Motorcycle Parking

I read an article about the new public motorcycle parking space in Shinagawa. You can park the motorcycle for 100yen/hour and the max price is 400yen which means even if you park your bike more than 4 hours, you just need to pay 400yen. The article also mentioned the similar one in Roppongi which opened in June 2004 and this one can take up to 120 motorcycles.
Here are some info about the motorcycle parking:
http://www.nmca.gr.jp/society/parking/

Now, some other places in Tokyo also looking into similar motorcycle parking spaces as there are more and more illegally parked motorcycles and until recently Tokyo-to never really looked at the problems. Most of the car or bicycle parking spaces don't allow motorcycle parking. So, people basically park their motorcycles anywhere possible.
I do that too :P -- gomennasai...

This article was interesting to me because recently it became very hard to park my bike near my office building. There are wide sidewalks around that area and people used to park their bikes there (the space was enough for parking and people walking). Now, there are cones everywhere and it's hard to park there. Some people (like myself ;) are sneaky and park the bikes at a small crack between cones. But on unlucky days, there is a guardsman tells me I can't park there. Well, right now, I found some space and so far no problems, but I'm just hoping that the situation gets better.
There is a toll parking lot but it's too expensive (8,000 yen/month = 96,000 yen/year) and that parking lot is actually full right now.

Well, I know I've been acting in a very self-centered way. I can just walk to work or ride a bicycle.. I guess. But motorcycles are so convenient and it seems like a huge space available...
The funny thing is even if they ban the parking in one area, those motorcycle riders find some other places to park and it's like a cat-and-mouse game. They have to have 100,000s of cones to cover up the whole area...(my friend and I call that place "coneland" now ;) They have to provide some other solutions ... free parking lots will be ideal ... ;)
But I guess it's not going to happen...I'll be a mouse for a while until I find a good legal parking lot.