Motorcycle friendly? (Seattle: home, live, buses)

[tr4nsience]

I'm considering a move up to Seattle, and I own a car and motorcycle. What I'd really like to do is leave the car at home most of the time. I'm pretty much as practical as can be with my bike. Is Seattle motorcycle friendly for commuters?

Do I have to worry about theft?
Are drivers aggressive against us?
Do bikes get ticketed for occasionally parking on a wide sidewalk out of the way, or in between cars on the street?
Are most car drivers generally aware of us?

I'm just gauging the practicality of being on 2 wheels as much as possible. Here in the Bay Area, its a bit nutty. There are people that commute everyday and rely on bike, but to me the traffic here is too crazy to trust ones life with.

[springshades]

Safety won't be as much of an issue. The CA drivers that move to WA mostly complain about how slow everyone drives. WA drivers are far less aggressive.

I foresee many a ticket with the behaviors you describe however. Particularly with sidewalks. You could probably get away with it in the suburbs, but in Seattle they allow multiple ticketing in many spots. Leave it for an entire day and you could have a whole book of tickets by the time you get back. Maybe a really nice cop would even provide you with a nice paper clip, so you can keep them all organized together.

Property theft is a major issue in Seattle. Supposedly, so is drivers moving someone's bike out of a parking spot so they can take the spot (and then the bike ends up getting the ticket).

[LongDawson]

I've ridden motorcycles here all my life and never had a problem except for the rain and cold. It's so hard to ride for 6-8 months out of the year. Once I bought a big insulated jumpsuit thing and still hated riding in the rain. My old friend who I grew up riding with moved to San Diego and he loves it there.

[Deep_Vee]

I’ve been commuting Daily on a Motorcycle for about 6 years. I haven’t noticed any aggression towards riders, but as with anywhere, attentiveness of the other drivers seems to be lacking.

Downtown Seattle is not super bike friendly, but it’s doable. There are only about 10 dedicated street parking spots around the downtown area, although you are allowed to park between the cars as well, but, you have to pay the same amount to park on the street as a car for the most part. They WILL ticket you. Sidewalk and alley parking does not seem to be tolerated. Most parking garages provide a discount on bikes, I know the Macy’s garage is $4.00/day…vs $11 for the early bird cars. There are also a few spots around that you can park for free, I know there is a place up near the convention center where I see a bunch of bikes, and there are a few spots down near Pike Place.

Theft hasn’t been an issue for me, but I park in my garage every night. According to the Pnwrider forum, it seems theft may be an issue, but it seems pretty targeted toward sportbikes.

One final note, although riding saves significant time over the Buses when commuting, lane splitting is illegal and NOT tolerated in Washington…they keep introducing a bill to legalize it, but it will never go anywhere in the legislature…it would make too much sense for them to pass it.

[mitsuturbo]

at least you aren't required to insure motorcycles here. that's kind of a bonus!

[vegasrock]

I moved to Seattle from Las Vegas about 7 months ago and I use my motorcycle as my daily transportation. If you are a dedicated rider it is easy to ride year round here. Before I moved here and even before it started getting cold I had people telling me that my bike would be parked most of the year. If your not afraid to ride in the rain and deal with the cold then you should be fine.

Parking downtown can be a bit of a hassel. I've noticed some motorcycles parked in alleys, but I probably wouldn't park my bike there. It seems drivers here are a bit more alert....atleast compared to Las Vegas. In Las Vegas I would nearly get hit at least twice a day. Here that has dropped to about once a week.

Theft I think would depend on where you live and where you leave your bike. I leave mine outside all the time. At home for the night I use my fork locks and sometimes a brake lock. At work I usually don't lock anything up since its in view most of the day.

[tr4nsience]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll probably be coming up for a long term visit later this summer and I'll take my Monster up instead of my car to get a general feel of things.