Keep Wellington motorcycling free - sign the petition!

[Edbear]

Looks like I'm the only Aucklander supporting you guys down there.

And me...

[StoneY]

And me...

Im truly touched by how many non Wellingtonians have signed...there are even a few from Aussie!

[Beddhist]

Done.

Regarding the by-law: it's another sign of Kiwi insular thinking, I'm afraid. How is an out-of-towner, especially a tourist supposed to know that parking bikes in car park spaces is not allowed in Wgtn, but it is everywhere else? The road rules should be the same everywhere, unless this is clearly signposted.

Similarly, Rotorua DC some years ago introduced a by-law forbidding parking outside marked spaces anywhere in the CBD. They very happily handed out tickets to all and sundry. It is now clearly marked, however.

What worked quite well in Germany and France was to organise bike rallies on busy shopping days, especially long Saturdays, descending on the CBD and parking one bike in every car park space. It usually only takes one action day to achieve the desired result, as it hits business people in their pockets and they have leverage, if not seats on councils. I realise that with this extra bike-unfriendly by-law you would have to seriously outnumber meter wardens to make this work.

If you need another bikoi make sure you have it on a suitable day when it maximises profit reduction.

Cheers,
Peter, stuck in the Thai rice paddies for a while...

[happyguy]

Many years ago Australia tried to ban motorcycles for parking on the footpath, it's wasn't that the rider didn't want to pay a parking fee but to save room for motorist other forums of transport for eg cars. So one week some of MRA riders decided if that was going to be the case then there was only one thing to do and that was to fill up the parking spots with 1 bike and not let any cars be able to park in any of the parking spaces as the parking fee is for 1 reg vehicle, now when this happened the people that drove cars were very upset as they had no-where to park as to go to work, therefore there were alot of people complained to RTA about the problems they were faceing. Now short end of this story if NZ want to put a parking fee on riders you could have it overturned by doing the same thing. Lets face it, a car takes 1 spot so could a motorcycle.

[kapiti_nigel]

Petition signed

[cheshirecat]

Does one have to be a welly res for this petition.

Because because we could post this on a few internatioanal bike forums -

I'll just checked wcc website and the only thing i can find is this.

"As a creator of an ePetition you will be responsible for raising awareness about it. This involves encouraging others to add their name to the ePetition. If this is not done, your ePetition may not receive any signatures. Council staff do not promote any individual petitions."

[oneofsix]

Does one have to be a welly res for this petition.

Because because we could post this on a few internatioanal bike forums

I'll just check wcc website.

It just asked for an address, didn't say residential, so I used my work address as that is when the parking most affects me.

[Sieffe]

Ahem! (polite cough) I do go shopping on my bike . . . .saves a lot money when I have to work out how heavy the end result might be! hahahahaha!
Cheers, Sieffe


[QUOTE=

Daftest thing I have heard since they made the motorbike parking spaces time restrictive - who the hell goes shopping in town on a bike?[/QUOTE]

[cheshirecat]

It just asked for an address, didn't say residential, so I used my work address as that is when the parking most affects me.

I just sent them an email

There are a few good bike website forums/facebook and of course these guys and their sister french web site - plus a few others.

hey have we done a facebook page on this yet! Stoney should we set one up? we/I could do it in two sparrows (or one traffic warden) farts

[cheshirecat]

Just got this reply back from the council

"Hi Marc,

anybody can sign a petition and they are required to provide their residential address when they sign it.

Natalie "

we're on.

[GOONR]

http://notobikeparkingtax.com has a forum, I've just joined and asked if people would sign the petition.

Lets see what happens.

[StoneY]

hey have we done a facebook page on this yet! Stoney should we set one up? we/I could do it in two sparrows (or one traffic warden) farts

The BRONZ facebook page has it but by all means go ahead and make a dedicated facebook page for the petition, good idea!

[cheshirecat]

footnote
Just entered it on visordown and http://www.bikechatforums.com/viewforum.php?f=51

[riffer]

I'd be interested in seeing the research that shows we don't reduce network conjestion, don't suppose they were good enough to provide a reference? And the later depends on the scale of each, much less volume with slightly higher toxicity is still a win for the environment.

In the interests of transparency, since I've already alluded to it, here's some of the discourse between myself and WCC reps:

Dear xxxx

thanks for this feedback. We will review the wording of our petition and resubmit the e-petition.

