It finally happened, I couldn't park my bike
Despite the fact that I hold a licence to ride one, I am not a great fan of motorcycles, probably because they pose a greater threat to cyclists pro rata than cars.
What really has annoyed me of late is the way motorcyclists think that because the Council, with no consultation with cyclists, allowed them to ride in bus lanes, they can ride anywhere that there is a cycle symbol painted. This morning, I couldn't get to the advanced stop line, although there was a feeder lane, because a motorcyclist was in the feeder lane. When I caught up with him at the next lights, he claimed that he thought it was a bus lane.
Two days before, I stopped off at my local supermarket to buy food for that evening's visitors, but I couldn't park my bike at the Sheffield stands because they were occupied by motorcycles.
I have noticed an increasing trend on the part of motorcyclists to use cycle facilities, as if it was their right. It started with being given access to bus lanes, but now it appears that they think they have an automatic right to use anything that has been put there for pedal cyclists.
Every time I stop in an advanced stop line at traffic lights there will be a motorcycle there as well, causing danger and intimidation to cyclists. Many Sheffield stands are used by motorcyclists, meaning that the people the stands were put there for can't use them. In places where there are lanes specifically for pedal cyclists, I have seen motorcyclists in them. Several people have, unbidden, told me that they have been passed dangerously close by motorcyclists using cycle lanes.
It is time to call a halt to this misuse of cycle facilities, before the motorcyclists persuade the council, as they did with bus lanes, that they should be allowed to use all cycle facilities, which just happens to be an aim of the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG). There is no doubt that the council is sympathetic to motorcyclists: Bristol was the first place in the UK to allow them in bus lanes, and the council will give a subsidised loan for the purchase of a motorcycle!
It is not clear why the council have adopted this attitude: motorcycles are not environmentally-friendly, and the Royal Commission on Transport and the Environment could find no reason for their promotion. Motorcycles are also covered by the Road Traffic Reduction Bill, so the council should be aiming to reduce their numbers, not subsidising their purchase.
What can you do? Take the number of any motorcycle you see in an advanced stop line, and report it to the police, the rider is committing an offence, and the same with motorcycles in bike lanes. Write to your councillor asking why they are spending your council tax promoting something it is their duty to reduce, and why they aren't preventing motorcycles from parking in Sheffield stands. Write to the police asking when they are going to do something about this blatant law-breaking by motorcyclists. But do it today, tomorrow may be too late.
Farcycle
