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Is there anyone that has motorcycle (only) parking at work?

I have been trying to get that for a couple of years. There is only one parking spot that I am after. It is a short spot due to a manhole cover next to the sidewalk and it is currently marked as "Compact Cars Only". On days that I can get to work on the biek early enough I usually grab that spot. I have ven gone so far as turning in a puchase request for a "Motorcycle Parking Only" sign and talking to the facilities manager and explained to him that it could be converted into two spots for bikes (it is wide enough). He doesn't disagree, but hasn't been able talk his boss into it (yet). I'll keep working on it. I would like to have hat spot permantly changed, just so I know I have a safe spot to park everyday. It would be safer because people would be more aware that there is a motorcycle parked in that spot. When I have to park in a normal spot, I worry a bit that someone may not realize that there is something already in that spot and turn into my bike (or one of the others), even though I park I do not pull in all the way so that my bike is pulled up even with the back side of the car in the next spot.

Soren

Keep up the good fight, Soren.

That's an excellent idea!

Cheers,
Dwight
(let me guess....If the cagers up your way are ANYTHING like those down here in Kalifornia, that "Compact Cars Only" spot is USUALLY occupied by an ESCALADE, right?!!)

Believe it or not, the USAF has set aside about 6 spaces where I work and even put down large metal strips with non-skid fo our bikes. It's just the stuff we have to wear to get ther that is a pain!

Can you talk / email the big guy at work and explain the logic in a reserved spot? Promoting energy conservation?

Tom.

The local University has tons of motorcycle/scooter spaces allocated all over campus, as does the court house, libraries and other large public facilities. Most likely due to the large number of them around, but they sure do come in handy knowing that you don't have to drive around for 15 minutes looking for a spot

Cheers,
Brad

We have motorcycle only spots where I work. Unfortunately, they are way far away from the door I enter the building at in a different parking lot. Works out good for the manufacturing guys though. I just park on the crossed out spots in the engineering parking lot. Keeps the bike pretty visible to the cages. My facilities manager doesn't seem to mind that and the local constabulary doesn't ticket it either. (Our company lets the local cops ticket cars in our lots that are parked incorrectly or illegally.)

We have motorcycle only parking (bicycle parking too) here at Motorola. At the main door, they marked out 3 spaces with metal poles surrounding three sides so you can use a lock. I have been championing the request for an additional space as more and more people are riding and sometimes it gets crowded. I am also in negotiations with facilities to provide a cover for that entire area!!

There are similar but smaller motorcycle parking areas at our other two doors. These doors are only open during 'normal' business hours so the logic is less space required. This is valid as I never see more than one or two in either spot.

Sore, tell them that most large companies support parking areas and use Motorola as an example...

We too have dedicated areas at the VA hospital. Both are extremely close to the entrances and are either elevated or blocked off to cagers. Both get quite a lot of use. If the Government does it, then it is American, right? Your facilities manager isn't a commie is he? Keep pushing though, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. good luck.

We dont so I have to share space with airplanes in the hanger.

We have a small spot that will comfortably handle four large crusers and another spot that is marked for a motorcycle only that will fit one each.

We have around 220 employees and that seems to be adequate at this point.

We sort of do. It's a bicycle parking area that will hold maybe 3 or 4 motorcycles. Because we are leasing about a third of a highrise and didn't include employee parking in the deal, it costs $35 a day to park there. That, along with a 40 some mile each way ride on the freeway with about a half billion insane cellphone people is why I take the train. Working downtown is really bad because of commuting with all those politicians and such.

We have four spots where I work in Norwalk, CT. Of course, during the summer, there's probably 10+ bikes trying to squeeze in there.

I work in a federal building in downtown DC. We have designated bike parking in the basement ($6 per mo, killer deal) with maybe 30 bikes and a 6-12 month waiting list to get in. DC also has 10 mc designated parking meters behind the building that are also at a super reasonable rate (.25 for 90 min vs .25 for 20 min for cars).

Contact Ride to Work. I believe they are in the business of helping people do just what you're trying to do.

I'm really lucky then...

We have a public bike park and a staff bike park. The public one can hold around 15-20 bikes/scooters This week it's been full but over the winter mine was the only one there. The staff one....

....I dunno - It's down a set of steel stairs and my vertigo won't let me walk down them.... the walk around is too far... But from what I've been told it can hold around 20.

Soren

When I was working at Cummins Diesel in Wellingborough, England, I saw that they had an area specially for bikes only - maybe you can use that as the precedent to get one at your place!

