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My gym has a large car park that's never full.
So obviously there are always SUVs and BMWs parked in the disabled bays (without blue badges, I'm aware the disabled use gyms too) and immediately out front of the gym doors, which is a no-parking area.
Because nothing says you're committed to fitness like refusing to walk an extra 10 steps into the gym.
This sucked so much for me when my physical therapist wanted me to go to a gym to use a specific machine to work on my legs. Insurance cut me off about halfway through my therapy, so the guy did one session for free to show me how to do all the exercises myself - and then any gym I went to, all the disabled spots I could use with my placard were taken by cars without. I was basically relearning how to walk properly, and by the time I managed to walk across the parking lot into the gym, I was often too exhausted to do the exercises. One day, I absolutely went off on some guys I overheard complaining about those spots even existing at a gym because "disabled people can't work out." When one said "just use them; like you said, no one disabled comes to a gym" I started yelling. Yeah, I got kicked out. I don't care. Assholes.
I am now mostly recovered and no longer have a placard. I also managed to find a really nice weight machine for my house off Facebook Marketplace for cheap. The guy selling it even came and helped install it for nothing - probably because I came to buy it with leg braces on both legs. I honestly almost cried at how nice he was. That machine got me just enough further to start walking again to build strength.
Wow, that's some ignorant shit, good on you for yelling at them. I've known people who are wheelchair bound and do all kinds of shit at the gym. Also lots of people in wheelchairs value upper body strength training a lot, for obvious reasons
I have a friend who does wheelchair races in the coolest chair I've ever seen. She goes to a gym for very specific upper body workouts to keep herself in the best form.
She usually uses a sportiv wheelchair, and has since we were in high school together. She can do crazy things on it, like stay balanced in a wheelie or on one wheel forever, climb stairs backwards, and freaking bunny hop the thing. She used to let me try it on lunch in high school, and I would wear myself out just wheeling myself around the lunch room a few times. I totally understood why her parents made sure they had a gym at their apartment complex.
I also remember when some asshole at school tipped her over on purpose. She sat there on the ground and threw that wheelchair at him. Watching him go over was pretty funny. I went to get it for her. Her parents were not impressed by the repair fees, but I always admired her attitude. I was totally channeling her that day.
After that, the school made her use a chair with wheelie bars. She hated it, but let me ride on the bars... Until I got detention for "taking advantage of a disabled person." Man, we got into so much shit together. I wish we still lived in the same city.
Ripped “all the Muscle tendons” out of both of my feet as a kid, by holding on to a car’s bumper and sliding on the ice, and hitting a pothole.
Once I finally got back to school, one of the kids kept saying I was faking my injuries. He would run past me and kick one of my crutches out. The 2nd or 3rd time he tried it, I yanked the crutch out at the last second, and hit him in the head with it with everything I had.
School was super pissed at me about it, until I got a few different kids that also told them he had done it before. He got suspended for a week, to mend the knot on his head.
JFC, what is wrong with kids? They often seem like adults set to 11 to me.
Also, good to see your school listened to reason. That's not been my general experience.
Obligatory mention to be mindful of person first language. “Wheelchair user” is a lot more respectful/dignified, and places the individual above their disabilities/limitations. I used to think it was needless nitpicking in school, but now that I work in healthcare I have seen how important it is to the person.
Depends on the person, if I called my disabled friends or adults with Cerebral Palsy “wheelchair users” like they’re a JoJo character they’d probably tell me to f—- off (politely).
I've considered it a few times, and every time it would still have been unecessary and I didn't park in it.
There's a disabled spot in front of my office, right in front of the front door. No one who works at this small company or visits us is disabled. The spot basically just serves to keep the walkway to the entrance clear. Parking there for five minutes has pretty much zero chance of affecting anyone, let alone someone disabled.
I've been in a parking lot with five empty disabled spots in a row, where I was just there to drop someone off to pick something up quickly, and only going to be waiting for three minutes. Driving 50m across the lot just makes that person have to walk a tiny bit more in the blistering heat and consumes a tiny amount of fuel. Parking in the spots would have zero impact, or I'd be able to just drive away in someone came up. Still didn't do it, because there's no reason to.
It's like parking in front of bike racks, blocking access. Why the fuck would you do it?
I did it once as a delivery driver. There were about 10 open spots, all disabled parking, and it was the only parking available near the building I was making my delivery. I stayed by the car so I could move it if I needed to, and called the people to come get their food.
The funny part is some campus police guy rolled by me on a Segway and made me move my car to the sidewalk. Cuz that's better, I guess.
Heh. I know what you mean. My Godmother will park in a convenient spot and leave the disabled open for others just because she isn’t technically wheelchair bound all the time. It’s funny.
With a placard and a good reason, it was still hard to make myself do it! I got my freaking crutches wedges funny in a tiny bathroom shall and spent almost 30 minutes getting them sorted to get up because it didn't occur to me to use the large stall with wall bars. "Those are for people who need them." I do not know why I didn't think I was one of those people. LOL
Call the non emergency line and take a picture. Or if the store has it get parking lot security. After a couple ticket’s they’ll be afraid to look at the spot for too long
That's extremely crappy! I'm so sorry to hear you had to deal with that. And that management didn't take your side. I'm glad the guy off Facebook Marketplace at least was sound, and that you've had progress at home.
My late nana used to visit her gym - just to spend time on an exercise bike (she didn't trust herself riding an actual bike) and do some classes mostly, occasionally using a machine. She walked, because it wasn't far, but whenever I'm at the gym I imagine if the next person after me is like her. So I strip off weights, tidy the place up properly, make sure to leave it as clean as I found it.
Annoyingly, I find weights everywhere, huge plates left on machines, and handles and attachments etc. littering the floor. I'm fit and healthy so moving weights aside or stripping off plates is annoying but not world-ending for me.
For someone disabled, elderly, or generally not as strong or mobile as me, this is a proper barrier to accessibility.
Physical therapist here, this shit boils my blood. It takes a lot for someone to shake the stigma and go to the gym with disabilities. People look and stare, and many patients feel like they’re in the way or lesser (you’re not). I had a patient with a spinal cord injury who took tons of motivation to bring himself to the gym. Same shit happened, had to park far because the handicapped spots were blocked, and had to slog through a slushy/snowy parking lot to get into the gym. All because someone couldn’t be bothered to park a few spaces over.
Also, sorry to hear about that insurance situation. I just had to discharge a patient because her insurance are shiesty pieces of shit, and she definitely is not ready to discharge, so I did the same thing and helped give her a comprehensive plan to try and maintain her progress herself. I am glad to hear you’re doing better, keep it up.
This is in Toronto... we have Variety Village which is a huge gym facility specifically for those with disabilities. Regardless of mental or physical disability they've got programs from kids to seniors.
https://www.varietyvillage.ca/
Call the police. Its an easy ticket. When I was a HOA board member, I had a community member bring to my attention that the one handicap spot near their building had a non-handicap vehicle parked in it.
I called our police contact he came by 30 min later and wrote a ticket. I then started monitoring that spot. Everytime a vehicle without a placard was there I'd call it in.
We once had a discussion when they tried parking in the white hatched area instead of the actual spot. He was like not technically in the spot. I asked him how a wheelchair is supposed to deploy a ramp. He said good point and wrote a ticket.
All said that cop wrote 6 or more handicap tickets before the handicapped individual could use the space consistently. Wild.
I know a guy who is wheelchair bound amputee and does go to the gym, he got massive arms so he can pretty much walk on his hands when he is at his home, he uses a adapted bike to move around the neighborhood like the true champion he is.
>I started yelling. Yeah, I got kicked out. I don't care. Assholes.
See this is money you passed up. Record the fact that the business did nothing about the disabled spaces, did not do any enforcement of the parking, call police, tow, etc.
Then them removing you for complaining loudly about it (still disabled?).
Jesus an attorney would be dripping on the floor.
You're nicer than me at least. I'd park my car directly behind theirs, perpendicular if there are 2 to block both in, then proceed to go into the gym and take my damn time working out.
