driving and it smashed my visor off...another story I guess!).

Went in and explained my situation to the traffic girl, who said she couldn't personally throw away my ticket in case my appeal was deemed to fail, but I could certainly appeal it. So I filled the A4 page explaining that bikes have always parked there and they don't cause any obstruction etc etc. Unfortunately I didn't get to use Galwaytt's stuff on it technically being a "cycle" as I only got to check this thread now since last night! At the end I asked 1) how they managed to place the ticket, and if they did indeed move my handlebars could they please refrain from doing this in future as if a bike has an alarm I'd imagine this could set it off? 2) Where we could park! As Galwaytt says, if we can't park there there isn't much else. That place in eyre square and the place I'm talking about are both pedestrianised!

Handed it in and she said I'll get a letter...so will just have to wait I guess!

faceman

Keep us up to date Fobia!

danzdan

i drive my motorcycle to work most days and ive seen the place across from spar that your on about. ive parked there a few times myself when calling into the butchers. unfortunately it does say no motorcycles, so i now park out side kellys were there is motorcycle parking zone. unfortunately again every time i go to park there. there is a delivery truck of some description blocking my way. Recently i got a parking ticket on domnick street for my car. i litterally parked for 7 mins. Even the woman who owns the shop in domnick street came out to-the warden and told them i had just parked up minutes previously. She was promptley told i could write a letter. i thought there was 10 mins grace time for quick drop offs.i rang the council on saturday and was told i would be called back monday. NOTHING YET!. I also sent an email exspressing my concerns as to why a warden who obviously watched me leave my car goes and writes a ticket within minutes of me leaving. 10 mins is 10 mins.....NOTHING YET!.. surely council cant be that desperate for money..i can see them standing outside churches on sundays with little tables saying support galway city council. i hope your ticketing woes are sorted soon ....ps im not paying mine either... GLUCK

P.C.

Old thread is old.