University of Auckland -- tickets for parking on the footpath

[xwhatsit]

Well, just after I posted in the Wellington parking thread about having never got a ticket despite parking on the footpath every day, I get a $40 ticket today. Arse!

Now I'm not interested in discussing whether or not I'm an evil criminal for parking on the footpath -- save your keyboard, Jim2. As a famous two-smoking outlaw once said:

Dude,it's a BIKE.

Bikes always park on the footpath. It's a natural law and a God given right.

I always park on the footpath never have had a ticket for it.

Now, I want out of the ticket. $40 is a chunk out of your average student's pocket, and it's not like I could park anywhere else on campus anyway -- they cut the amount of bike parks right down, and when they're full where else should I park? Outside lecture theatres? No, I park out of the way of pedestrian traffic off to the side of the footpath.

First thoughts of getting off it: he didn't write down my whole number plate, only the first four digits (five digit number plate). Does this mean I have to bother at all? The only other identifying information is `HONDA MOTOR CYCLE', so is there any proper record of my bike other than the incorrect number plate information?

Secondly, was I even parked on a council footpath? I'm not sure, but where I parked might be on the property of Uni, in which case I shouldn't have to pay. This is lent credibility by the fact he wrote that I was `O/S GENERAL LIBRARY' on `PRINCES ST', despite the fact the General Library is in fact on Alfred St.

Lastly, I read this by Sanx:

I got two tickets on the XR250 for parking on the pavement in Newmarket. When I queried it, they said it was because the weight of vehicles damages the pavement, which is designed for pedestrians.
I wrote back to them and pointed out that my bike weighed less than half the population of South Auckland.
Tickets were cancelled, but with a warning not to park on the pavements again.

Worth a try?

I hope nobody else got a ticket. I saw some scooters that were parked on the grass on Princes St had tickets too. It's interesting I saw the parking warden when I got off my bike -- he walked past my bike as I had just taken my helmet off, but didn't tell me to move or anything. Must have waited until I was just out of sight before he ticketed me.
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[Squiggles]

yesterday morning? i think i saw the warden parked up on the yellows infront of the gym...

they've done a couple of raids on us lately, searching all the bikes for wof's and rego's, have saved a few bothers for people by finding the wof's (i dont show mine, keeps getting stolen) Never seen them ticketing tho

Were you parked on that pavement where the old bike park was on princess again?

[xwhatsit]

yesterday morning? i think i saw the warden parked up on the yellows infront of the gym...
No, just today, at about 11am...

Were you parked on that pavement where the old bike park was on princess again?
Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't ;)

[lti]

Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't ;)

Well were you?

Because ive parked there before. Ive seen heaps of others park there, and i assumed it was sweet.

[sidzstylez]

Hey I ended up getting a ticket today too, you might have seen my black ZXR parked opposite where you parked...i was only at uni for maybe one and a half hours and came back to find a ticket even though its been sweet for the last couple of weeks.

Iv only been riding for 3 weeks now, and find that the bike parks they havent removed yet are way too tricky for me to manoeuvre into so i choose to park out of everybodys way on the widest part of the footpath...still to get a ticket. ..time for a letter i think...

The scooter next to me also had one by the way...great reward for reducing congestion on the roads...

Good luck getting out of your one...

[Cr1MiNaL]

Oye bro don't sweat it... throw the ticket away... when u get the notice to pay at home... go wtf I didnt park there... thats not even my bikes no plate ffs.... ur all good.

[sAsLEX]

Go park under the steps up to muchie mart, opposite the Engineering School..... its dry under there though can get crowded

[xwhatsit]

Well were you?

Because ive parked there before. Ive seen heaps of others park there, and i assumed it was sweet.
Yeah I was, actually. But I have no qualms about lying to parking inspectors -- I'm so immoral, aren't I ;)


Oye bro don't sweat it... throw the ticket away... when u get the notice to pay at home... go wtf I didnt park there... thats not even my bikes no plate ffs.... ur all good.
That's what I'm thinking. It brings up another point too; if he has my plate wrong, how are they going to know where to send the reminder notice? I mean, don't they find out your address by working it out from the number plate?


