Motorcycle Etiquette Question - Sidewalk Parking

[Kazza]

Parking on footpaths/sidewalks is...

If this is not legal where you are from, I would avoid parking near other bikes. Traffic Enforcement officers would have a field day if they only had to get out of their car/truck once and be able to write their quota of tickets for the day...

Seriously though, the more bikes there are, the more visible you are. Also, I agree with VegasRider. If you each get dinged full parking at an event, you each are entitled to a full parking space IMHO. :Flip:

I'm lucky enough to live in Perth. Many shopping centres etc have specific motorcycle parking spaces. If you can't get one of those, we tend to park in a car spot near the entrance - 2 bikes per spot.

Don't know why but it seems to work where I live

 

[novaks47]

I always want to park near the doors of stores, but I always wuss out. I just know I'm going to end up with some punk kid or crybaby adult vandalize my FZ. I swear, I'm a moron magnet! So I don't chance it, and I just take a far away space, and park it dead center in the space, and towards the rear of the space, so that the moto is visible to anybody space hunting. Heck, even in my cars I park way out in the boonies. Anyways, if in lived in a "nicer" area, I'd park it wherever I could fit and access. lol Just use your judgement.

Evitzee : So true! I always hear people complaining about motorcycles, and I just don't get it. Here in CA, lane splitting is legal. And yet everybody moans and complains about it! It's not like we're causing problems like holding up traffic flow! Why would somebody care about a motorcycle lane splitting? And yet when on mountain roads(or even city streets), you can have 2-40 spandex wearing bicyclists clogging up traffic, and nobody cares.

 

[macem29]

if a store has a concrete apron the width of the building,
plenty deep, then I will park on it...but well away from any
doorways, and cognizant of possible need for staff to use
the area for anything

 

[radexS1]

I'll do it next to a light post.

I do the same - there is usually some immovable object, like a bin or a lamp post or something, that is obstructing the flow of human traffic. If I park in line with that then the pedestrians should just flow around the bike like a river round a rock.

just my 2c.

Also, I like to think that this imbues a sense of authority to the bike, subconsciously, in the minds of people, which hopefully will render it a) invisible, or b) untouchable. But I am open to the suggestion that that's just bull.

 

[afpreppie04]

At my local walmart there is an optometrist's office that also has a door to the outside. Since my walmart trips are almost always after midnight, the optometrist is always closed, so there is no foot traffic to his door. I just park on the sidewalk in front of his office (not the door though, in case someone has to go in to clean or anything). Keeps my bike about 10 feet from the door and nobody has messed with it to date.

That being said, if I am in an unfamiliar area I won't typically park on the sidewalk unless there are already people there.