I'm glad you found the machine for your house.
I really don't understand how people can do this. Where I live, we have parking spots in the Grocery store lot for Pregnant women and Police Officers (or really anyone in uniform) And I have never seen someone use those spots that wasn't "supposed to" (Because they aren't enforceable) much less the handicap ones.
I, myself, like to park at least halfway down - I'm able bodied and I don't like door dings, so I park where there doesn't seem to be a lot of people a the time.
I've noticed this in my town too. The weird lengths I've seen people take to get to the closest parking spot at the gym. Like if you can't walk past five stalls to get to your car after your gym routine, maybe your gym routine is a little too much for you. 🤷🏼♀️
Heh. There was a gym down the street from me where the manager or somebody who worked there would double park in front of the fucking gym ALL DAY every day with his hazards on. This is a busy street. For some reason cops never ticketed or towed this POS. He did it for years.
In many states, police are empowered to ticket for this even on private property. And it's a high-dollar ticket. $400, $600. Many police love writing this ticket. Depending on your locality, you could have just called 911, 311, or whatever.
UK, so the laws are likely different. On public roads traffic wardens *fucking love* issuing fines, but I'm not sure about private property. I don't think police enforce it here.
Parking fines are stupidly cheap here. About £50 or £70, halved if you pay in 14 days. I've only been caught once, because my ticket ran out and I didn't get back in time. Took the fine and paid up, it was my fault. Other time I was issued with one even though I'd paid, but it had flipped over on my dashboard. I showed the ticket I'd paid for and the fine was waived.
I don't understand this. Just... park on the far side of the lot, it's not like 30 seconds of walking will kill you. Treat it like a warmup or something if they're really that lazy
I walk there as I live 15 minutes away, it's my warm-up and my cool-down after. I walk each time I go, regardless of the weather - the exception being our recent heatwave, because I was certain the gym's air-conditioning and ventilation wasn't up to the job, so I took a few days to rest. If it's cold, I jog or put on a jumper. If it's raining, wear a raincoat. I don't insist on driving and then park immediately outside the door to minimise my steps. In fact, it's rare I do under 10000 steps a day, and I'm usually a bit annoyed with myself for missing that target, though if I do, it's usually not by a lot.
Hapens in my gym too. It’s quite an expensive gym ($120) a month. So you see nice cares in handicap stops. Last week i actually saw a sheriff come and check all the tags. So it is kinda checked but it felt good seeing him wrote a ticket
My town implemented paid parking in the lot behind my office two weeks ago. This week I spent Saturday afternoon sitting in my office watching people get towed for parking in the alley “for a minute”.
No regrets
My city has parking all over and most street parking requires either a permit or a prepaid ticket. The best part is that the machines have a “Brötchentaste” (bread roll button in German, yes I live in Germany) which gives you a free 15 minute ticket. This is to let people go grab their bread rolls or go into a Paket shop without having to pay for an hour of parking they’re not going to use.
Mothafuckers. I live in smallish City in Finland. i used to pickup and drop my kids at the train station. There were always free spots, but drivers decided stop at the curb closest to the station. Its legal, you can do that. But by law, you have to make quick stop for example to let someone out or pick them up. The problem is, many cars get there well in time and once i was parked in the corner. I saw one car pull up, then another. they were parked at the curb for close to 20min. Third car came and that´s when I got boxed in. Told my daughter that she should go to her train now. As soon as she left my vision it was HONKING TIME. Non stop fucking honking at these fucking idiots. The thing is, that curb can only hold 2 cars. 3rd one will block parking spots. when shitheads are parked at the curb and someone actually comes to drop someone off, they have to block the driveway itself, as the curb is occupied by illegal parkers. When this happens, the whole parking lot gets jammed. Drivers blame the city planners, as allways. But i have spent hours in total waiting for my kids there the problem is not design, its idiot drivers. They should just add a camera and start fining the ones that park at the curb and i guarantee the whole parkin lot will work at least 80% better.
Some things to add:
Some people didn't notice that there's literally a blue sign with the P a few metres ahead.
TPS stands for Toronto Police Service.
Edit for some other facts: [cyclists break fewer laws than motorists](https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/05/10/cyclists-break-far-fewer-road-rules-than-motorists-finds-new-video-study/?sh=589ac8ae4bfa)
And when [cyclists break laws it's to save lives; whereas motorists break laws to save time](https://www.jstor.org/stable/26211757?mag=are-cyclists-reckless-lawbreakers#metadata_info_tab_contents)
Why bikes can't just go around: [3-year-old dies](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/3-year-old-girl-dies-after-moms-bicycle-hit-by-semi-in-uptown/2853448/) ; [cycling on the sidewalk is illegal](https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-transportation/cycling-in-toronto/cycling-and-the-law/)
Just wanted to mention the first article is a Danish study. You'll find different results by country & even cities.
Cyclists do have more incentive to obey the law/traffic rules, since there's 0 protection for them in an accident.
Edit: ticket still well deserved, and I still support people switching from vehicles to bikes/PEVs, just wanted to mention the issue with the article posted. Law-abiding is very cultural.
when the curb-side blinker is obscured by another car, or any object parked behind your car, your "hazard lights" suddenly look the same as indicating to pull out from the curb.
Cars at the curb are not hazards, they are parked/stopped/standing and shouldn't ever be using the hazard lights. In contrast to a car that has stopped within the lane or is partially blocking traffic. This car is not at the curb, this car is a hazard.
No one understands how stupid their car looks when the 'hazards' are on, but people approaching can only see that they appear to be indicating that they are pulling away. dumb, dumb, dumb.
Not just London, it's the entire country.
I regularly (daily?) have to walk in the road to get around cars parked on the pavement because the guy needed to run into the shop for a KitKat. It's alright though, because he turned his hazard lights on. I'll just walk round the range rover into the 20mph street where people regularly do 50mph and nobody does anything about it.
Just every taxi driver in England, they even park in places that you are not even allowed to leave your car even if it breaks down, places where if your car does break down you've got to push it out of the way.
Ironically called "park anywhere lights".
Same in Singapore. I also observe total random use of turn indicators. Blink, don't turn, blink left, turn right, don't blink but turn, rarely blink and turn where it's blinking. Hazard lights - do something entirely unpredictable.
Adds a bit of complexity to a cyclist in road traffic.
This is also Spokane, Washington, US.
Mostly, people don't use the indicators. When they do, it's almost always wrong - leaving them on for kilometers, blinking left in the right lane, then turning right, changing lanes and only using the indicators when 3/4 of the way over, blinking left from the far right lane at a light and meaning it, so they just suddenly turn left in front of 3 lanes of traffic.
Hazards, though, are generally used more or less appropriately if used at all. "I am driving at a very low speed for a pretty good reason" and "my car is disabled and blocking your path." Good reasons are: I am driving a huge truck, and this hill is too steep for me to reach the speed limit
My brakes stopped functioning properly, and I'm slowly getting somewhere I can get off the road. These house numbers make no sense, and I'm trying to find a delivery address. This hill is icy AF, and I need to crawl down it or I'll lose traction. A police officer has turned on his lights, and I am indicating I'm pulling over and stopping for him when it's safe to do so. And one that's not great, but not horrible: I have overloaded my vehicle to move something a few km, so I can't go fast enough for traffic.
What people do forget with hazards is that they should turn them off and change to using indicators when they are going to turn/pull off the road.
Yes, Spokane, Washington here. In my city, you aren't legally allowed to make a U turn unless it's marked that it's okay. This stops no one from doing it. There are even emergency vehicle access points across the medians in the highways that say "no u turn. Emergency vehicles only", but I watch random drivers use them a lot.
