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Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#11

Post by stuartaxelowen »

wvenable wrote: post #9
grapehut wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not arguing against free parking, just against regulations that require certain amounts of parking to be built

Unfortunately insufficient parking is also a big issues; one in which these regulations are an attempt to solve. One could prevent less parking to be built but that would put more pressure on public roads. If you've ever been to an area with insufficient parking, it's pretty horrible. More so for people with cars but it affects those without cars as well.

Is it, really? Or is cars as the default transportation the problem?

Come to Tokyo, you'll see how well things work with effectively no parking in general.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#12

Post by CalChris »

refurb wrote: post #3

I don't disagree with the analysis on how free parking makes things more expensive, but if you carry that argument forward, it gets kind silly. Credit cards make everything more expensive when the poor often can't use them due to bad credit. Putting grocery stores in really upscale areas makes the groceries cost more (across all stores), even though the poor don't shop at the fancy stores. I'm sure what this article…

Credit cards make everything more expensive

Full stop. Credit cards provide a service and that service isn't free. It gets factored into prices.

https://www.merchantmaverick.com/the-complete-guide-to-credi...

I'll add that Visa charges 1.43% - 2.4% of the transaction. I'd be curious to know what the cost of a cash transaction is as a percentage of the transaction. I doubt it climbs that high.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#13

Post by mikepurvis »

wvenable wrote: post #9
grapehut wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not arguing against free parking, just against regulations that require certain amounts of parking to be built

Unfortunately insufficient parking is also a big issues; one in which these regulations are an attempt to solve. One could prevent less parking to be built but that would put more pressure on public roads. If you've ever been to an area with insufficient parking, it's pretty horrible. More so for people with cars but it affects those without cars as well.

But when parking sucks, isn't that an incentive to take transit? My sister was married in Toronto this past summer, and explicitly requested on the programme that people leave their cars at the church and take the subway across to the reception location (at Bloor/Dovercourt, where parking is horrible).

Obviously having a decent transit option available is a prerequisite, but at least in that one case, it worked wonderfully.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#14

Post by OJFord »

I haven't read the actual study, but I don't really buy this on the basis of the article alone.

Allocated parking that you're not using? Let it out.

Abundant parking at supermarkets? Pfft - only in locations with an abundance of space anyway. At least in the UK, I'd argue that supermarkets with plenty of parking have lower prices than those without - since they're not in city centres.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#15

Post by sfall »

xphilter wrote: post #5
refurb wrote: post #3

I don't disagree with the analysis on how free parking makes things more expensive, but if you carry that argument forward, it gets kind silly. Credit cards make everything more expensive when the poor often can't use them due to bad credit. Putting grocery stores in really upscale areas makes the groceries cost more (across all stores), even though the poor don't shop at the fancy stores. I'm sure what this article…

I think the argument is that city planners (the State) requires a minimum amount of parking for all structures, thereby raising the price of all goods. It's not that expensive things are bad, but that maybe the State should focus on affordable housing for the poor.

enacting the regulations has no direct cost to the public. Public housing is a line item on the government budget. Some towns purposely dont want to vary from the public standard b/c if something where to happen they would not have to justify them altering the standard.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#16

Post by jedberg »

There was a study a while back that showed that the USA has eight times as many parking spaces as it has cars.

At first that seems crazy, but it makes sense if you think about the fact that all the places you go in a day need to have enough parking to meet their peak demand all year, so places like malls have huge empty lots most of the year until Christmas rolls around. And then there is the spot your car is in at work that's empty at night and the spot you park in at home that's empty during the day.

Another nice benefit of self driving cars that are shared is the major reduction in the need to all this excess parking.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#17

Post by trentmb »

CalChris wrote: post #12
refurb wrote: post #3

I don't disagree with the analysis on how free parking makes things more expensive, but if you carry that argument forward, it gets kind silly. Credit cards make everything more expensive when the poor often can't use them due to bad credit. Putting grocery stores in really upscale areas makes the groceries cost more (across all stores), even though the poor don't shop at the fancy stores. I'm sure what this article…

Credit cards make everything more expensive Full stop. Credit cards provide a service and that service isn't free. It gets factored into prices. https://www.merchantmaverick.com/the-complete-guide-to-credi... I'll add that Visa charges 1.43% - 2.4% of the transaction. I'd be curious to know what the cost of a cash transaction is as a percentage of the transaction. I doubt it climbs that high.

Handling cash ain't free. At a minimum, a certain amount must be kept on hand to make change. Then theres insurance on that cash. Then theres the safe (and registers) you have to buy to store the cash. Then theres the transport of the cash to the bank.

Also, better hope your cashiers never make a mistake or accept a forged bill.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#19

Post by makecheck »

jedberg wrote: post #16

There was a study a while back that showed that the USA has eight times as many parking spaces as it has cars. At first that seems crazy, but it makes sense if you think about the fact that all the places you go in a day need to have enough parking to meet their peak demand all year, so places like malls have huge empty lots most of the year until Christmas rolls around. And then there is the spot your car is in at w…

There is also the concept of “ground cover” in some places.

I have seen office buildings create gigantic parking lots just to “occupy” all their land so that the land cannot be taken away later. If land is completely undeveloped then it can be reclaimed in some situations, e.g. someone decides they want to build a railway.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#20

Post by choward »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #10

I don't disagree with the numbers but you could make this same argument for literally any feature of a business that has the affect of making that business more attractive to customers with Y quality (where Y is not something all customers have). Let's imagine that the parking lots of Walmart, $localSupermarketChain and other stores is cut to 1/4 it's present size. What happens then? I suspect the inability to draw w…

Exactly. Let the businesses decide.
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