Charleston SC Blues

[Pecker]

Time to get up on the old soap box after what I experienced in Charleston SC this past Sat. It seems Charleston has a new city ordinance, no motorcycles are allowed to park in public parking lots or garages. I found out the hard way, entered a parking garage and was chased down by an attendant and told to leave. After a brief discussion with the attendant I was informed of the city ordinance. I have made some inquiries into this matter and was informed that, get this, motorcycles are clogging the streets of Charleston and creating too much noise. I'll concede on the noise part, but clogging the streets. So, instead of ticketing offending bikes with loud pipes, they choose to discriminate against all bikes. Well, I was told I could park on the street in the metered spaces, which run for two hours before you need to put more change in.

My time ran out and I ended up with a parking ticket to boot. To put it bluntly, I was totally pissed. Ruined what should have been a wonderful day. So now fellow Venture Riders, do we really want to go where we are not wanted? As much as I hate it, I won't be taking trips to Charleston, if they don't want my bike, they must not want my hard earned money. I plan on spreading the word to as many forums as I can. May even send a letter or two to a few magazines. Please feel free to tell others about this, I would like to think we as a group can change some attitudes towards riders. Let me know your thoughts. Thank you.

[utadventure]

This creates an interesting impression about South Carolina and motorcycles. Charleston is saying they don't want bikes around while Greenville is inviting, possibly the biggest motorcycle group to their city for a week.

 

Interesting, very interesting.

[KiteSquid]

Maybe all the motorcyclists within 100 miles should ride the streets looking for parking at public garages between the hours of 7:00 and 9:00 AM for a week or two.

 

having the attendant explain to each individual mororcyclist the issues.

 

Then, they should get a metered space, one bike per space for the rest of the day......

[whozleft]

Isn't San Francisco or somewhwre out in California the same way? I seem to remember someone telling me that it was hard to find a place that allowed bike parking.

 

I also agree with the noise issue to some extent. A few years back when we went out to Sturgis I was more than thrilled when we finally got home. The loud pipes got to me aftter about two days. I couldn't understand why everyone wanted to rev their engines all the time. Who were they trying to impress, all the other thousands of loud bikes sitting within earshot?

 

I have nothing against a bike sounding good, but there are limits I think. I had Cobra Baggers on my Nomad and they even tired me out afetr a while of riding.

 

Maybe I'm just getting old. LOL The biottom line is that the noise issue is starting to infringe on all motorcyclists no matter what type of exhausts we run.

[Thom]

it looks like the city counsel did not check with the city attorney , before making the ordnance , is there a chapter of southern cruisers there ?

[Guest KitCarson]

Time to get up on the old soap box after what I experienced in Charleston SC this past Sat. It seems Charleston has a new city ordinance, no motorcycles are allowed to park in public parking lots or garages. I found out the hard way, entered a parking garage and was chased down by an attendant and told to leave. After a brief discussion with the attendant I was informed of the city ordinance. I have made some inquiries into this matter and was informed that, get this, motorcycles are clogging the streets of Charleston and creating too much noise. I'll concede on the noise part, but clogging the streets. So, instead of ticketing offending bikes with loud pipes, they choose to discriminate against all bikes. Well, I was told I could park on the street in the metered spaces, which run for two hours before you need to put more change in.

My time ran out and I ended up with a parking ticket to boot. To put it bluntly, I was totally pissed. Ruined what should have been a wonderful day. So now fellow Venture Riders, do we really want to go where we are not wanted? As much as I hate it, I won't be taking trips to Charleston, if they don't want my bike, they must not want my hard earned money. I plan on spreading the word to as many forums as I can. May even send a letter or two to a few magazines. Please feel free to tell others about this, I would like to think we as a group can change some attitudes towards riders. Let me know your thoughts. Thank you.

I go to Charleston about once a month, my daughter is a student at the College of Charleston. Parking is a pain, that is for sure........but I really do not ever see that many motorcycles in town, I usually park at the outside meters anyway, do not think they run them on Sundays........have parked all day. No Tickets.

Hey got a question, how much is the ticket? Parking is like what? Two dollars an hour? How much is the Ticket......might be cheaper to just park and pay the ticket....hum!!