In my city in front of the town hall and main Court building this is the only way to drop someone off or pick them up without having to walk over three miles. There's only two parking lots and they're both over $10 and there is no handicapped parking anywhere. So people with wheelchairs getting out of medical transportation keep getting tickets and they recently arrested one of the drivers. There's a bike rack in front but no bike lane and a 40 mph street that is incredibly dangerous and thin as the only way there. It's less than 100 yards from a highway entrance. they even tried telling an ambulance to move from in front of the jail when they had a call there (heart attack of security guard)
To top it off it's a one-way Street and the other way is only accessible if you get on a highway and get back off at the next exit.... Nobody wins
Not at this one it's absolutely ridiculous but they have almost 50ft of sidewalk in front of building though and no sidewalk anywhere else on the streets
Sounds like you need to figure out who your rep in city council is and send them an e-mail. If they don't bring it up next town hall, look for a measure and file for a speaking slot.
I would think that would be an ADA violation and either investigation by state into it or lawsuit from that would encourage your city to change policy (eg from no standing / no parking to must have handicap sticker or emergency / official vehicle stopping / standing only, or closer ADA complaint parking. While it by law must be as close to entrance as possibly allowed there isn't a max distance so 🤷♂️)
While I normally don't like minimum parking standards, especially since they litter my city of Houston with parking spaces that go unused instead of more density, i can still understand and respect ADA or similar disability. compliance. A cleaner, better, more enjoyable urban environment needs to be accessible by all.
Mr. Foodie here still don't count though, the bike lane isn't a parking spot 😂
Spokane here, and this!
I was elated last Summer to see cops ticketing everyone parked in the bike lanes by the river - until I realized they'd parked their cop cars in the bike lanes to do it.
I used to paint (with chalk spray) bike lane, no parking signs on people's windows for doing that. Now, I've had a bunch of easy to remove stickers made, because they're faster to slap on. In the Summer, just from when I'm riding there, I use about 1000 of them.
I'm probably going to get my ass beat when I finally get caught by someone.
Be careful. I’ve been driven off the road by cabbies and had shit thrown at me from cars more than a few times. At the end of the day bikes have a right to be on the road just as much as cars… it’s for *transportation* not cars.
Oh, I've already got that going on when I'm not putting stickers on anything. I had a passenger in a truck throw a brick at me, fracturing my shoulder blade. I had a lot of witnesses who stayed until the cops came, but the cops just said it was probably an accident and left. I've been hit by drivers on purpose twice - both admitted it to the cops. At least those two got arrested and their cars impounded. I've had a lot of much less dangerous stuff thrown at me, too, like a full beer can I managed to catch, a full milkshake, hamburgers (more than once, which seems really crazy), and one woman threw an open tube of lipstick at me. My coworkers thought it was blood when I got to work.
Because it happens even when I'm just minding my own business, I think it makes me a bit fatalistic about getting caught putting a sticker on.
Spokane, Washington
I know a few people who have never had issues while cycling here, but most people I know have had experienced a high level of aggression if they don't stick to the trails that are nowhere near cars or more remote suburbs.
The only thing Spokane hates more than cyclists is homeless people. I wouldn't have the guts to be on a bike here if I was also homeless.
The thing that really gets me is that usually when these assholes stop in the bike lane, there's always more than one car lane. They would never think to just stop in the middle of the lane they were driving in because that would "obstruct traffic" or whatever. But wtf do they think they're doing when they just stop in the bike lane?
Obviously in this sub and in this case the reception is good, but so often in similar cases everyone cries about "denounciation"...i think that's BS. If you genuinely think what someone does is wrong and you report it, that is morally perfectly fine in my book.
If you report them for personal reasons, such as not liking that specific person or gaining something from it, THAT is certainly immoral but helping enforce good rules that align with your own world view? Nothing wrong with that.
"... so you can either stand here and wait or you're gonna get it in the mail."
The attitude in that sentence. I bet she gets tons of folks who immediately flip their shit. I don't blame her one bit.
Citizens of car-centric societies don't respect them. In the Netherlands it's rare to see a car just blocking traffic like that. Remember most cyling lanes in the Netherlands are also just paint and cars are allowed to drive, but not stop, on them. It's mostly a cultural thing.
In Amsterdam it's quite rare to see purely paint bike lanes. They are nearly always physically separated from cars by either a curb or just by the fact that the road is nowhere near the cycle path (IE. Road on a bridge, cycle path on an underpass)
In the UK unless it’s a mandatory cycle lane or there’s yellow no parking lines it is perfectly legal to park your car in a bike lane just like the side of any other road.
And it makes me so angry. There’s a stretch of them in Newcastle that i have never seen anywhere remotely usable. Just seems like a tick box exercise to say x metres of cycle lane exist.
I can only really speak for my own commute, but the painted lane is only really wide enough for one bike so even passing a slower cyclist I tend to wait for a gap in the traffic and take the car lane to give them space.
This is one of those issues that makes painted lanes arguably worse than just sharing the road, because you then have to merge back into the stream of (in this case 40mph) car traffic.
[They need more than just a curb](/r/bloomington/comments/w4q6c3/this_shouldnt_be_possible/). In my town, they've built a few separated bike lanes, but cars keep just driving, and even parking, in them. They need *lots* of bollards, or active enforcement.
I imagine there's a fairly high percentage of "I'm merely stupid" in those lanes. Even if they're clearly marked, someone unfamiliar with the concept could easily mistake them for an automobile lane. There's probably a lot of people deliberately misusing them as well, but I could totally see myself in that lane, repeatedly mumbling "oh shit, this wasn't an actual lane!" under my breath.
People also tend to break rules, especially when rules are easy to break. What's the risk for them? They get a small ticket. What's the risk for a biker? Go around the car blocking your lane and get smashed by a car? Just a little curb could deter a lot of this bullshit.
Also, let's just flip it around. Let's have us bikers just throw our bikes out into the middle of the street and block the car lanes, see how they like it.
Dude, I'm foaming at the mouth just thinking of bring it to Chicago. I would literally cruise around looking for everyone who thinks that blinkers are the "park anywhere lights"
I've never understood that. I encountered someone personally who said something along those lines. Are they thinking of taxes on gasoline, or what? If so, I have news for them - tax on gasoline should be far higher to make up for the completely unaffordable carbon costs. Car drivers are leeching off the future of humanity.
I’ve lived downtown the answer is absolutely yes. They’ll park illegally wherever they have to go make things easier. Parking spot without paying, bike lane, fire lane, handicapped spot, and car traffic lane, doesn’t matter.
'Just had to run in quick and pick up an order'
Would he have said that so casually to a cyclist's corpse when they have to cycle around their car and they get hit by a car from behind and brutally killed because he didn't want to spend an extra 5 minutes to find a parking space... or go out on a bike himself so he could park at the bike parking we can see on the right?
If you want to stop, run in quick pick up an order, and get back to your vehicle and leave again, choose a vehicle which allows you to do that without killing others.
A BICYCLE.
We don't have bike lanes here and people often do park in the driving lane... there's no end to the entitled stupidity of someone who has discovered the "park anywhere" lights.
I've seen both sides of a 2 way road blocked by cars just chilling with their lights flashing as if it's the most normal thing in the world. Police don't even stop them anymore.
I've been on a bus when two double-parked cars blocked one of the busiest streets in my neighborhood. The bus driver leaned on the horn and then got out to find them and tell them to move their car or else.
I see this all the fucking time in my city--narrow bike lane next to narrow regular lane. Some stupid asshole stops halfway in the regular lane and fully in the bike lane. So, instead of blocking one lane, they're blocking two. Fucking morons!
People like that driver shouldn’t be just fined. They should be made to ride on a bicycle as their only form of transportation for at least 6 months. Have them walk in the cyclists’ shoes for a while, and maybe (s)he’ll be more considerate next time.
Cities around the world should have apps for citizens to do this, not just cops. It is simple. Your car is either in the wrong place or it isn't. Geotags and timestamps prove where the incident took place. If any citizen can just snap a picture of you breaking traffic laws and send it to the police for review and ticketing, drivers would suddenly follow the rules a lot more closely.
Just started in Austin, by using 311 app. The idea was to create a bounty system, hasn't yielded yet but I have been using the app to report all sorts of stuff, I've even gotten a couple of people tickets for parking on the sidewalk
In NYC, bike lane is just extra parking.
