When is a bike not a bike?

I had an accident in work a while ago and was asked to go and see a medical specialist in Rodney Street, Liverpool’s equivalent to Harley Street.

I suffer from chronic back pain and needed to park as close to his office as possible. I went to the parking meter and found that motorbikes are not allowed to park there, so looking around I noticed two bicycles chained to railings on the wide pavement outside the terraced buildings where I was to go.

I parked my bike (Dragstar 125) outside the building leaving about two yards of pavement for pedestrians and hobbled in for my appointment.

You guessed it, when I came out twenty minutes later, I found a parking ticket stuck on the headlamp. I’ve never even seen a parking ticket on a bike before!

I called Liverpool City Council and queried the ticket which quoted that I had ‘parked in a restricted street during prescribed hours.’

There was no signage to suggest such and I asked weather bicycles are allowed to park on the pavement? The official answer was yes.

I continued explaining that on all my documents my bike is described as a bicycle, even on my tax disc!

I asked that if it’s not a bicycle then what is it? No reply. So it’s not a bicycle and it’s not any kind of vehicle that can park in a pay and display box, so what is it?

In conclusion if in Liverpool you can’t park a ‘motor bicycle’ on the road or pavement for fear of a ticket for parking in an unmarked restricted street, during un-prescribed, prescribed hours, where are you supposed to park? And when is a bicycle not a bicycle?