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Pentagon rejects permit request by veterans group for Memorial Day motorcycle ride

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by Nikki Wentling from https://www.stripes.com WASHINGTON – The Defense Department rejected a request from organizers of a traditional Memorial Day weekend motorcycle ride in the nation’s capital, throwing logistics of the event into uncertainty just weeks before it is scheduled to take place. Motorcyclists typically use the Pentagon’s parking lot as a staging area for the ride, but defense officials denied the permit application Friday for this year’s event. Officials cited the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the size of the expected crowd as the reason. Despite the denial, thousands of motorcyclists are planning to gather in Washington during Memorial Day weekend. As of Monday, organizers didn’t know where to gather the riders before and after they drive along the National Mall. AMVETS, a national veterans organization, is coordinating the motorcycle ride. The group said it was committed to still running the event on May 30 and organizers were searching Monday for a backup plan. “There are no options with as much space and convenient routes to the memorials, meaning it will be more difficult, disruptive, and expensive than if the Pentagon parking lots were available,” said Joe Chenelly, national executive director of AMVETS. The group criticized the Pentagon’s slow decision-making process. Chenelly said he applied in July to use the Pentagon parking lot on May 30. He was expecting to hear back by January. Chenelly told the Pentagon last month that he needed an answer by April 16. Officials called with their decision on Friday. “The biggest disappointment in the Pentagon’s denial was that AMVETS was ignored for months as its professional staff in Washington requested numerous times an opportunity to hear the Defense Department’s concerns and present a [coronavirus] safety plan,” Jan Brown, the national commander of AMVETS, said in a statement. AMVETS leaders said they were confident they […]

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Laconia Motorcycle Week gets approval for parking and traffic

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from https://www.wmur.com Laconia City Council approves 100% parking, traffic capacity for Motorcycle Week Council considers lifting all COVID-19 restrictions on vendors, beer tents. Pre-pandemic parking approved for Laconia Motorcycle Week. The Laconia City Council voted Monday night to return to pre-pandemic parking and traffic flow for this summer’s Motorcycle Week. LACONIA, N.H. — The Laconia City Council voted Monday night to return to pre-pandemic parking and traffic flow for this summer’s Motorcycle Week. Last year, the event was scaled down and pushed to August. There were no vendor tents or big scheduled events as organizers and state officials hoped to cut down on the potential spread of COVID-19. With Monday night’s vote, the council opened the door to having full capacity at this year’s event, which is scheduled for June 12-20. Some council members also want to do away with COVID-19 restrictions when it comes to vendors and beer tents. “Everything is going 100% — restaurants, bars — everything,” said Councilor Tony Felch. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t open things up for this event.” Others argued there should be some restrictions to limit risk as the pandemic continues. “We’re really asking people here who have health concerns to be totally not considered, and I do think we have some responsibility,” said Councilor Henry Lipman. “Above all else is safety.” Motorcycle Week organizers plan to revisit the issue at a special meeting in the next week or two.

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Organizers say Pentagon is jeopardizing Memorial Day motorcycle ride

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by Nikki Wentling from https://www.stripes.com Organizers of the traditional Memorial Day motorcycle ride in the nation’s capital accused the Pentagon on Tuesday of jeopardizing the event. AMVETS, the national veterans group organizing the ride, said the Defense Department has ignored its application to use the Pentagon parking lot as a staging area. For 32 consecutive years, thousands of motorcyclists gathered in the parking lot before and after the ride around the National Mall. There are fewer than 40 days until the event, and the Pentagon hasn’t communicated its decision, said Joe Chenelly, national executive director of AMVETS. The Pentagon “won’t even talk to us,” Chenelly said. “We’ve been trying to really be good partners in all of this and not blast the Pentagon, but we’ve gotten to point recently where we have to put the pressure on them.” Chenelly said he submitted an application in July to use the Pentagon parking lot on May 30 this year. He was expecting to hear back by January, but no response came. The Pentagon’s special events office sent Chenelly an approved permit earlier this month but then rescinded the approval eight days later and said they hadn’t made a final decision. At that time, Chenelly told the Pentagon he needed an answer by April 16. “It’s April 20 today, and we still haven’t heard anything back,” Chenelly said Tuesday. Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday that “there’s been no decision yet.” She cited the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as the cause of the delay and said the department is monitoring community spread of the virus. Masks and social distancing are required on Pentagon grounds, she said. “The permit request is still being evaluated in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Gough said. AMVETS has gained approvals for the event from