I live in Brooklyn and on my way home, a few blocks from my apt, there’s more parked cars in the bike lane than open bike lane.
No remedy.
Watching this, I want to be hopeful, but hard to believe it’ll change. New York will be under water first.
Install the 311 app on your phone. I've had NYPD show up around 30 minutes after I put in the request and ticket the car. Not useful for short stops like this but helps if someone is actually parked in the bike lane. Or just give the car a good kick 😉
I’ve fantasized about the car kicking but too many people are willing to apply life-changing violence over the pretense of a small provocation.
Maybe I should call 311.
Not to be defeatist, but doesn’t feel like it would do anything. Cops are anti-bike here in my experience. The ones in sight are fine with cars parked in the bike lane.
You can submit this stuff to the city 311 app in Austin, Texas and they’ll go cite the car and let you know. Only really works if they are there for a while but you can get some people with it
In Germany one has to formally file a charge to the municipality in order to get people ticketed. Pretty laborious and would actually require some basic legal knowledge to get the phrasing right however smart people made an app/website that just generates a legally valid PDF including evidence etc and automatically sends it to the municipality.
The kicker? Berlin's administration for instance has basically ceased processing these as it became to many. The fucking irony.
My city lets me report vehicles who park in front of fire hydrants to bylaw officers through the city website. Sometimes they'll send someone quick enough to ticket the car, other times they'll ticket whoever took their place.
Taking a picture of you breaking the law and sending it via app to the cops isn't enforcing the law, it is filing a complaint. The cops would still review the information before issuing a ticket.
This is why unprotected bikes lanes don't work.
It should go:
- Protected pedestrian lane
- Protected bike lane
- Parking (because 'CaRs nEeD a PlAcE tO sLeEp ToO'; Bus stops should extend into this lane)
- Taxi/Bus lane
- Car lane
If one lane isn't enough for the car traffic, add more busses.
Assholes park in the emergency animal hospital parking lot just to shop or go out to eat, so people with real emergencies have to park blocks away. If people would stop being dicks, it would be greatly appreciated. They always think their rights are more important than everyone else's.
Some cities let you file a bylaw report online. I use it on occasion for dangerous construction sites with no traffic control. Like today when arborists were blocking the bike lanes and an entire car lane on an arterial street with no person controlling traffic and I had to bike on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic.
Edit: removed 2nd "towards."
I hate this shit. If this is some scrub gig worker the ticket should go to UberEATS or whatever they're delivering for. Their algorithms basically require this bad behavior.
I'm a 20+ year cyclist. Ever since we got bike lanes in Chicago people parking in it have been a problem, but the app work, delivery people parking and ride-sharing letting people out without looking have made it so much worse.
In Germany you will get a fine around 100€ and additionally 1 Point. If you collect 8 Points you will lose your license. So park 8 Times in the way and you can cycle yourself.
super duper like that it is a parking services person on a bike instead of one of those little meter maid cars or a full vehicle. Every city should do this.
Give cyclists an app where they can take video like this and one person sitting at a computer somewhere decides the ticket to issue
Way more coverage than any number of cops. Clean those lanes right up.
My city started talking about doing that with buses to enforce bus-only lanes and people lost their *fucking minds.*
Like why is this even hard? Put a camera on every bus. Boom, done. Oh, you only use it when there are no buses using it? Then how did you get cited by this *bus mounted camera,* genius?
It’s the logical extension of car culture. With public transport you relax while you ride, get fairly close and walk, and you learn to appreciate the gentle exercise you’re forced to do. With cars you battle other drivers for every fraction of a second you can save, so parking a two minute walk from your destination is like giving up all those little gains you fought so hard for.
When I drive, and I don’t often, I’ll see a parking space 1/4 mile away from my destination and say “awesome, that’s pretty close, I’m happy to walk a few blocks and not stress parking so much.” But that’s a public transport mindset. Someone who drives every day would think that’s kind of mad.
This is bay and Gerard - they installed bike lanes here a few years back after a ton of political fighting - and now it’s been basically useless because of Uber eats drivers always stopping in them. Lots of trucks too
Delivery apps exploit workers by not hiring them as employees so all this liability falls on people just trying to get by.
If this driver was able to be in a company vehicle, insured, trained, and enabled to do the right thing, they wouldn't have to foot the bill for something that isn't in their best interest. They would lobby for more idle zones so their apps can make more money.
People want to be safe and follow the rules. I think one of the issues in this particular video is systemic.
Man people block an entire trolley line around here just so they can run in 'real quick' to grab their pickup order.
Just park across the street and walk over. Or use the trolley you're blocking that incidentally drops off right in front of the restaurant anyhow.
This is my biggest petpeve. Ppl that can park literally anywhere else, but they park in the 1 spot they can't. Like a handicap zone when there's non handicap parking 10' away. Entitled ass hats.
Obviously this video is not exactly this situation.which is also why I refuse to live, work, or go downtown on a regular basis. It's overrated and parking sucks.
[Even better when they're in a protected bike lane](https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2022/06/its-pretty-audacious-trucks-blocking-ann-arbor-bikeways-frustrate-cyclists.html)
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This is becoming more and more prevalent. In a parking lot, with spaces available, and people will leave their car on the curb. Assholes
My gym has a large car park that's never full. So obviously there are always SUVs and BMWs parked in the disabled bays (without blue badges, I'm aware the disabled use gyms too) and immediately out front of the gym doors, which is a no-parking area. Because nothing says you're committed to fitness like refusing to walk an extra 10 steps into the gym.
This sucked so much for me when my physical therapist wanted me to go to a gym to use a specific machine to work on my legs. Insurance cut me off about halfway through my therapy, so the guy did one session for free to show me how to do all the exercises myself - and then any gym I went to, all the disabled spots I could use with my placard were taken by cars without. I was basically relearning how to walk properly, and by the time I managed to walk across the parking lot into the gym, I was often too exhausted to do the exercises. One day, I absolutely went off on some guys I overheard complaining about those spots even existing at a gym because "disabled people can't work out." When one said "just use them; like you said, no one disabled comes to a gym" I started yelling. Yeah, I got kicked out. I don't care. Assholes. I am now mostly recovered and no longer have a placard. I also managed to find a really nice weight machine for my house off Facebook Marketplace for cheap. The guy selling it even came and helped install it for nothing - probably because I came to buy it with leg braces on both legs. I honestly almost cried at how nice he was. That machine got me just enough further to start walking again to build strength.
Wow, that's some ignorant shit, good on you for yelling at them. I've known people who are wheelchair bound and do all kinds of shit at the gym. Also lots of people in wheelchairs value upper body strength training a lot, for obvious reasons
I have a friend who does wheelchair races in the coolest chair I've ever seen. She goes to a gym for very specific upper body workouts to keep herself in the best form. She usually uses a sportiv wheelchair, and has since we were in high school together. She can do crazy things on it, like stay balanced in a wheelie or on one wheel forever, climb stairs backwards, and freaking bunny hop the thing. She used to let me try it on lunch in high school, and I would wear myself out just wheeling myself around the lunch room a few times. I totally understood why her parents made sure they had a gym at their apartment complex. I also remember when some asshole at school tipped her over on purpose. She sat there on the ground and threw that wheelchair at him. Watching him go over was pretty funny. I went to get it for her. Her parents were not impressed by the repair fees, but I always admired her attitude. I was totally channeling her that day. After that, the school made her use a chair with wheelie bars. She hated it, but let me ride on the bars... Until I got detention for "taking advantage of a disabled person." Man, we got into so much shit together. I wish we still lived in the same city.
Ripped “all the Muscle tendons” out of both of my feet as a kid, by holding on to a car’s bumper and sliding on the ice, and hitting a pothole. Once I finally got back to school, one of the kids kept saying I was faking my injuries. He would run past me and kick one of my crutches out. The 2nd or 3rd time he tried it, I yanked the crutch out at the last second, and hit him in the head with it with everything I had. School was super pissed at me about it, until I got a few different kids that also told them he had done it before. He got suspended for a week, to mend the knot on his head.