Go park under the steps up to muchie mart, opposite the Engineering School..... its dry under there though can get crowded
Down by the lockers? Yeah, that's where I parked later today after I got the ticket. Only problem is, you have to come around from Symonds St, which is a prick to get to from the motorway shortest route (the offramp that the Tamaki buses take).



I'm sure Les won't mind me writing here that he's going to discuss this at BRONZ tomorrow night. It would be wonderful if we were allowed to park on the footpaths like in Melbourne, legally... maybe one day :yes:

Les would also like to know what is the best time to take a photo of all the motorcycle parks full up -- what are your opinions? It always seems to be full around 12.00pm unsurprisingly, but some of you might have some better ideas.

Cheers guys.

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[Sanx]

Just ignore the ticket. That'll test the plate number part of the system. If you then get reminder, you can query it based upon the location, description of the machine and the general illogicality of ticketing bikes for parking on the pavement.

And point out to the Auckland City Politburo the dearth of motorbike parking the CBD, and ask how this lack of parking tallies with their desire to get cars off the road.

[90s]

See my sticky in general to AUT/UoA riders.
Both Universities are in the middle of NZ's largest traffic management planning process at the moment, and about to go into the consultancy phase. Send your University general manager your views, petitions, anything. The more we throw at this the more response we will get - and for the doubters, there is a lot of money about to be spent on this one way or another in the next year or so.

Footpath parking is illegal, and the revenue boys woke up on this last year when they started ticketing on Lorne st. Now I do think that bikes anywhere are safe and this will get worse and worse.

Xerxesdaphat bin your ticket. (where is Ixion these days anyway)?
Passive resistance.

Apart from that start writing to old mother Hubbard?

[erix]

Never heard of any bike been ticketed.(Yeah, maybe because I am still a noob:yes:)

My story:
Should I say I was lucky today?
Finish my lecture at 12:00 and wonder why the exam script I apply almost 2 months age still havet got on my hand. So I ride my bike to clocktower and parked it on the footpath left hand side of the clocktower entrance.

Ask about the exam script, they ask me go to the department..........

Approx. 20mins later....

I go back to my bike....:shit:
on the front tyre, there is a ugly white writing "12:06"!!!:gob:

What does that mean? I have 30min free parking? Or just a nice warning? Anyone knows?

[motorbyclist]

if a warden marks you tyre just walk out and wipe it off; he's keeping track of when he first saw you there, probably to ticket you after an hour.

a while ago last semester i started parking on the grass outside the engineering main entrance. sure enough some other guys started doing it. it was about 2 weeks later when we all got warings from the university saying "motorbike parked incorrectly - on footpath/obstructing". we weren't obstructing, the grass was fine and we weren't on the footpath!

[xwhatsit]

I still haven't got the ticket, touch wood. So the number plate thing is obviously how they work out who you are and where to mail it to.

If my number plate was, say, 88FOO, and they left the ticket marked 88FO, then they do a lookup for 88FO and try to send a ticket to him. With the number plate system, is there somebody with the number plate 88FO? Has that poor bastard got my ticket instead? Or is this plate nonexistant.

[90s]

Has that poor bastard got my ticket instead?

Yeah! You owe me $80!
Cash is fine, just leave it behind the bench by the fountain in Albert Park :niceone:.

[barty5]

I still haven't got the ticket, touch wood. So the number plate thing is obviously how they work out who you are and where to mail it to.

If my number plate was, say, 88FOO, and they left the ticket marked 88FO, then they do a lookup for 88FO and try to send a ticket to him. With the number plate system, is there somebody with the number plate 88FO? Has that poor bastard got my ticket instead? Or is this plate nonexistant.

88FO is not registered to any vehicle i would say you got away with it given that 1 number or letter missing the chance of them guessing what the correct plate would make the odds near impossible.
I use to park my courier van on the foot path all the time as long as you get under the edge of the buliding from any over hanging parts IE: on their property they can not ticket you foot path or not

[HungusMaximist]

Hey man, you should consider parking inside Uni's parking lot under Shadows. I got a mate who always park there and he's been always real sweet.

