Parking for motorbikes and bicycles in St. Helier

2018.09.11

8 Deputy R.J. Rondel of the Minister for Infrastructure regarding parking for

motorbikes and bicycles in St. Helier : [OQ.110/2018]

Will the Minister undertake to provide additional parking for both motorbikes and bicycles in St. Helier as a matter of urgency?

Deputy K.C. Lewis (The Minister for Infrastructure):

The Sustainable Transport Policy supports the use of bicycles and like motorcycles and recognises that further on-street space for parking will need to be provided as usage increases. I have charged my officers to identify new areas as opportunities arise to increase the provision of parking for cycles and motorcycles such as the additional 8 motorcycle places created at Minden Place this year and the 35 new cycle stands at the International Finance Centre, providing parking for 70 bikes.

1. Deputy R.J. Rondel:

The point is I have met many people on motorbikes, a lot come on holiday from Northern Europe and were unable to find spaces within St. Helier and 8 is completely insufficient if we are going to encourage people to get out their cars and use bicycles and motorcycles. Would the Minister undertake to look at this and give a timeline when this will happen as a matter of urgency? Those people ended up leaving St. Helier and not going to shop there.

Deputy K.C. Lewis :

Cycle parking in Jersey, like other locations, experiences a huge demand for parking in sunny weather, so there are peak days when we do have issues with parking availability. The department always seeks to increase the amount of cycle parking in St. Helier as we want to encourage this healthy and active form of travel. This is ongoing, we are creating spaces as and when areas become available.

2. Deputy L.M.C. Doublet of St. Saviour :

Would the Minister agree to exercise caution when implementing new motorbike spaces in St. Helier , particularly with regards to can he differentiate between the use of light motorcycles and heavy motorcycles? Heavy motorcycles can be significantly louder than cars. The World Health Organisation has shown that noise exposure is responsible for a significant range of health defects, including sleep disturbance, heart disease, cognitive impairment among children, stress related mental health risks and many more. Is there a way that the Minister can differentiate and just allow the light motorcycles to be parked in residential areas, primarily?

Deputy K.C. Lewis :

That is a very interesting point. Not really; we do provide lots of spaces up at Snow Hill, which is also a residential area with all the apartments next door, but motorcycles, being light or heavy motorcycles, need to conform with construction and use. If they are stopped in a road check any defective vehicles, exhausts being modified, et cetera, then that would be an offence and D.V.S. (Driver and Vehicle Standards) would deal with that. I do take the Deputy 's point, but we cannot really differentiate with the motorcycles that people may choose to ride.

3. Deputy L.M.C. Doublet :

Is it a sensible policy to then be implementing more motorcycle spaces in residential areas? Should these motorcycle spaces be concentrated away from residential areas in St. Helier ?

Deputy K.C. Lewis :

People have a right to park wherever they wish, within reason. It would not really be logical to ban motorcycles from certain areas. We would hope that people who ride motorcycles would be sensible and have due care and attention and due consideration to residential soundings.

4. Deputy K.F. Morel :

As a matter of interest, could the Minister explain how the department monitors usage of motorcycle and bicycle parking levels and on what regular basis, given that it is free and no ticketing process is used?

Deputy K.C. Lewis :

Would the Deputy repeat the last part of the question?

Deputy K.F. Morel :

Given that parking is free for motorbikes and no ticketing process is used to monitor people.

Deputy K.C. Lewis :

As I said, we are trying to encourage this kind of travel. You could probably get several motorbikes in a space that is normally reserved for a motorcar, so it does increase the parking facility. The areas are monitored. We have spot checks. We have people who monitor the car parks and motorcycle parking areas, which is where we get our statistics from, which tells us that we need more spaces. We do have quite a few. The Future Hospital will have an increase from 76 to 150 bicycle parks. Cycle parking at Ann Court will be 165. We do use the Island Plan Policy TT4, to secure additional cycle parking. We provide additional parking as and when we can.

5. Deputy M. Tadier :

Does the Minister have statistics on motorcycle spaces, in particular, and cycle spaces which are provided by the private sector as opposed to the public? I am thinking in particular of shoppers and people who may be using the toilets in St. Helier .

Deputy K.C. Lewis :

I do not have the statistics for private parking in St. Helier for motorcycles and I do not have the statistics for private toilets in St. Helier either.

6. Deputy M. Tadier :

I presume nobody is going to be parking their bikes in the toilets; obviously that was said in jest. Does the Minister accept that there is a serious point that it is fair enough for his department and indeed the Parish to provide spaces as far as they can, but often people are using shop car parks? It is important that they keep up to date with the right proportions as people change their habits to use 2 wheels instead of 4. Not all of the responsibility must fall on the States.

Deputy K.C. Lewis :

Absolutely. As I mentioned briefly the Ann Court development will have 165 parking spaces. Obviously, we work with our colleagues at Planning to make sure this is provided whenever possible in any new planning application.

7. Deputy G.P. Southern :

Since we have strayed on to the noise made by motorcycles, what monitoring exists currently to monitor the removal of people who ride motorcycles taking out the baffles to squeeze an extra 5 miles an hour from their bikes. Noise levels, what monitoring takes place and how many prosecutions have been brought for loud motorcycles?

The Bailiff :

I have to say, it might have slipped under the radar on the last occasion, but it is clearly out of the parameters of the question to ask about noise levels. We are dealing with additional parking. I am sorry, Deputy , if you would like to rephrase the question to take out noise levels.

Deputy G.P. Southern : That is a fair comment. Deputy K.C. Lewis :

I am more than happy to answer the question, Sir. That would be handled by D.V.S. road checks, assisted by the Honorary Police.

8. Deputy R.J. Rondel:

I would just like to thank the Minister for his future commitment on new developments through planning gain. Just as an aside for that, under Hansard, I do not have a list of toilet facilities, but I am sure we can fetch that for the Deputy . Thank you.