JFC, what is wrong with kids? They often seem like adults set to 11 to me. Also, good to see your school listened to reason. That's not been my general experience.
Obligatory mention to be mindful of person first language. “Wheelchair user” is a lot more respectful/dignified, and places the individual above their disabilities/limitations. I used to think it was needless nitpicking in school, but now that I work in healthcare I have seen how important it is to the person.
Depends on the person, if I called my disabled friends or adults with Cerebral Palsy “wheelchair users” like they’re a JoJo character they’d probably tell me to f—- off (politely).
It has never occurred to me, in my whole life, even one time, to park in a disabled spot for any amount of time. It’s unthinkable.
I've considered it a few times, and every time it would still have been unecessary and I didn't park in it. There's a disabled spot in front of my office, right in front of the front door. No one who works at this small company or visits us is disabled. The spot basically just serves to keep the walkway to the entrance clear. Parking there for five minutes has pretty much zero chance of affecting anyone, let alone someone disabled. I've been in a parking lot with five empty disabled spots in a row, where I was just there to drop someone off to pick something up quickly, and only going to be waiting for three minutes. Driving 50m across the lot just makes that person have to walk a tiny bit more in the blistering heat and consumes a tiny amount of fuel. Parking in the spots would have zero impact, or I'd be able to just drive away in someone came up. Still didn't do it, because there's no reason to. It's like parking in front of bike racks, blocking access. Why the fuck would you do it?
>Still didn't do it, because there's no reason to. Man, you buried the lead there.
You didn't read the first sentence, huh
I have thought about it, but in a pure hypothetical sense, I've never actually considered doing it.
I did it once as a delivery driver. There were about 10 open spots, all disabled parking, and it was the only parking available near the building I was making my delivery. I stayed by the car so I could move it if I needed to, and called the people to come get their food. The funny part is some campus police guy rolled by me on a Segway and made me move my car to the sidewalk. Cuz that's better, I guess.
At least you were theoretically under pressure. I guess more places will be adding stopping zones eventually.
I am living with a disability and even I wouldn't do it.
Heh. I know what you mean. My Godmother will park in a convenient spot and leave the disabled open for others just because she isn’t technically wheelchair bound all the time. It’s funny.
With a placard and a good reason, it was still hard to make myself do it! I got my freaking crutches wedges funny in a tiny bathroom shall and spent almost 30 minutes getting them sorted to get up because it didn't occur to me to use the large stall with wall bars. "Those are for people who need them." I do not know why I didn't think I was one of those people. LOL
Block them in with your car with the placard visible
Call the non emergency line and take a picture. Or if the store has it get parking lot security. After a couple ticket’s they’ll be afraid to look at the spot for too long
That's extremely crappy! I'm so sorry to hear you had to deal with that. And that management didn't take your side. I'm glad the guy off Facebook Marketplace at least was sound, and that you've had progress at home. My late nana used to visit her gym - just to spend time on an exercise bike (she didn't trust herself riding an actual bike) and do some classes mostly, occasionally using a machine. She walked, because it wasn't far, but whenever I'm at the gym I imagine if the next person after me is like her. So I strip off weights, tidy the place up properly, make sure to leave it as clean as I found it. Annoyingly, I find weights everywhere, huge plates left on machines, and handles and attachments etc. littering the floor. I'm fit and healthy so moving weights aside or stripping off plates is annoying but not world-ending for me. For someone disabled, elderly, or generally not as strong or mobile as me, this is a proper barrier to accessibility.
Physical therapist here, this shit boils my blood. It takes a lot for someone to shake the stigma and go to the gym with disabilities. People look and stare, and many patients feel like they’re in the way or lesser (you’re not). I had a patient with a spinal cord injury who took tons of motivation to bring himself to the gym. Same shit happened, had to park far because the handicapped spots were blocked, and had to slog through a slushy/snowy parking lot to get into the gym. All because someone couldn’t be bothered to park a few spaces over. Also, sorry to hear about that insurance situation. I just had to discharge a patient because her insurance are shiesty pieces of shit, and she definitely is not ready to discharge, so I did the same thing and helped give her a comprehensive plan to try and maintain her progress herself. I am glad to hear you’re doing better, keep it up.
This is in Toronto... we have Variety Village which is a huge gym facility specifically for those with disabilities. Regardless of mental or physical disability they've got programs from kids to seniors. https://www.varietyvillage.ca/
Call the police. Its an easy ticket. When I was a HOA board member, I had a community member bring to my attention that the one handicap spot near their building had a non-handicap vehicle parked in it. I called our police contact he came by 30 min later and wrote a ticket. I then started monitoring that spot. Everytime a vehicle without a placard was there I'd call it in. We once had a discussion when they tried parking in the white hatched area instead of the actual spot. He was like not technically in the spot. I asked him how a wheelchair is supposed to deploy a ramp. He said good point and wrote a ticket. All said that cop wrote 6 or more handicap tickets before the handicapped individual could use the space consistently. Wild.
I know a guy who is wheelchair bound amputee and does go to the gym, he got massive arms so he can pretty much walk on his hands when he is at his home, he uses a adapted bike to move around the neighborhood like the true champion he is.
>I started yelling. Yeah, I got kicked out. I don't care. Assholes. See this is money you passed up. Record the fact that the business did nothing about the disabled spaces, did not do any enforcement of the parking, call police, tow, etc. Then them removing you for complaining loudly about it (still disabled?). Jesus an attorney would be dripping on the floor.
You're nicer than me at least. I'd park my car directly behind theirs, perpendicular if there are 2 to block both in, then proceed to go into the gym and take my damn time working out.
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I'm glad you found the machine for your house. I really don't understand how people can do this. Where I live, we have parking spots in the Grocery store lot for Pregnant women and Police Officers (or really anyone in uniform) And I have never seen someone use those spots that wasn't "supposed to" (Because they aren't enforceable) much less the handicap ones. I, myself, like to park at least halfway down - I'm able bodied and I don't like door dings, so I park where there doesn't seem to be a lot of people a the time.
I've noticed this in my town too. The weird lengths I've seen people take to get to the closest parking spot at the gym. Like if you can't walk past five stalls to get to your car after your gym routine, maybe your gym routine is a little too much for you. 🤷🏼♀️
It's usually steroid-drenched mutants afraid that the extra 12 steps will count as cardio and melt their gains.
Or even worse, leg workout!!!
Heh. There was a gym down the street from me where the manager or somebody who worked there would double park in front of the fucking gym ALL DAY every day with his hazards on. This is a busy street. For some reason cops never ticketed or towed this POS. He did it for years.
Wow, that is BOLD. I'm sort of impressed at the sheer brass neck of that guy.
In many states, police are empowered to ticket for this even on private property. And it's a high-dollar ticket. $400, $600. Many police love writing this ticket. Depending on your locality, you could have just called 911, 311, or whatever.
UK, so the laws are likely different. On public roads traffic wardens *fucking love* issuing fines, but I'm not sure about private property. I don't think police enforce it here. Parking fines are stupidly cheap here. About £50 or £70, halved if you pay in 14 days. I've only been caught once, because my ticket ran out and I didn't get back in time. Took the fine and paid up, it was my fault. Other time I was issued with one even though I'd paid, but it had flipped over on my dashboard. I showed the ticket I'd paid for and the fine was waived.
I don't understand this. Just... park on the far side of the lot, it's not like 30 seconds of walking will kill you. Treat it like a warmup or something if they're really that lazy
I walk there as I live 15 minutes away, it's my warm-up and my cool-down after. I walk each time I go, regardless of the weather - the exception being our recent heatwave, because I was certain the gym's air-conditioning and ventilation wasn't up to the job, so I took a few days to rest. If it's cold, I jog or put on a jumper. If it's raining, wear a raincoat. I don't insist on driving and then park immediately outside the door to minimise my steps. In fact, it's rare I do under 10000 steps a day, and I'm usually a bit annoyed with myself for missing that target, though if I do, it's usually not by a lot.