Somewhat off the subject... One of the things I appreciate in my little patch of the world is that the local cops are very tolerant of M/C parking, so long as it doesn't impede traffic, driver vision, or cause problems for pedestrians. In downtown, the space between the first angled parking spot past a cross walk will usually hold 5-7 bikes, and we can get in there w/o getting summonsed. They also tend to ignore multiple bikes in metered spaces (as long as you're not parked overtime - then I don't know who would get the ticket, the one closest to the meter, or everyone).

seems like higher edu is up on this. both places i work, Metro Comm and Creighton, both have MC parking close to where I want to be...

cat

Soren, we have a couple of those, and I agree. Especially with all the SUV's around, even if you hang your tail out close to the end of the parking spot, some bozo in a Suburban that sticks 20 feet out further is going to block the view of your bike, and POW!!! Sorry, didn't see ya man...

We have a couple of spots, just inside our automatic gate. I don't think they were intentional. (I think that's just where the stripers ran out of room, leaving two narrow spots, one on each side of the gate.) Problem is, these spots are out of the way - inside the coded gate, not really "watched" by our security cameras, and I have to turn the bike sideways on the weight-sensing pads buried under the driveway to get the gate to open to get out. To even park in one of these, as they are just inside the gate, would be hazardous as it would require an immediate turn inside the gate as other traffic is trying to get in or out.

They are not identified as "Motorcycle Parking" spots, but I keep getting asked why I don't park there (by non-riders, of course). I prefer to take up a full-sized space up outside the gate, under the cameras. I leave it well forward in the space, too, out of courtesy(?) so others can see the space is occupied before they drive down to it - to keep someone from pulling or backing into the bike thinking it is an open spot.

There is an area on our front "patio", right outside my office, that is too narrow for a car, and under the shade of a tree. We park New Car demos on that patio to display, but often there may not be but one or two, no more than four, and usually more customers than anything else that pull up there - all leaving my "perfect spot" empty because it is too narrow for a car. I parked there for a while, before I was asked not to, but I still do when I have to work Saturdays. I think it has more to do with nobody else being able to park that close to the door so therefore it would be unfair for me to continue to do so. It's just wasted space, and believe me - the dealership gets good POINTS when customers see the Triumph parked up front on display. So what if it's a Japanese car company.

a guy I work with ignored one of those signs at a parking garage in Germany. It said "No Kombis"(station wagons, as close to an SUV as you get in Germany), but he parked there anyway. Well, this was one of those trick German garages, where to maximize space, after the first guy pulls in, the next guy pushes a button, and the first car is lifted out of the way (more like tilted up), which opens up a small parking spot under the lift. Well, much to his embarassment, his front bumper was pretty badly scraped up, and his front license plate was scraped right off the front of his car, and the hotel owner where he was staying (who owned the garage) gave him holy hell, showed no mercy at all. Pretty much "what, kann you ze sign not read, dumb Ami!"

you know that space next to the handicaped spot that is an empty 1/2 space that runs up between the parking bumpers, well if you pull up in there about where your kickstand meets the bumper, it gives room for a liftgate van to get a chair out and is comfortable for everybody?? or sometimes there is an empty curbed triangle at the end of a double row of cars?? i use those spots alot. but to answer your question, yes i have worked at a few small shops and a couple large ones, i have worked in a couple office bldg's and i can only remember a couple that didnt have bike, and motorbike, designated spots. i worked at a factory once that had a fenced off area with a roofover near the guardshack that was for all 2 wheel vehicles. i would say its not unusuall at all. how many people would use the space if available??? is there a need?? if its just you, they may not see the need, but then again if its just you they might decide that a simple little corner someplace could be yours. if its something that isnt going to cost them anything, why wouldnt they?? i mean it would be nice if you could get a roof over someplace. ask them if you can buy one of them portable carports and put it up out there someplace and put the sign "MOTORCYCLE PARKING ONLY" because it being an employee parking lot , i am sure they wouldnt let you hang the sign "TRIUMPH PARKING ONLY" hahahahahaha

We have concrete (that's important where summer temps exceed 110) motorcycle only parking.

The military hospital I work at has more than 3,500 staff in the primary building - and 24 well-marked reserved spaces on the ground level of their six-level parking garage.

We're happy.

Yes here at Penn. State University we have Motorcycle parking. The only promblem is that there are about 6-8 spaces near the building that I work in, and there are about 30 some motorcycles registered. I'm lucky, I'm usally the first one in so I always get a spot. We've tried to get the University to make more spaces but they won't. Oh well!

