Motorcycle bays explained

A motorcycle bay is a length of kerbside marked for bikes only. That much is simple. Everything riders actually get wrong is in the detail on the plate beside it, so this page goes through the plate line by line.

What makes it a motorcycle bay

Three things, usually together: a marked area on the carriageway, a sign saying SOLO M/C ONLY or MOTORCYCLES ONLY, and a plate carrying the times and conditions. If the markings are there but the plate is missing or unreadable, that is worth photographing before you walk away, because an unreadable sign is one of the few things that genuinely helps on appeal.

SOLO M/C ONLY

Solo means without a sidecar. It does not mean small, it does not mean one bike at a time, and it has nothing to do with engine size. A 50cc moped and a 1200cc tourer are both solo motorcycles. A combination with a sidecar is not, and neither is a trike. We go into this in more depth on what SOLO M/C ONLY means.

Can more than one bike use the bay?

In most cases yes. Motorcycle bays are usually marked as an area rather than divided into individual spaces, and councils generally expect riders to pack in sensibly. Where a council publishes a capacity for a bay we show it, which is why some bays in SoloBay say "capacity 3" and others say nothing. Across our whole dataset, 3,449 bays hold roughly 10,161 marked spaces between them.

How long can you stay?

Whatever the plate says, and it varies enormously. Some motorcycle bays have no maximum stay at all, which is why riders use them for all day commuter parking. Others cap you at two or four hours. Some apply only during controlled hours and are unrestricted outside them. There is no default to fall back on, which is the point: read the plate.

Do you have to pay?

Depends where you are standing. Westminster charges £1 a day for the whole borough. Camden charges £1.30, or 66p for a fully electric bike. Islington charges on all 199 of its solo bays. Plenty of the country still does not charge at all. We cover the borough by borough picture on is motorcycle parking free in London?

Paying is by number plate

Almost all motorcycle parking in London is cashless and tied to your registration, through RingGo or a similar provider. Nothing goes on the bike, because there is nowhere safe to put it and wardens check by plate. That also means getting the registration right matters more than it does in a car: a mistyped plate is an unpaid session.

The mistakes that cost people money

• Assuming the borough is uniform. Controlled hours change street by street, not borough by borough.
• Assuming last year's rules. Camden's bays were free until February 2026. Riders who learned it then and did not recheck are the ones paying fines now.
• Parking on the pavement. Pavement parking is an offence in London regardless of what you ride, and a motorcycle is not an exception.
• Using a car bay. A motorcycle in a car bay is generally fine if you pay for it as a vehicle, but a car bay is not a motorcycle bay and the charge usually is not the cheaper motorcycle rate.

See the rules for a specific bay

More: motorcycle parking in London, what each borough charges, is it free?, what SOLO M/C ONLY means.

General guidance, checked October 2026. Local signs override everything on this page.