No Bicycle Parking Allowed

We could observe that people disobey the "no parking" rule a lot. Most of the time a group of bikes was parking next to those signs. We observed this in front of shop windows, in the way of a fire hydrant and next to a memorial.
Interesting was that there was a gradual disobedience.
In front of the shop window a lot of bikes were parked.
Directly in front of the fire hydrant was no bike but a lot of bikes were blocking the way.
At the memorial no bikes where parked or chained to but there were several bikes locked to the posts of the "no-parking" sign.

It seems that people disobey the "no parking signs" since they do not immediately recognize a threat (such as a parking officer who could give out a fine. Furthermore most cyclist seem to label the situation as "safe" since so many other bicycles are parked in this so called no parking area. Especially interesting was the way certain people looked up at the no parking sign, then looked around at all the other bicycles and continued on to park their bicycles in this area. We thought this behavior was comparable to that of herd animals. The animals follow the leader since they assume the leader has made all of the smartest decisions. Similarly the cyclists who arrive at a no parking area (and sees other bicycles parked in this area) will most likely park his or her bicycle here since he/she assumes it is safe to do so.