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Image taken from the cause, LOOK TWICE - SAVE A LIFE - MOTORCYCLES ARE EVERYWHERE!
It seems that more often than not, we don’t educate ourselves about a topic until something serious happens that catches our attention and peaks our interest. The South Carolina Highway Patrol shares some pretty interesting statistics on their website about accidents involving motorcycles that I find worthy of sharing:
- In crashes involving a motorcycle and a different type of vehicle, two-thirds of the time, it is the other vehicle that violates the motorcycle’s right of way.
- Intersections are dangerous places: twenty-five percent of all motorcycle wrecks result when the other vehicle turns left across the motorcycle’s path.
- Failing to yield can be lethal: whether it’s the error of the motorcyclist or the other driver, failing the yield results in the most motorcycle deaths in South Carolina.
Sadly, this summer has been filled with numerous motorcycle wrecks in the Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley county area. Riding bikes is a favored way of life for many of us in the Lowcountry and that isn’t going to change anytime soon! What does need to change is every driver’s level of awareness for other motorists sharing the roadways.
It’s been over three years since the City of Charleston and Republic Parking Systems, operator of the City’s 19 parking garages, banished bikers from its shady, covered parking garages onto the hot asphalt and coin guzzling parking meters of the city streets. The reason for the policy instituted in 2007, was to limit any possible liability that the City faced with motorcycles not always being detected on the loops and the potential of the gate coming down and injuring the rider. But the affect was to dramatically limit the parking options available to bikers on the Peninsula.
Today, there are a few biker-friendly metered lots located near King Street and Market Street. (Clearly marked as Black or Grey Squares on the map on the City of Charleston Parking Guide. And the City’s new SmartCard Parking Program allows drivers and riders alike to use prepaid cards to feed the meters instead of turning out their pockets and digging in their couches in search of loose change.
When parking in a metered spot, remember the City allows up to 6 motorcycles in each metered spot, so long as all the vehicles are parked within the boundaries of the space. (Municode Section 19-256).