In the meantime, I'd like to ask you to pass on the following questions to the Manager of Infrastructure Performance:

1. Can you provide BRONZ with a 100% guarantee that motorcyclists will retain free parking and that motorcycle parking spaces will not be reduced or otherwise altered?

2. How long can you provide this written guarantee?

3. In light of the fact that EURO3 regulations (that ALL new motorcycles sold in NZ must meet) require motorcycles to have catalytic converters, which (allegedly) make motorcycles less environmentally damaging, and that motorcycles have had catalytic converters for as long as cars, could you please submit to BRONZ (at the CC'd email address) the research (or a link to it) that shows that Wellington motorcycle traffic is more environmentally damaging due to lack of compliance with environmental standards than Wellington motor car traffic?

4. Could you also please submit to BRONZ (at the cc'd email address) the research (or link to it) that shows the effect on the environment in Wellington that Serious Motorcycle crashes in the Wellington Central City, as opposed to Serious Motor Car crashes?

If this is not the correct way to request this information, or if we have to do this through an Official Information Request please could you let me know?

WCC response:

Hi Simon,

I have consulted with the relevant officer. This is probably not the best stage of the petition process to enter into debates about the traffic and environmental impacts of motorcycles. The most important task at the moment is to get the ePetition concerning charging fees up and running on the website.

The process of ePetitions is as follows:

- a member of the public applies for an ePetition
- epetition is approved or rejected. If rejected the ePetition applicant is encouraged to make relevant changes.
- wording of epetition is resubmitted if necessary
- epetition goes live on the website, and runs for the delegated time period
- when the epetition closes the epetitioner chooses which meeting / committee they wish to present the epetition to.
- at the chosen meeting an Officers' Response is written by a Council officer which expresses Council's point of view and other considerations. It is in this report that the Officer is likely to refer to research. The Officers Response is forwarded to the ePetitioner before the meeting.
- When the ePetitioner presents their petition, they can argue against the officers response, table information that supports their position and give background to the petition.
- The committee members make resolutions in response to the epetition. This may include, officers to consider the epetition to inform their work, officers to explore the request of the ePetition and provide feedback to the committee, that no further action will be required etc.

At this stage I encourage you to resubmit the wording for the background information for the ePetition as previously suggested.

[Zerker]

Signed


Zerker

[cheshirecat]

Facebook page just opened up for this

http://www.facebook.com/editprofile....00002001124789

I haven't added much having jsut done it so imput welcome, especially photos.

[bogan]

thanks for posting that riffer, pisses me off that they would claim to have studies against your point, but be unwilling to give you the reference, but I guess that just shows what we are up against...

[TygerTung]

I have signed the petition and I emailed the mayor of Wellington. I live in Christchurch, but I am concerned about this as I believe it could set a precedent.

Here is the letter I sent:

Dear Mayor Celia Wade-Brown,

I am writing to give you some input regarding the proposed changes to the Wellington parking, specifically, the proposed changes regarding motorcycle and scooter parking.

I believe that you should not charge motorcycles for parking for the following reasons:

-They take much less room to park, you could fit around 8 motorcycles in the place of one car.
-They reduce congestion on the road as they are much smaller than cars.
-They have less emissions than cars.
-They use less fuel, and other resources than cars such as oil and other consumables.
-They cause less wear on the road as well as they are much lighter

This lighter smaller, more eco friendly form of transport should be encouraged, rather than discouraged. If more people rode motorcycles and scooters there would be much less congestion on the roads, less pollution in the air, and less resources used.

I earnestly recommend that motorcycles remain free to park in the Wellington area.

Yours Sincerely,

Samuel James Lochiel Stockwell

[riffer]

thanks for posting that riffer, pisses me off that they would claim to have studies against your point, but be unwilling to give you the reference, but I guess that just shows what we are up against...

Just the start of the battle my friend. I'm kind of looking forward to it. If there's one thing I can do, it's digest vast amounts of information and turn it into a compelling argument for my case. And when it's about something I'm very passionate about like motorcycling, then gawd help those who stand in my way...

As they said, once we present the petition, then we can absolutely hammer them with enough information to shut the Manager of Infrastructure Performance up once and for all.

[rustic101]

when you are facing a huge bill for the actions of others you may tend to focus on the money as well

Not disagreeing as I'm Blue through and through...

What I bloody do object to is paying for that bloody stadium.. Every time I've been to a rugby game I have to pay full price I mean wtf I'm already paying part of my rates to the GWCC solely for the steal monster..