Moped Parking Moratorium
Like mushrooms after the rain, mopeds are multiplying in DC’s beautiful spring. Multiplying in the street and outside my McPherson Square building.
While I wondered about scooters on sidewalks before, now it’s getting a little crowed with three mopeds and two bicycles sharing the same bike rack every day.
Might there be a way to share this little space, like the moped renting a car’s parking space? After all, like Segways, the sidewalk SUV, scoters scooters are vehicles – they have engines and should be on the street.
In an ideal world, you are right. However, scooter & moped thefts are rampant in DC. Most major insurance companies will not even provide coverage for them.
Designated motorcycle parking in DC is few and far between, and even the available spots do not offer a means to lock your scooter or moped.
Also, can you imagine the rage of a cager (those people that commute on four wheels) when they see a little scooter or moped taking up an entire parking space? I’m not thinking it would be in that space for long.
If DC increased the number of available motorcycle parking spots and provided a means to lock them up, there would be less of them parking on sidewalks. Until that is done (not likely), it will be a problem. An ever-increasing problem with rise in fuel prices.
P.S. Do you read and consider any of the comments that are offered in your posts?
Also, be prepared for many more evil scooterists in DC (heh, heh) –> http://www.dcscooterrally.com
Funny enough, I like mopeds, they are so much better than cars. Just having them park in a bicycle rack on the sidewalk is a little egregious for me. I would think the three moped drivers could rent a single parking space in the building parking garage and share it – cars couldn’t complain then & it would be cheap for the scoters.
Parking a scoter on the sidewalk, while free is not cheap. It erodes the sanctity of the pedestrian ownership of the sidewalk. Mopeds might be better than cars, but they are still vehicles.
As to the scoter rally – I’ll respect and endorse it as long as you swear to exclude Segways and egg ’em if you see ’em on sidewalks.
Technically, “scoters” aren’t vehicles, they’re ducks. So, as far as I’m concerned, people are free to park their scoters wherever they want.
And with that spelling, you’d wonder why the DC Bee people don’t believe me when I tell ’em that I’m not mad about loosing – I never had a chance in the first place!
LOSE is not the same thing as LOOSE.
Can you smell the smoke coming out of my ears? I think lose/loose has surpassed you’re/your in my canon of textual screwups that make me nuts….
Don’t loose your temper, Don, its not like mopeders are the loosers you profile in your road rage posts.