I work at a fairly small plant that employs 35+/- people of which 9 have motorcycles(plus 2 that are out of service at the moment). The owner has a Shadow and lets us all park in the steel warehouse. The forklift operators are riders, so no one knocks them over. This place has more riders per employee than any other place I've been. By the way, only one Harley. Boy, do we give it to him!

Talked to the facilities manager again. He said that if I get a sign to replace the existing "Compact Cars Only" sign, he'll put it up. Very Cool! I dont mind spending the $17.25 plus shipping for one.

It would be much better of course if I could put up my Triumph Parking only sign.

Soren

Where I work there used to only be a couple of guys who rode to work and they'd park in the 1 motorcycle parking space right by the door. Now there are about 12 of us and it is a race in the morning to get to the dedicated space or you have to fight with the cagers for a space and risk have them pulling into you. In my photo gallery I have a picture of 7 bikes in the one space and spilling over into the striped area by the handicapped parking. Sometimes they actually park in the handicapped spot too. They are braver than I because the cops around here love to give tickets. One day they are going to come out and all have citations.

BTW - my bike is not in the photo, I got to work late today I'm out in the lot sharing a regular parking spot with an R1 and a BMW F650

I spent months on this where I work with petitions and a drawing of motorcycle parking. I was told it would never happen because the cagers would complain that we were taking up premium parking space. This was after someone knocked a bike over with his truck. A couple of years later they re-striped the parking lot and made some motorcycle only parking areas. I showed up in the dark Monday morning and parked in my regular spot. I was the first one to get a "ticket" from Security for not parking in a designated space. This summer the number of bikes has increased about 300%. There is one guy with a new Heritage Softail who apparently is ashamed to park with all the Hondas next to his building so he parks in the single space next to my building with his bike carefully placed across the end of the parking space so that no one else can share the space. He has a nice bike but I would NOT mind seeing it get knocked down and ran over.

Journeyman said:
"We've tried to get the University to make more spaces but they won't. Oh well!"

Seems to me that (subject to the layout of the parking spaces) a visit at the start of a 3-day weekend during vacation times, bucket of proper color paint in hand, you could fix the problem yourself. Extending existing spaces worked at my old work place. Creating totally new ones at another nearby location didn't.

Good Luck.

I park in a late 1700s shed with a slate roof in places, and sliding wooden doors on top mounted cast iron rollers on the front

If the termites stop holding hands...

After a few days off to battle bronchitis, I returned to work and lo and behold, "Motorcycle Parking Only". Frank the facilities manager, got the sign that I ordered last Monday and put it up. In a way it is funny that it had been up since Monday, and I hadn't been at work. The mechanics are on strike right now, so the spot is all mine!



Soren

Hooray!!!

I'm guessin' the name "Soren" in some ancient tongue translates to "Squeaky Wheel", huh?!

Good job, dude!

Dwight

Hmmmm... Maybe so.

Soren

I am resurrecting this thread because FINALLY Motorola has caved to pressure and added outstanding motorcycle and bicycle parking areas!! Might sound like tooting my own horn but the only reason these areas are like this is because of me and a bicycle riding friend.

Here's a couple of pics of one of the areas.

I took this late this afternoon. At the peak, there was about 10 bikes here. There's two other areas just like this at the other two entrances.


Here's my buddy heading out. This guy is a friggin hard core biker! He is traveling to France soon for a 700 mile bicycle ride! The requirement is to get er done in 90 hours. He is planning on 60

very nice...

My company had a motor only parking area in the most beat up part of the lot.

Last spring they fianlly repaved the whole thing. Did a nice job nice smooth freash SOFT asphalt. And repainted lines with NO motorcycle area.

So after a couple weeks of complaining (about 10 bikers) and
no results. We started parking on the concrete sidewalk in front of the building. First one guy did it (not me) then
2 then 10.

That area has now become the motor cycle only parking area.
We back the bikes far enough onto the concrete to put kick
stands down (sidewalk is level to asshalt) front wheel in the parking stall. Have claimed 4 spaces for this. We do this in farthest end of parking lot. So nobody whines about
haveing to walk around the bikes. So far we have not been challenged.

"POWER TO THE PEOPLE"

Hey Phil,

That is some awesome parking! Very well done!

Soren

YES, we have designated motorcycle parking at work. with signs, lines, and safty post to keep the cages away....One of the advantages when you own the company.