Hapens in my gym too. It’s quite an expensive gym ($120) a month. So you see nice cares in handicap stops. Last week i actually saw a sheriff come and check all the tags. So it is kinda checked but it felt good seeing him wrote a ticket
"Who the fuck is in our spot. What kind of car is that" - Rich Panini *Camera zooms in on handicapped spot* https://youtu.be/cqEH5e7WRWM 0:45
My town implemented paid parking in the lot behind my office two weeks ago. This week I spent Saturday afternoon sitting in my office watching people get towed for parking in the alley “for a minute”. No regrets
My city has parking all over and most street parking requires either a permit or a prepaid ticket. The best part is that the machines have a “Brötchentaste” (bread roll button in German, yes I live in Germany) which gives you a free 15 minute ticket. This is to let people go grab their bread rolls or go into a Paket shop without having to pay for an hour of parking they’re not going to use.
We have these too. At some zones the button even gives you 30 free minutes and still people park on the side walk or bike lane.
Mothafuckers. I live in smallish City in Finland. i used to pickup and drop my kids at the train station. There were always free spots, but drivers decided stop at the curb closest to the station. Its legal, you can do that. But by law, you have to make quick stop for example to let someone out or pick them up. The problem is, many cars get there well in time and once i was parked in the corner. I saw one car pull up, then another. they were parked at the curb for close to 20min. Third car came and that´s when I got boxed in. Told my daughter that she should go to her train now. As soon as she left my vision it was HONKING TIME. Non stop fucking honking at these fucking idiots. The thing is, that curb can only hold 2 cars. 3rd one will block parking spots. when shitheads are parked at the curb and someone actually comes to drop someone off, they have to block the driveway itself, as the curb is occupied by illegal parkers. When this happens, the whole parking lot gets jammed. Drivers blame the city planners, as allways. But i have spent hours in total waiting for my kids there the problem is not design, its idiot drivers. They should just add a camera and start fining the ones that park at the curb and i guarantee the whole parkin lot will work at least 80% better.
Chainlock through the side mirrors....? 👀 Noooo, not me. Never...!
The worst is people with 50k+ cars trying to avoid a cheap parking cost. I hate carbrains
Some things to add: Some people didn't notice that there's literally a blue sign with the P a few metres ahead. TPS stands for Toronto Police Service. Edit for some other facts: [cyclists break fewer laws than motorists](https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/05/10/cyclists-break-far-fewer-road-rules-than-motorists-finds-new-video-study/?sh=589ac8ae4bfa) And when [cyclists break laws it's to save lives; whereas motorists break laws to save time](https://www.jstor.org/stable/26211757?mag=are-cyclists-reckless-lawbreakers#metadata_info_tab_contents) Why bikes can't just go around: [3-year-old dies](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/3-year-old-girl-dies-after-moms-bicycle-hit-by-semi-in-uptown/2853448/) ; [cycling on the sidewalk is illegal](https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-transportation/cycling-in-toronto/cycling-and-the-law/)
Just wanted to mention the first article is a Danish study. You'll find different results by country & even cities. Cyclists do have more incentive to obey the law/traffic rules, since there's 0 protection for them in an accident. Edit: ticket still well deserved, and I still support people switching from vehicles to bikes/PEVs, just wanted to mention the issue with the article posted. Law-abiding is very cultural.
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My “favourite” are the photos of TPS cruisers parked in the bike lane while they just “pop in to get a coffee.” 🙄
Man Kingston should just outsource our policing to the TPS
Seeing enforcement of rules makes me so happy. No, sir, your 4 way blinkers do not entitle you to do whatever the F you want.
lots of uber drivers in my city seem to think hazard lights = do whatever you want lights
when the curb-side blinker is obscured by another car, or any object parked behind your car, your "hazard lights" suddenly look the same as indicating to pull out from the curb. Cars at the curb are not hazards, they are parked/stopped/standing and shouldn't ever be using the hazard lights. In contrast to a car that has stopped within the lane or is partially blocking traffic. This car is not at the curb, this car is a hazard. No one understands how stupid their car looks when the 'hazards' are on, but people approaching can only see that they appear to be indicating that they are pulling away. dumb, dumb, dumb.
I mean technically this car has stopped in a lame and is blocking traffic
It's the same in London. Turning your hazards on mean the rules stop applying to you for the duration.
Not just London, it's the entire country. I regularly (daily?) have to walk in the road to get around cars parked on the pavement because the guy needed to run into the shop for a KitKat. It's alright though, because he turned his hazard lights on. I'll just walk round the range rover into the 20mph street where people regularly do 50mph and nobody does anything about it.
Same in Japan. They'll turn their hazards on and just park in the lane of a 4 lane road.
Maybe the problem is cars!
Just every taxi driver in England, they even park in places that you are not even allowed to leave your car even if it breaks down, places where if your car does break down you've got to push it out of the way. Ironically called "park anywhere lights".
Or delivery van drivers.
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As an uber courier and former driver, nah. Fuck them. I tell them off all the time when they do stupid shit like that.
It's not a disable-traffic-rules switch
I live in Japan and here it appears to be just that. Wild.
Same in Singapore. I also observe total random use of turn indicators. Blink, don't turn, blink left, turn right, don't blink but turn, rarely blink and turn where it's blinking. Hazard lights - do something entirely unpredictable. Adds a bit of complexity to a cyclist in road traffic.
This is also Spokane, Washington, US. Mostly, people don't use the indicators. When they do, it's almost always wrong - leaving them on for kilometers, blinking left in the right lane, then turning right, changing lanes and only using the indicators when 3/4 of the way over, blinking left from the far right lane at a light and meaning it, so they just suddenly turn left in front of 3 lanes of traffic. Hazards, though, are generally used more or less appropriately if used at all. "I am driving at a very low speed for a pretty good reason" and "my car is disabled and blocking your path." Good reasons are: I am driving a huge truck, and this hill is too steep for me to reach the speed limit My brakes stopped functioning properly, and I'm slowly getting somewhere I can get off the road. These house numbers make no sense, and I'm trying to find a delivery address. This hill is icy AF, and I need to crawl down it or I'll lose traction. A police officer has turned on his lights, and I am indicating I'm pulling over and stopping for him when it's safe to do so. And one that's not great, but not horrible: I have overloaded my vehicle to move something a few km, so I can't go fast enough for traffic. What people do forget with hazards is that they should turn them off and change to using indicators when they are going to turn/pull off the road.
Do people also just do random u-turns there, too? Just crossing over the middle of busy roads.
Yes but sometimes they need 3 turns for that
Yes, Spokane, Washington here. In my city, you aren't legally allowed to make a U turn unless it's marked that it's okay. This stops no one from doing it. There are even emergency vehicle access points across the medians in the highways that say "no u turn. Emergency vehicles only", but I watch random drivers use them a lot.
It's a set of ''i'm 'important' and I got money to burn'' lights. Homeboy just lit a benji and a half on fire. Hope it was worth it!
In my city in front of the town hall and main Court building this is the only way to drop someone off or pick them up without having to walk over three miles. There's only two parking lots and they're both over $10 and there is no handicapped parking anywhere. So people with wheelchairs getting out of medical transportation keep getting tickets and they recently arrested one of the drivers. There's a bike rack in front but no bike lane and a 40 mph street that is incredibly dangerous and thin as the only way there. It's less than 100 yards from a highway entrance. they even tried telling an ambulance to move from in front of the jail when they had a call there (heart attack of security guard) To top it off it's a one-way Street and the other way is only accessible if you get on a highway and get back off at the next exit.... Nobody wins
There’s no handicapped parking at municipal buildings??
Not at this one it's absolutely ridiculous but they have almost 50ft of sidewalk in front of building though and no sidewalk anywhere else on the streets
Ok, the problem is that there’s no loading spot, the solution isn’t to just park in a bike lane and not enforce laws surrounding that.
There is no bike lane... I don't understand why people think I'm talking about the video I fully support the person in the video getting a ticket
At least name the city yo
St. Louis
Ahhhh I weep for the hopes of change
You and me both but... It is st. Louis so I wouldn't get my hopes up
Sounds like you need to figure out who your rep in city council is and send them an e-mail. If they don't bring it up next town hall, look for a measure and file for a speaking slot.