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RV Spots Filling Up Fast Ahead of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

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from https://rvbusiness.com The COVID-19 pandemic apparently is not discouraging as many visitors as previously expected, but home rentals, campground spaces and hotel rooms remain available for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally that starts Aug. 7, according to a report by Tanya Manus in the Rapid City, S.D., Journal. “It’s the 80th rally, so people are coming,” said Kimberly Roberts, owner of Kickstands Campground and Venue outside Sturgis. Roberts said some primitive tent camping and self-contained RV spaces are still open because of cancellations, but full-service RV spots are full. “This is our fourth rally. What’s different I’m noticing is people are trickling in. People are showing up,” she said. Gina Huiet, manager of Sturgis RV Park in Sturgis, said that park is usually fully booked by October for the following summer’s rally. The park rents sites for five or 10 days at a time. As of Friday, the park had some openings because Canadian travelers were forced to cancel due to COVID-19 border closures. “Yes, I have had some people cancel because of COVID-19, but all those spots, we’ve booked them,” Huiet said. “People are coming anyway.” “We do have an overflow camping lot. We do allow one- and two-night stays for motorcycles and tents. We’ve never filled it up before but it could happen this year,” she said. “All those people that waited until the last minute, the only good thing about COVID-19 is it opened a rally spot for you.” As of Friday, sturgis.com still listed a variety of rentals open throughout the Black Hills. Options ranged from high-end luxury homes to rustic cabins and campsites. Meanwhile this week, Airbnb.com shows its rentals throughout the Black Hills are 81% booked during the rally. Several entire houses for rent during the rally have not yet been reserved. Julie Schmitz Jensen,

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World’s costliest parking space sold for almost $ 1mn

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At 134.5 square feet, the cost of the parking space breaks down to $7,209 ($56,505 HK) per square foot, which is three times the median price of a Hong Kong house. HONG KONG: At the 73-story Hong Kong skyscraper “Center”, a pricey parking space reserved for executives and tenants was recently sold for an eye-popping $969,000 ($7.6 million in HK dollars), the media has reported. Johnny Cheung Shun-yee, one of the 10 investors in the consortium that paid $5.15 billion last year for “The Center”, told that he had sold the last of his four car parks in the tower to someone who owns an office in the same building because “the buyer now needs a car park lot,” declining to identify the buyer, according to South China Morning Post. At 134.5 square feet, the cost of the parking space breaks down to $7,209 ($56,505 HK) per square foot, which is three times the median price of a Hong Kong house. The sale price, in a city where nearly one in five residents lived below the government-defined poverty line in 2017, underscores the wealth gap that has pushed Hong Kong into the worst political crisis in decades, the SCMP report added.

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Berlin to tighten rules for electric scooter users

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City transport officials said after a meeting with scooter providers that they’ll designate special on-street parking zones for the battery-powered vehicles BERLIN: Berlin plans to stop electric scooters from being left haphazardly on sidewalks and other anti-social behavior that’s drawn the ire of residents in the German capital since the vehicles were made legal two months ago. City transport officials said Wednesday after a meeting with scooter providers that they’ll designate special on-street parking zones for the battery-powered vehicles, which are popular among tourists and young people. Berlin police will also step up patrols to prevent illegal behavior such as doubling. Police say seven people have been seriously injured and 27 suffered minor injuries in scooter accidents since mid-June, saying most were due to riders behaving carelessly. In Paris, where about 20,000 scooters roam the streets , authorities recently proposed limiting speeds to 8 kilometers per hour (5 mph) in areas with heavy foot traffic.

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Electric scooters: threat to motorcyling or innocent fun?

