Is it legal to park a motorbike on the sidewalk?
I ask, because I have an upstairs neighbour who’s doing it all the time now.
Update: It’s a full-scale motorbike with a license plate.
Updates from April, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The mayor announced the launch of a local delivery service Monday, following Quebec’s recent announcement of its Panier Bleu plan to stimulate local spending. The city’s plan should make it easier for local businesses to reach buyers without contact being needed.
Blork
The Panier Bleu is a great idea, and it looks nice on the surface, but putting together something of that scope is a huge project. We’re seeing it deveop in real time, which is both interesting and frustrating. Currently if you search by specific location (e.g., “Longueuil”) you get an alphabetical listing of businesses from that location, but when you go to the second page of results everything goes sort of random. But if you search by one of their pre-defined regions, you get “no results” no matter which category you choose.
The other thing worth mentioning is that the businesses that are still open and delivering should really update their pages to reflect their current status. Some of them have a big COVID-19 thing on the landing page, and that’s great, whereas others just show you all the regular pretty pictures and hoo-haa, and that inspires less confidence that they’re retooling for the new reality. (E.g., a statement about their sanitary practices, delivery rules, etc. and priority on the ordering page right up front is what we want.)
Also interesting that Brulerie Faro (based in Sherbrooke but with a Montreal outlet on Ste-Catherine West at MacKay — where I work) is featured in the images on the landing page. I buy all my coffee for home from there, and when I got home from work on March 13th (last day before isolation) and realized I hadn’t stocked up I went online and ordered three pounds of coffee beans to be delivered. When it arrived a few days later I was like wow, what am I going to do with all this coffee? (it usually takes at least 10 days to go through a 500g bag). Now I’m like OMG please stay open because I’ll be ordering more soon!
denpanosekai
Search for Verdun and you get a poissonnerie from Gaspé
Kate
I’d rather eat fish caught in the Gaspé, than caught off Verdun…
Mark Côté
A number of these sites are springing up, including Ma Zone Québec and Solution Locale.
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Kate
Nonessential activities – distribution of newspapers, busking, fundraising – have been banned in the metro. This item from the Metro paper notes that its own distribution stopped as of March 17, but the 24 heures paper, owned by Quebecor, only stopped as of today, Monday.
They don’t mention those itinerant stands selling jewellery and phone cables that pop up in some stations, but I assume they were shut down with all other merchants of nonessentials weeks ago.
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Kate
Police fined people playing soccer in Ahuntsic on Sunday, handing out $1546 tickets. (Update remark: Obviously I missed the weirder part of this story, about the woman getting a ticket for being sung “happy birthday” to, by friends in cars. It’s on that link and discussed below.)
La Presse has a question-and-answer item covering various practical matters as affected by the pandemic.
When I saw this headline about “criticism” of a dépanneur in Lachine I was afraid it would be a story of racism, but it isn’t. The wife of one of the delivery guys has tested positive and it’s apparently put people on edge. No idea how the news got around, but the little Provi-Soir has been sterilized.
Further update: this account on Global tells about the same woman who received a birthday parade (the location is Beaconsfield and the name is Leblanc in both stories) but says she only received a warning, no ticket.
j2
Wait, in the first link people came by that ladies place and sang happy birthday and she got the ticket?! Is there no test for intelligence in the SPVM?
Personally I’d get them to go sing to the nosy neighbours and get the neighbours a ticket too, since apparently the victim is to blame.
Kevin
@J2
Oooh, I gotta tell my police tech story.When I was in Cegep I used to have a locker outside the classroom where police technology students studied statistics.
One day they got into a fierce argument with their teacher about which was greater, the number of cards in a deck or the number of weeks in a year.After an hour of vicious debate and verbal sparring, they all agreed that the two numbers were equal: 50. Fifty weeks in a year, fifty cards in a deck.
jeather
Kevin have you ever seen the work out every other day thread? A true classic.
MarcG
I made it to the end of the 2nd page and now my brain is porridge. A curse on jeather.
