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Back in September I mentioned Living (Almost) Car-Free, and since the first week of October is Week Without Driving I figured I would give that a go… and it was easy for me since I bike to work whenever I can. (And I have a partner who usually drives when we go places.)

Of the 20 days I went to work in October I only drove one. I had a dentist appointment in the morning and then had to transport a bike wheel to the bike shop, which was much easier to do with a car. Still, 19 out of 20 work days isn’t too bad.

I did also drive one night when there was a party at someone’s house and I was already headed there late. (Dana skipped the party.) And finally, I drove to a celebration of life thing in Bay View. In total I think I drove three days in October. It’s not “Car Free” but it is “Car Lite”.

I found that on the days I did drive to work I made attempts to stack up errands. So if I was driving due to a dentist appointment, I’d also try to stop by the grocery store to grab things. Some of this could lead to fewer car trips, though it sometimes meant waiting a week or more to get to a place for something.

So far this year I’ve bike to work 56 times, and (in theory) I could get another 38 or so depending on December. I already know there’s one day in November I’ll need to drive.

With gasoline close to $4 USD per gallon I’m probably saving at least $12 per week by not driving. (That’s just fuel cost, not counting wear & tear and vehicle maintenance.)

Of course it’s also close to December, when my body typically breaks down and ruins everything… so we’ll see how it goes!

When I heard about Bike Lane Uprising I thought it was super cool! And, it is super cool to use. You take a photo of a vehicle parked in the bike land and it uses magic to identify the vehicle type and read the plate and get your location and add it to the database. Cool. But… it doesn’t report it to your local parking enforcement so they can deal with it.

It should though! I wish the technology behind Bike Lane Uprising was integrated into the local reporting system, but what we get is… mke.citizencomplaints.org

A 1990s web site form where I often get “null” in one of the fields if I try to select a location. Sigh… but you know what?

It actually works.

I’ve used it to report vehicles parked in the bike lane, and they’ve received tickets.

I’m going to walk through the process of how I do it.

(Note: Obviously this guide only works for the City of Milwaukee, so you’ll need to localized this guide for other places.)

Capture Data

If you see a car parked in the bike lane you could stop and take a photo with your phone. This will get you the license plate number, vehicle make & model, color, and location (if you allow geo-data with your photos). You may need multiple photos. Usually the back of the vehicle will show the plate and make, but the model might be on the side of the vehicle. The main thing is, capturing the data.

Since I ride with a bike camera all I need to do is slowly ride past the parked vehicle and I can capture enough data.

Now, if you’ve only got the plate number, the other things are less important thanks to other tools. All you really need is the license plate.

Wisconsin plate? You can use the Wisconsin DOT License Plate Search.

Or use this which works for any US state plate lookupaplate.com

You need to know the state though, and if you can’t make it out clearly in the photo (which happened with one of my videos) this other 1990s web site can help: worldlicenseplates.com

Here are the US plates… you could always just download the JPG as well so you have it handy.

With those tools you should now have the plate state, plate number, year, make, model, style, and color. Ready to submit!

Submit Form

Fill out the form at mke.citizencomplaints.org and you’ll get a complaint number via email. You can use that to come back to the site and search to see if the complaint has been dealt with yet.

But you can get more info if you are curious and quick.

Check the Status

Go to dsparkingportal.com/milwaukee and search, but just use the license plate number and state in the search. Ignore the citation number, as we do not have it. We only have the complaint number.

The search result(s) will show any open tickets and the amount. I think once tickets are paid they disappear from the system. I usually check within a day or so. The driver/car I keep reporting never pays right away so I’ve been able to see a $75 ticket and a $40 ticket so far.

Conclusion

Look, I’m not some snitch who likes to report people, but a vehicle parked in the bike lane is entitled bullshit that can put the lives of cyclists at risk, and I cannot stand for that.

The vehicles I’ve reported in the last two months could have easily parked very close to the businesses they were in front of without parking on top of the sidewalk and bike lane. These vehicles did not have people actively loading/unloading things, there were no people near them, and both have been repeat offenders. I’ve even ignored two different vehicles that I’ve only seen once.

Seriously, car folks… do not park in the bike lane. It’s that simple.