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No license, no registration, no insurance, no helmet: all you need to rent and ride an electric scooter is an app on your phone. FEMA’s Wim Taal looks into why this could be a threat to motorcyclists. Especially in larger cities, a growing number of people are using personal light electric vehicles (PLEVs), to move on the streets, such as ‘e-scooters’ or ‘trottinettes’ and other devices such as Segways, monowheels and powered skateboards. Most of these vehicles are not currently subject to any form of registration, or any other regulation such as type approval, driver training and licensing and third party insurance. It is not up to FEMA to lay out a set of rules for these vehicles, but we are concerned that these type of vehicles could be categorized as powered two-wheelers. That could mean that victims of road accidents with these vehicles end up in motorcycle accident statistics, possibly causing stricter (safety) rules for motorcyclists. The fact that more and more cities are planning parking bans on sidewalks for personal light electric vehicles, can also mean stricter parking rules for motorcycles. Other than most bicycle rental schemes, the rental scooters do not need to be put in docking stations. Typically the vehicles are left all over sidewalks, left behind by the user that reached his destination. ‘If victims of accidents with e-scooters end up in motorcycle accident statistics, stricter (safety) rules for motorcyclists can follow. A parking ban on sidewalks for e-scooters can also mean stricter parking rules for motorcycles’. A number of companies have flooded cities with electric scooters that can be rented using an app on your phone. In Paris for example, over 20,000 of these two-wheelers have been introduced. From an article in the Guardian: “Broken scooters end up in some of the city’s famed

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Paris clamps down on electric scooters as law of the jungle rules

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More than 1,000 tickets have been issued and about 600 scooters impounded, authorities said, and a new surveillance force has been set up. PARIS: If you’re spending time in Paris this summer and decide to check out one of the 20,000 electric scooters buzzing along its boulevards, you might want to be careful how you ride and where you end up parking. Over the past year the city has become awash with the zippy two-wheelers, with 12 start-ups offering the chance to download an app and dash across the Seine for not much more than the cost of a metro ticket. But the scooters’ popularity, and the relative lack of rules around their use, has prompted City Hall to impose overdue restrictions, with fines for driving them on the pavement or parking them in doorways, crosswalks and other busy places. After two deaths and scores of injuries, residents have become increasingly vocal against the scooters, which are expected to number up to 40,000 by the end of this year. From July 1, a spot fine of 35 euros ($40) will be levied on bad parking, while those caught on the sidewalk will be hit with a 135-euro penalty. A speed limit of 20 km/hr has been imposed across the capital. Even before the legislation kicks in, police have been stepping up their efforts. More than 1,000 tickets have been issued and about 600 scooters impounded, authorities said, and a new surveillance force has been set up. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has described the scooters as “anarchic”, while transport minister Elisabeth Borne told Le Parisien the city was experiencing “the law of the jungle”. To regulate the number of scooters, City Hall has introduced a fee of 50 euros per scooter for the first 499 units, rising to 65 euros for

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Get Your Booth Today for Vegas BikeFest

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LAS VEGAS BIKEFEST 2019 Save the Date! 19th Annual Las Vegas BikeFest – October 3-6, 2019 We are excited to announce that Vegas BikeFest is returning to the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, located behind the D Hotel at 3rd and Carson. This puts Rally Central next to the world famous Fremont Street Experience visited by over 60,000 people every day. Rally Central will be accessible to major foot traffic and a record number of attendees as well as all of the official BikeFest hotels. Vegas BikeFest is even bigger and better than ever before. The entertainment, contests, competitions and bike shows will not disappoint! Vegas BikeFest gives away over $100,000 in cash and prizes, including $5,000 in shopping sprees to be spent on our vendors – YOU! Join us for Vegas BikeFest 2019! The link below has lots of information about why we should be featured on your 2019 rally schedule. https://LasVegasBikeFest.com/prospectus/ Ready to sign up now! Click below to reserve your booth today! https://LasVegasBikeFest.com/buy-a-booth/ We will follow up with you very soon to discuss your plans and lock up your space. In the meantime, please contact me with any questions you may have. Mindi Cherry | Vice President/Event Manager Las Vegas BikeFest www.LasVegasBikeFest.com P: 702-216-5832 | E: mcherry@LasVegasBikeFest.com

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