JP
The Beaconsfield-Birthday singing story in that first link really does seem like an over-reaction, considering I’ve seen way worse lately. One of her neighbours is definitely a jerk who probably has no friends…The part that really struck me was this…” et qu’advenant une deuxième infraction, elle risquait de six mois à un an de prison.” Wow! There are people who do far worse things (dangerous driving, harassment) who don’t get threatened with that that or even come close to it
I have a neighbour who has souped up their car and is constantly revving their engine. Now that I’m working from home, I hear it at least 5 x a day. Hearing it also causes me some anxiety, truth be told. One of my neighbours went to speak with the neighbour’s mother who just shrugged her shoulders. I feel like he’s disturbing the peace far more than the above, and I still hesitate to call the police.
Talking to a couple of my neighbours has also made me realize that not everyone has an appropriate understanding of what’s being asked of us. One of my older neighbours (speaking over the phone) stubbornly insisted that as of last Sunday we were not allowed to step outside at all…for all I know, she might be ready to call the police on me during my next walk. She probably won’t because we help her, but if we were strangers I wouldn’t put it past her
Ian
Just read a story in the Gazette about one of the locals in my hood getting a fine this weekend, and she was told by the cops that you’re not supposed to be going out of the house except to buy groceries. The cop spokesman in the article allowed that you are in fact allowed out of the house as long as you maintain 2 metres space but clearly we are already seeing some cops re interpreting the law in their own special way, as they are wont to do.
I hate to add an extra level of paranoia in these troubled times but as always, don’t trust the cops, don’t call the cops. If they are making stuff up to give fines to middle aged white ladies in the park, I wouldn’t want to be a person of colour that some busybody snitches on.
Kevin
@jeather
I’m splitting my sides laughing. That’s some real TimeCube theorizing there.
Imagine hearing that debate going on in real time and that’s what it was like sitting in that hallway.
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Kate
Paul Cherry, the Gazette’s gangland go-to guy, writes about a hitman getting day parole after allegedly taking part in dozens of killings.
Curious why the Gazette would use a bland Getty Images stock photo of the Palais de Justice to illustrate a story like this. You’d imagine a paper like that either has photos of that building on file, or – even in these times – could get someone to skooch over there and take a picture. (However, see below.)
Chris
Why would/should they? 99% of people won’t notice/care, and it saves them money not sending someone out. Sad but true. I’m just amazed they bother to get a courthouse image from *this city* and not a generic one. 🙁
Kate
Well, there were news stories more than two weeks ago about the courts largely shutting down, so a photo showing some little groupings of people outside the Palais de J. is out of date, even if people don’t understand what stock photography is.
In fact, a story like this ought to be illustrated with a mugshot of the character under discussion, not some anodyne image of a building.
mare
@Kate. I think Postmedia’s new overlords shrank Gazettes workforce to a skeleton crew and AFAIK the paper is put together in someone’s living room. He might not have the time nor the resources to find the best stock photo or send someone to take a new one.
Kate
Fair enough. Steve Faguy even tweeted about how weird it was to be assembling the front section of the Gazette on his own computer at home. I suppose he would have access to the paper’s Getty Images account from home, but not its photo library.
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Kate
Here’s a police blotter story with no pandemic coda: a man was stabbed in Ville-Émard overnight Sunday and there’s been one arrest while a second suspect is on the lam.
I bet they weren’t social distancing either.
Oops.
walkerp
Not necessarily! 🙂
“Police said the victim and yet-to-be detained suspect are friends who got into an argument at around 9:40 p.m. in a residence on Galt St. near Hadley St.”
Maybe they are all roommates and things got a little heated with the lockdown.
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Kate
Get the deadpan Mohawk humour in the photo at the bottom of this piece on Kahnawake closing itself off.
Patrick
Very funny. BTW, is Mohawk territory exempt from Quebec’s language laws about signage and such? I have the impression they have been but what’s the exact legal situation?
