Modern Vespa

Per this recent article, there appears to be inconsistent tolerences for motorcyclist across the country.

http://autos.aol.com/article/motorcycle-discrimination/

Although we've had some public parking lots in town starting to charge for MC parking. Thus far we've been fairly fortunate in the City and County of Honolulu, State of Hawaii.

My concern is having any County / State impose higher fees on bike registration, tacking on a tax surcharge on insurance policies, etc. etc. as a form of tax revenue (balancing budget) when my belief was to encourage a "greener" approach to transportation.

The person who wrote this article did not do their homework concerning Austin. There is very little if any motorcycle parking. The only that I know of is a small strip of maybe 10-20 spots on the UT campus, but I think those are controlled by the university. My company's private parking garages have dedicated parking, but only after we complained. As for free parking, it's only at the newer parking meter kiosks. The only reason it's free is because there's no where to put the sticker on most PTWs. Plus, someone could just come by and steal it. The older meters and lots, which are the majority of parking in downtown, are still pay. It makes me wonder how accurate some of the other information is. I am not discounting that NYC is targeting PTWs unfairly though.

I park my motorcycle just as if it was a car I take a whole spot and walk a bit more if I need to.

I do that too, unless there's dedicated parking. Some Zuma in the parking garage at work keeps taking up an entire car parking spot, when there are still spots available in the motorcycle area. It's really annoying, because that garage gets really full. If I run an errand during the day with the car, I often have to park in a different garage that's across the street. If you knew the garage was that full, why would you take up a whole car spot with a little Zuma I need to leave a note next time I see it, but I never have any paper handy when it happens.