What does SOLO M/C ONLY mean?

It is the marking painted inside a motorcycle parking bay. It means the bay is for solo motorcycles only, and nothing else may park there.

Reading the marking

Solo means a motorcycle on its own: two wheels, no sidecar and no trailer. M/C is simply short for motorcycle. Only is the part that does the work, because it excludes everything else: cars, vans, and anything that is not a solo motorcycle.

So a bay marked SOLO M/C ONLY is not general parking that bikes may also use. It is reserved, and a car parked across it is parked illegally.

Can you park a scooter or moped there?

Yes. If it is a solo powered two wheeler it counts, whatever the engine size. What is excluded is anything with a sidecar or trailer attached, because that is no longer a solo machine. Some councils go further. Westminster, for example, does not allow trikes or quads in its solo motorcycle bays.

Is it free?

That is a separate question from the marking, and this is where most riders get caught. The paint tells you who may park, never what it costs. Charges depend entirely on the council, and across the bays SoloBay maps the split looks like this:

What about controlled hours?

Plenty of bays are only chargeable during controlled hours and are free outside them. The hours are on the plate beside the bay, and they vary street by street, not just borough by borough. SoloBay shows whether a bay is free right now and when charges start again, which is the part a sign cannot tell you until you are already standing there.

Can a car be fined for parking in one?

Yes. A bay reserved for solo motorcycles is an enforceable restriction, and a car left in one can be ticketed the same as any other contravention. Report it to the council's parking enforcement line, not to us. We map the bays, we do not enforce them.

Find one near you

SoloBay maps 3,449 dedicated motorcycle bays across the UK, plus 35,881 car parks a bike can always use, and tells you what each one costs before you ride there.