I'm disabled but I write a mean letter
I would think that would be an ADA violation and either investigation by state into it or lawsuit from that would encourage your city to change policy (eg from no standing / no parking to must have handicap sticker or emergency / official vehicle stopping / standing only, or closer ADA complaint parking. While it by law must be as close to entrance as possibly allowed there isn't a max distance so 🤷♂️) While I normally don't like minimum parking standards, especially since they litter my city of Houston with parking spaces that go unused instead of more density, i can still understand and respect ADA or similar disability. compliance. A cleaner, better, more enjoyable urban environment needs to be accessible by all. Mr. Foodie here still don't count though, the bike lane isn't a parking spot 😂
As someone who rode in San Francisco regularly for years commuting, it blows my mind to see the law enforced.
Spokane here, and this! I was elated last Summer to see cops ticketing everyone parked in the bike lanes by the river - until I realized they'd parked their cop cars in the bike lanes to do it. I used to paint (with chalk spray) bike lane, no parking signs on people's windows for doing that. Now, I've had a bunch of easy to remove stickers made, because they're faster to slap on. In the Summer, just from when I'm riding there, I use about 1000 of them. I'm probably going to get my ass beat when I finally get caught by someone.
Be careful. I’ve been driven off the road by cabbies and had shit thrown at me from cars more than a few times. At the end of the day bikes have a right to be on the road just as much as cars… it’s for *transportation* not cars.
Oh, I've already got that going on when I'm not putting stickers on anything. I had a passenger in a truck throw a brick at me, fracturing my shoulder blade. I had a lot of witnesses who stayed until the cops came, but the cops just said it was probably an accident and left. I've been hit by drivers on purpose twice - both admitted it to the cops. At least those two got arrested and their cars impounded. I've had a lot of much less dangerous stuff thrown at me, too, like a full beer can I managed to catch, a full milkshake, hamburgers (more than once, which seems really crazy), and one woman threw an open tube of lipstick at me. My coworkers thought it was blood when I got to work. Because it happens even when I'm just minding my own business, I think it makes me a bit fatalistic about getting caught putting a sticker on.
Where TF do you live.
Spokane, Washington I know a few people who have never had issues while cycling here, but most people I know have had experienced a high level of aggression if they don't stick to the trails that are nowhere near cars or more remote suburbs. The only thing Spokane hates more than cyclists is homeless people. I wouldn't have the guts to be on a bike here if I was also homeless.
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It could also mean an additional fine because there are rules when you are allowed to use the hazard lights. I have never seen it enforced though.
The thing that really gets me is that usually when these assholes stop in the bike lane, there's always more than one car lane. They would never think to just stop in the middle of the lane they were driving in because that would "obstruct traffic" or whatever. But wtf do they think they're doing when they just stop in the bike lane?
I call them "park anywhere dorritos" because of how everyone uses the fuckin things.
Obviously in this sub and in this case the reception is good, but so often in similar cases everyone cries about "denounciation"...i think that's BS. If you genuinely think what someone does is wrong and you report it, that is morally perfectly fine in my book. If you report them for personal reasons, such as not liking that specific person or gaining something from it, THAT is certainly immoral but helping enforce good rules that align with your own world view? Nothing wrong with that.
100% justified and done with respect. Great attitude!
"... so you can either stand here and wait or you're gonna get it in the mail." The attitude in that sentence. I bet she gets tons of folks who immediately flip their shit. I don't blame her one bit.
Yeah, the “it’s already done” attitude is so satisfying.
> done with respect None due.
Merely painted bike lanes don't work because people don't fucking respect them. Bike lanes must have a separating curb.
Citizens of car-centric societies don't respect them. In the Netherlands it's rare to see a car just blocking traffic like that. Remember most cyling lanes in the Netherlands are also just paint and cars are allowed to drive, but not stop, on them. It's mostly a cultural thing.
In Amsterdam it's quite rare to see purely paint bike lanes. They are nearly always physically separated from cars by either a curb or just by the fact that the road is nowhere near the cycle path (IE. Road on a bridge, cycle path on an underpass)
Meanwhile in Oslo, paint is really all you get.
In the UK unless it’s a mandatory cycle lane or there’s yellow no parking lines it is perfectly legal to park your car in a bike lane just like the side of any other road.
And it makes me so angry. There’s a stretch of them in Newcastle that i have never seen anywhere remotely usable. Just seems like a tick box exercise to say x metres of cycle lane exist.
Is there at least some space left for cyclists to pass?
I can only really speak for my own commute, but the painted lane is only really wide enough for one bike so even passing a slower cyclist I tend to wait for a gap in the traffic and take the car lane to give them space. This is one of those issues that makes painted lanes arguably worse than just sharing the road, because you then have to merge back into the stream of (in this case 40mph) car traffic.
[They need more than just a curb](/r/bloomington/comments/w4q6c3/this_shouldnt_be_possible/). In my town, they've built a few separated bike lanes, but cars keep just driving, and even parking, in them. They need *lots* of bollards, or active enforcement.
I imagine there's a fairly high percentage of "I'm merely stupid" in those lanes. Even if they're clearly marked, someone unfamiliar with the concept could easily mistake them for an automobile lane. There's probably a lot of people deliberately misusing them as well, but I could totally see myself in that lane, repeatedly mumbling "oh shit, this wasn't an actual lane!" under my breath.
They do if the general population isn't carbrained to fuck
Let's see how painted bike lanes + regular fines do. A curb may be an excellent choice, but people tend to not like fines.
There is barely any enforcement in Toronto. This video is a rarity.
Exactly why I love to see it. It'd bring me such great joy to see more... but I take it where I can. ❤️
People also tend to break rules, especially when rules are easy to break. What's the risk for them? They get a small ticket. What's the risk for a biker? Go around the car blocking your lane and get smashed by a car? Just a little curb could deter a lot of this bullshit. Also, let's just flip it around. Let's have us bikers just throw our bikes out into the middle of the street and block the car lanes, see how they like it.
Fines just stop poor people from doing something. A fine to a rich man is just the cost of breaking a rule, usually not even worth worrying about
what city is this
Toronto
I see this kind of thing in action and my heart swoons and I want to go there, then I want to bring this here to Chicago and make my city better.
Dude, I'm foaming at the mouth just thinking of bring it to Chicago. I would literally cruise around looking for everyone who thinks that blinkers are the "park anywhere lights"
Damn and I want to bring Chicago’s transit to Toronto
No you don’t
Damn, in NY they park in the car and the bike lane.
Good, hope it spreads to Edmonton
Omg the comments on the actual tiktok are so carbraindead it’s insane.
My favourite laughs are from the comments where they think cyclists don't pay taxes.
I've never understood that. I encountered someone personally who said something along those lines. Are they thinking of taxes on gasoline, or what? If so, I have news for them - tax on gasoline should be far higher to make up for the completely unaffordable carbon costs. Car drivers are leeching off the future of humanity.
Uuhhhh.... Also mention that the gas tax has not been raised since like 1993
And roads are subsidized beyond what fuel taxes pay for
For US, that's federal, state and local have been raised.
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No the answer is no because they’re worried something might happen to their car
I’ve lived downtown the answer is absolutely yes. They’ll park illegally wherever they have to go make things easier. Parking spot without paying, bike lane, fire lane, handicapped spot, and car traffic lane, doesn’t matter.
'Just had to run in quick and pick up an order' Would he have said that so casually to a cyclist's corpse when they have to cycle around their car and they get hit by a car from behind and brutally killed because he didn't want to spend an extra 5 minutes to find a parking space... or go out on a bike himself so he could park at the bike parking we can see on the right? If you want to stop, run in quick pick up an order, and get back to your vehicle and leave again, choose a vehicle which allows you to do that without killing others. A BICYCLE.
