Why should parking garages cater to Motorcycles/Scooters?
I don't care what they try to get us to believe about Down Town parking, those of us who have to find a parking space during an event or during the day know the truth.
It's expensive and there is not enough of it.
Creating Motorcycle parking - especially since there are so many more people riding - to me seems like the next step in making the down town work for us.
not to mention it really ought to expand their profits a bit. Cutting spaces into two motorcycle spaces, and using some of the "unusable" space for motorcycles should open up more parking for them, rather than less.
As it is, each motorcycle is using a full cars worth of space, and usually paying less for it. Not exactly a winning prospect for them on space or profitability.
I agree with that, I hate seeing 2 bikes taking up 2 spots when they could of shared just 1 spot.
Scooby Doo
Parking garages are in the business to make money, not make things more convenient for us or help with congestion.
Here in Portland (Maine) the garage I use seems to have no set policy. Mostly they don't want to park bikes, but three striped spaces have appeared near the entrance. The attendant usually parks his bike there, but I have seen all the spaces occupied, so some bikes are parking there.
In San Francisco, where I used to live, the garage right at the Chinatown gate took some car spots to put in a dedicated bike area, right next to the attendant's booth, enclosed by metal railings so that no one could back over the bikes. I'd guess that it parked maybe 2 dozen bikes, and the rate was lower, maybe half the car price. It was really handy, but often full, which proves how many people would use (and pay) for it.
SF was great for street parking. A lot of the "unusable" spots downtown were bike only, divided up into narrow slots (each with a meter), and they were everywhere.
In Cleveland, motorcycles pay the same rate as cars... there are some stripped areas where I could park, but to prove the point, I take up a car space.... charge me less and I'll get out of the way.
Hey, I'm with you...make the point!
I live on an island off the coast of Maine, and it used to cost only slightly less than a car to bring a bike over on the ferry. It has recently gone down, so it's only about half the price of a car now. At least some improvement...but I doubt if it was my endless messages in the suggestion box.
Recently a buddy of mine and I took our bikes on the Cape May - Lewes Ferry (Cape May, NJ to Lewes, DE). Our two bikes parked together took up HALF the space of one car. However, the round trip ticket was $50 for one bike when a car would have been $59. The slight discount for a bike was nice, but not enough in my opinion considering the space we saved.
Wow I didn't realise how lucky we are here in Auckland, New Zealand. We can park bikes for free in all city-run parking garages. There are designated bike parking spaces and the sign at the entrance of the building says "bikes do not take a ticket" and you just ride around the barrier to go in.
Also if we want to park on the street we do not have to pay to park in a metered parking space, on condition we park in a manner that allows another bike to share the space.
The only drawback is we're in the southern hemisphere so we have to park upside down. You soon get used to it.
In my opinion if the whole idea is for the owner of the garage to make money, & the purpose of a garage is to make less conjestion for parking. I'd think by adding spots for bikes or scooters would make more space for people to park meaning a bit less conjestion & more money for the garage owner.