cdonges

I was taking a photo of this car parked in a bike lane this afternoon on the way home from the work. Was going to send it to the authorities - pointless as that is...

Anyway, the owner of the car comes out and tells me his has spoken to the council and it's parked legally because he has two tires on the footpath.



What can you do?

krobinson103

Parking on the footpath is legal as well? Strange. Its the same here. The 'bike path' in the city anyway is simply a place to park your car or other large inconvient objects. I generally get pushed out onto the road if I get too far into the city.

Surfmonkey

BUT....it is illiegal to park a vehicle on the "sidewalk"....so he is "half legal" and "half illegal"....In New Orleans, they will tow that car in a crawfish second.....

DX-MAN

Hmm, I follow Carlton Reid on Twitter (big bike advocate in UK), and he's posted things about this that suggest it's about as illegal as it gets.

I'd follow the tack of asking the police to clarify it, by showing them the pic, and saying, "The driver told me he could legally do this, but I doubt it. What's the law on that?"

KCNEWF

It needs to get towed . . . . ?

After adjusting the schrader valves on all 4 tires

Stealthammer

fify ...

dynodonn 

Locally, we have No Parking/Bike Lane signs spaced at regular intervals, and even that won't stop some motorists from finding an excuse to illegally park in the bike lane.

On a Christmas Eve, a few years back, a number of members of one of our local churches were ticketed for parking in/blocking a local bike lane in front/across from the church, the uproar was swift, with the local media picking up on it.

Even some of our local cyclists chimed in on the newspaper comment column saying that it was wrong to ticket them on the holiday.

K'Tesh

I'd suggest calling the police using the non-emergency line (and dreaming about adjusting the two outermost valves).

I gave someone a warning about parking her car here:


The car was blocking the sidewalk, sign (including the one that warns about towing), and part of the driveway there.

I saw her parking the car the second day she parked like that . I warned her that she was illegally parked, and that her car would be towed. She ignored me with a grumbling comment. I heard that she was quite pissed when she got off work, and found her car towed. I never saw that car parked there again.

My boss told me she nearly hit the car as she came around the corner that first day. I wonder who's complaint was listened to. Mine for her blocking the ADA ramp, or hers for the near collision with the illegally parked car?

smasha

who cares what they say, let the police sort it out.

you're in the US? have the relevant state statutes and local codes/ordinances in your hand when you go to the police... in some cases they don't care, in most cases they don't know. the hard part is giving them an education (if needed) without pissing them off.

DX-MAN

Sounds like "Parking Wars" on A&E; everybody on that show pretty much DEMAND "a break" when they get ticketed, or booted/towed for multiple infractions unpaid.

Rx Rider

would have found their mirror askew if I had rode by . . .

noisebeam

I would have just gone by.

Wake

Pretty easy to "key", too.

ItsJustMe

Why would someone even think of this? What leads a person to be so screwed up that they think property damage is ever called for?

digibud

because people get frustrated at official indifference to these kinds of things and they want the person to be punished and not do it again and have no trust in our police to stop them from doing so. people lash out and take the law into their own hands when they perceive the law to be ineffectual. I'm old enough to not be bothered by other people's stupidity because I've been there and done almost every stupid thing I see other people doing so I have a heart for stupid people...but I completely understand the motivation of any cyclist who would key a car parked in a bike lane.

Doohickie

Here in Texas, bike lanes are *not* no parking zones unless there are also no parking signs.

mikeybikes

Same as Denver at least. There's a couple spots that people routinely park on the street in the bike lane. The department of public works usually comes out and puts a no parking sign if enough people complain...

dougmc

Texas law doesn't even really cover bike lanes at all -- it acknowledges that they might exist in a few locations, but the creation of them and the laws regarding them in Texas come from the cities or other local governments.

So it would be up to the city or county to create laws regarding bike lanes and to prohibit (or not) parking in the bike lanes, not the state. That said, Austin is like you said as well -- unless there's a sign that says "no parking", it's legal to park in bike lanes. Worse, the City Council generally will cave to the locals who don't want to give up their parking when bike lanes are added, so if they ever do ban parking in a bike lane, it's because it's an area where nobody really parks anyways.

But other cities could be different -- some may very well ban parking in bike lanes by default. I don't know of any that do (or don't, other than Austin and Fort Worth I guess), but it's possible.

Doohickie

A friend is both an avid cyclist and a local councilman (not Fort Worth, but a neighboring city). I asked him and he didn't know whether it was legal to park in a bike lane, so he had the city judge look into it and he determined that there is nothing illegal about parking in a bike lane in the state. I think even if a city prohibited parking in all bike lanes, it would be tough to enforce and stand up in court if there wasn't explicit signage to that effect (since it is not a state-wide law).

As Fort Worth adds more bike lanes, they put up signs about no parking with the bike lane signs. They don't bother to change signage on existing lanes, though.

SpecialX

Most states have a "no parking" statute on most roadways... (Unless they are picking up or dropping off passengers... I would check at your state level.

Rx Rider

sure, but these are streets were talking about, you can park on those.
and might add it's not okay to vandalize cars because they're in your way. "bumping" them when they take up 80-85% of the bike lane is one thing, but it's bad form to leave permanent damage.

now if a car pulls out on you, then I believe it's okay to kick the mirror off the car.

Dchiefransom

That's illegal in California, because it's parked on the sidewalk.

dynodonn 

Actually, it on the lawn between the side walk and curb, but the car is still blocking the bike lane.

Nitram612

Americans value money, guns, and free parking above all else. I work at a restaurant and occasionally people get towed from our parking spots which are very clearly marked with signs that have the restaurant logo on them, and the owners come in irate saying they didn't know or someone told them they could park there or some other bull****. Your car is sucking money from you all the time, but paying a couple bucks to park it for the day is asking too much?

mconlonx

I'd have passed that car in a heartbeat and not have a second thought about it.