[motorbyclist]

yeah but if everyone parks there we'll run out of space and they'll (the uni) will kick us out

[90s]

You might all be interested in my other thread:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?p=1201450#post1201450

[Ixion]

BRONZ has drawn the problem to the attention of the appropriate authority and requested action. See attached.

If there is enough interest I will organise to address the Transport and Urban Linkages Committee on the subject. It would need at least 20 or so people to back that up

[xwhatsit]

Great letter, Les. Appreciate the help BRONZ is giving us -- most of us have enough trouble organising where to meet for rides at uni, let alone getting support together to save our parking :) We must lack militancy.

Opening up Alfred St again (just for motorcycles) would be the easiest option. Nearly every day I see somebody just about get bowled by a courier van doing a fair rate of knots down there. Even on the most packed days in Alfred St I never saw a significant amount of traffic by motorcyclists -- after all, they would just park and then leave their bikes there. All that space being wasted while we clash tanks and handlebars on Symonds St and block internal uni walkways instead.

By the `20 or so people to back that up,' what does that entail? I'm sure the uni MC club could conjure up 20 people in a flash.

[motorbyclist]

not bad!

it shoulkd include a paragraph about couriers' continued use of alfred street and the dangerous-ness of parking on symonds street

[xwhatsit]

OMG!

I'm cracking up.

I just ran the plate of the number plate the guy wrote down -- remembering he wrote down my plate minus a digit (e.g. 88FO instead of 88FOO).

Turns out that that plate belongs to a 1971 Honda 100 in Red :lol:

Poor sucker. Hope he got off the ticket, LMAO!

[90s]

BRONZ has drawn the problem to the attention of the appropriate authority and requested action. See attached.

If there is enough interest I will organise to address the Transport and Urban Linkages Committee on the subject. It would need at least 20 or so people to back that up

PM sent.

Great letter, but if we could be more joined up this might help. ARTA's Universities Travel plan - as per my earlier post in this thread - is currently in the final consultation phase and is aimed at increasing bike parking around the Universities and CBDs.
We should get them involved in this. If BRONZ could write a letter to ARTA on this I can submit it in person to the right person.

[Ixion]

Reply received from Auckland City Council.

Which says very little directly but somewhat more between the lines. And we have an ally at court !

Once the new council have sorted out their committee structure I will request public forum time. Watch this space.

And I will send a letter (basically just a copy of the one to ACC) to these Travelwise prats.

Though their website carefully totally ignores motorcycles. Even to the extent of claiming that no staff use motorcycles, which I know to be false.

[motorbyclist]

lol that pdf is upside down

[Squiggles]

Theres a suggestion in there that we should hit up uni so we can park in the undercover parks in the "dead spots" as you can in normal parking buildings... :shifty:

[motorbyclist]

we did! then that bloody dean came along...


no worries, he'll be gone soon enough, AND i've figured out how to not bottom out on the princes st side so it's easy and safe to get in and out without having to deal with pedestrians.

it's good how pedestrians move so you can pass, but i can roll along at a snails pace so dont bother/risk passing and just move with the foot traffic. then you get one idiot who i bet just got out of his cage cause he just walks across infront of you causing you to stop and put a foot down (yep cagers are apparently both blind and deaf, which explains alot:laugh:)
so being able to park without footpath use, without damage to my bike and with less risk of theft, rust and getting hit by a car is definetly a bonus:)

[90s]

Over the last few days I have spoken with 5 traffic wardens (are whatever they call themselves) around Wellesley St / Mayorall Drive / Wakefield St.

They all told me the same thing: they have now been told categorically to enforce fines for all motorbikes parked on pavements or off-road even when not obstructing. As they pointed out, it has always been technically illegal, and until recently it was generally left to the warden to use their common sense.
But now things have changed.

I also asked them why the cars that use the two motorcycle only bays on St Paul st all weekend - every weekend - are never tickected. I was told I could call a warden, who would remove them. I remain skeptical.

Things are looing bad. And it hardly ties up with the so-called "motorcycle friendly" new initiatives.