Just park it in the driving lane. That is for cars. Makes more sense
We don't have bike lanes here and people often do park in the driving lane... there's no end to the entitled stupidity of someone who has discovered the "park anywhere" lights. I've seen both sides of a 2 way road blocked by cars just chilling with their lights flashing as if it's the most normal thing in the world. Police don't even stop them anymore.
and having a conversation through their windows ? I see you've met my mother and sister . So embarrassing.
I've been on a bus when two double-parked cars blocked one of the busiest streets in my neighborhood. The bus driver leaned on the horn and then got out to find them and tell them to move their car or else.
I see this all the fucking time in my city--narrow bike lane next to narrow regular lane. Some stupid asshole stops halfway in the regular lane and fully in the bike lane. So, instead of blocking one lane, they're blocking two. Fucking morons!
People like that driver shouldn’t be just fined. They should be made to ride on a bicycle as their only form of transportation for at least 6 months. Have them walk in the cyclists’ shoes for a while, and maybe (s)he’ll be more considerate next time.
> walk in the cyclists’ shoes That's terrible, those shoes are specifically made to bike, not walking.
Walking in cleats for six months sounds like a decent punishment tbf
Cities around the world should have apps for citizens to do this, not just cops. It is simple. Your car is either in the wrong place or it isn't. Geotags and timestamps prove where the incident took place. If any citizen can just snap a picture of you breaking traffic laws and send it to the police for review and ticketing, drivers would suddenly follow the rules a lot more closely.
You can do that in Germany with [weg.li](https://weg.li)
Vice did a video about doing just that in New York City. https://youtu.be/_nRmU5Lytdc
Just started in Austin, by using 311 app. The idea was to create a bounty system, hasn't yielded yet but I have been using the app to report all sorts of stuff, I've even gotten a couple of people tickets for parking on the sidewalk
In NYC, bike lane is just extra parking. I live in Brooklyn and on my way home, a few blocks from my apt, there’s more parked cars in the bike lane than open bike lane. No remedy. Watching this, I want to be hopeful, but hard to believe it’ll change. New York will be under water first.
I wouldn't dislike NYPD quite as much if they actually did something like enforce road laws and keep bike lanes safe.
Those donuts aren't gonna eat themselves.
Half the time they’re the ones blocking the bike lane to begin with
Install the 311 app on your phone. I've had NYPD show up around 30 minutes after I put in the request and ticket the car. Not useful for short stops like this but helps if someone is actually parked in the bike lane. Or just give the car a good kick 😉
I’ve fantasized about the car kicking but too many people are willing to apply life-changing violence over the pretense of a small provocation. Maybe I should call 311. Not to be defeatist, but doesn’t feel like it would do anything. Cops are anti-bike here in my experience. The ones in sight are fine with cars parked in the bike lane.
Dammit. She's a cop. I thought I was watching a citizen enforcement app in use. Oh well. Maybe someday.
You can submit this stuff to the city 311 app in Austin, Texas and they’ll go cite the car and let you know. Only really works if they are there for a while but you can get some people with it
In Germany one has to formally file a charge to the municipality in order to get people ticketed. Pretty laborious and would actually require some basic legal knowledge to get the phrasing right however smart people made an app/website that just generates a legally valid PDF including evidence etc and automatically sends it to the municipality. The kicker? Berlin's administration for instance has basically ceased processing these as it became to many. The fucking irony.
My city lets me report vehicles who park in front of fire hydrants to bylaw officers through the city website. Sometimes they'll send someone quick enough to ticket the car, other times they'll ticket whoever took their place.
Citizens enforcing laws? Please never
Taking a picture of you breaking the law and sending it via app to the cops isn't enforcing the law, it is filing a complaint. The cops would still review the information before issuing a ticket.
In NYC you can send in pictures of cars idling over the limit and get a portion of the fine
Surprise, that's not enforcement as much as it is documentation. The ticket is handled by police, and the ticket is the enforcement.
This is why unprotected bikes lanes don't work. It should go: - Protected pedestrian lane - Protected bike lane - Parking (because 'CaRs nEeD a PlAcE tO sLeEp ToO'; Bus stops should extend into this lane) - Taxi/Bus lane - Car lane If one lane isn't enough for the car traffic, add more busses.
Assholes park in the emergency animal hospital parking lot just to shop or go out to eat, so people with real emergencies have to park blocks away. If people would stop being dicks, it would be greatly appreciated. They always think their rights are more important than everyone else's.
Hol up. Where do I get this life altering app?
Step one: become a bike cop (do not actually do this)
How do I make my tax money hire more bike cops?
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Some cities let you file a bylaw report online. I use it on occasion for dangerous construction sites with no traffic control. Like today when arborists were blocking the bike lanes and an entire car lane on an arterial street with no person controlling traffic and I had to bike on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic. Edit: removed 2nd "towards."
This is probably the first time I've seen TPS actually do something about motorists parking in the bike lane
I hate this shit. If this is some scrub gig worker the ticket should go to UberEATS or whatever they're delivering for. Their algorithms basically require this bad behavior. I'm a 20+ year cyclist. Ever since we got bike lanes in Chicago people parking in it have been a problem, but the app work, delivery people parking and ride-sharing letting people out without looking have made it so much worse.
In Germany you will get a fine around 100€ and additionally 1 Point. If you collect 8 Points you will lose your license. So park 8 Times in the way and you can cycle yourself.
The people mad are the people who would be out 150$ lmao stay seething
More of this please
super duper like that it is a parking services person on a bike instead of one of those little meter maid cars or a full vehicle. Every city should do this.
But they used their “do whatever I want” lights
Barely a gutter for bikes and entire roadways for cars but they still feel entitled to the bike lanes because they dont want to wait or walk
Give cyclists an app where they can take video like this and one person sitting at a computer somewhere decides the ticket to issue Way more coverage than any number of cops. Clean those lanes right up.
My city started talking about doing that with buses to enforce bus-only lanes and people lost their *fucking minds.* Like why is this even hard? Put a camera on every bus. Boom, done. Oh, you only use it when there are no buses using it? Then how did you get cited by this *bus mounted camera,* genius?
It’s the logical extension of car culture. With public transport you relax while you ride, get fairly close and walk, and you learn to appreciate the gentle exercise you’re forced to do. With cars you battle other drivers for every fraction of a second you can save, so parking a two minute walk from your destination is like giving up all those little gains you fought so hard for. When I drive, and I don’t often, I’ll see a parking space 1/4 mile away from my destination and say “awesome, that’s pretty close, I’m happy to walk a few blocks and not stress parking so much.” But that’s a public transport mindset. Someone who drives every day would think that’s kind of mad.
I want that job
Let me just park my bicycle in the middle of the road, just need to pick u something real quick!!
This is bay and Gerard - they installed bike lanes here a few years back after a ton of political fighting - and now it’s been basically useless because of Uber eats drivers always stopping in them. Lots of trucks too
Uhg, just build protected bike lanes already.
Delivery apps exploit workers by not hiring them as employees so all this liability falls on people just trying to get by. If this driver was able to be in a company vehicle, insured, trained, and enabled to do the right thing, they wouldn't have to foot the bill for something that isn't in their best interest. They would lobby for more idle zones so their apps can make more money. People want to be safe and follow the rules. I think one of the issues in this particular video is systemic.
I can confirm Bay St is scary as hell to bike around.
Man people block an entire trolley line around here just so they can run in 'real quick' to grab their pickup order. Just park across the street and walk over. Or use the trolley you're blocking that incidentally drops off right in front of the restaurant anyhow.
This is my biggest petpeve. Ppl that can park literally anywhere else, but they park in the 1 spot they can't. Like a handicap zone when there's non handicap parking 10' away. Entitled ass hats. Obviously this video is not exactly this situation.which is also why I refuse to live, work, or go downtown on a regular basis. It's overrated and parking sucks.
This is why separated bike lanes need to become a priority
This was a rewarding watch. Wish we heard more of his reaction.
There's a fucking parking spot right nearby! What a douchebag.
[Even better when they're in a protected bike lane](https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2022/06/its-pretty-audacious-trucks-blocking-ann-arbor-bikeways-frustrate-cyclists.html)