Alison Cummins
Yes, that’s deadpan.
(I didn’t read carefully and was expecting something more explicit about masks and social distancing. https://images.app.goo.gl/t4Ffvuz1A3wi6Z5m7)
Kevin 20:38 on 2020-04-06 Permalink
Yup.
Call the cops and ask to give him a ticket. He should park on the road like a normal rider.
Chris 21:02 on 2020-04-06 Permalink
By “yup” I presume you mean “nope”. 🙂 I really don’t think parking them on the sidewalk is legal. I’ve found with covid most streets have more parking spaces available, I wonder why he’s doing that.
Kevin 22:50 on 2020-04-06 Permalink
Sorry, I misread it as “illegal” earlier.
(I’d get my eyes checked but I can’t…)
It’s common to see the electric bikes that look like motorcycles on the sidewalk.
This rider is probably doing it because he’s worried about it being knocked over
mudar 23:46 on 2020-04-06 Permalink
It’s illegal to park on the sidewalk if the motorbike has a licence plate, which is why some electric ones can get away with it since they don’t have a plate.
Kevin 09:16 on 2020-04-07 Permalink
Honda NC750X. Maybe he thinks it’s not a real motorcycle because it has an automatic transmission.
Or maybe he’s parking on the sidewalk because it’s an “adventure” bike.
Call the cops!
Stephen 10:05 on 2020-04-07 Permalink
Leave a note on handlebar asking that they not park on sidewalk. Politely. If they don’t, it’s easy to push over a bike, which is a nightmare scenario for a biker, and will make them reassess their parking decisions in the future.
/biker, back to lurking now.
Kevin 11:21 on 2020-04-07 Permalink
Stephen,
Knocking over a motorcycle is a dick move which can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage. Don’t do that. Don’t even recommend it.
/a guy who had a motorcycle that could not be repaired after being knocked over by a terrible driver leaving a parking space.
Kate 11:27 on 2020-04-07 Permalink
I don’t plan to knock it over, don’t worry. I haven’t decided about the cops. The thing is mostly a nuisance for people wanting to put out garbage, recycling or composting – that’s myself and other people in this building – and I guess for anyone hoping to get out of a vehicle parked on the street next to where it is, because it’s near the curb.
Also, this time of year I’ve been inclined to sweep up the front of the building, pushing dead leaves, gravel and trash into the gutter for when the street sweeper passes, but this motorbike’s going to make that a little less convenient. (I’m not a janitor, but nobody else does it, and I have to live here, so I clear the snow and tidy up because I’m a grownup.)
But this building has no driveway and no parking out back, so I can sort of see the bike owner’s logic, even if I’m not thrilled by it.
Dhomas 13:36 on 2020-04-07 Permalink
I’d go the route of leaving a note. You’d have given fair warning before calling the police. It’s not only a nuisance for cleaning and recycling/trash/compost pickup, but it could really hamper someone with reduced mobility from traveling down the street.
Also, on the topic of cleaning up our areas, I swept my driveway last week after taking down my car shelter (“Tempo”), and the pile I made is still in the street. Are the street sweepers still working during the lockdown?
CE 14:03 on 2020-04-07 Permalink
I’ve seen that a few main streets have been swept but the city has said that the parking restrictions on side streets aren’t going into effect until May 1 (instead of April 1) so it looks like we’re stuck with the pebbles and winter garbage for at least another month.
Chris 16:39 on 2020-04-07 Permalink
I too suggest leaving a note, and if he persists, then call the cops. Pedestrians have so little space, and motor vehicles so much, this encroachment is very anti-social. From your photo, he could literally park a metre away, in the street! wtf!
Kate 19:30 on 2020-04-07 Permalink
Ooh, thanks for making me think of that. As a non-driver (and thus non-parker) I hadn’t taken into account that street sweeping will be delayed along with the parking restrictions.
Almost everyone around here has cleaned up their frontages into the street. I followed suit today, assuming street sweeping tomorrow. Oh well.