And you know what? In countries with free healthcare the healthy pay for the care of the sick, even when they are healthy. Doesn't make it a bad system.
Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
61–70 of 455 posts
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#62[deleted]
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#63There 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…
Even at peak demand many spots are empty. The reason for so much parking is that it is legally required. Nothing more, nothing less. Many of the businesses will never make full use of their parking.
Places without parking requirement laws develop very differently, and if parking is provided at all, it's usually in far smaller quantities and it's not free.
Compare, say, third tier Japanese cities that lack subway systems to American equivalents. Parking exists, but it's not universally free, and there's less of it.
You should read up on parking minimum laws.
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#64Earlier 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.
Insufficient parking is a problem which is so vigorously solved in many places that it leaves a lot of always-empty parking spaces.
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#65There 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…
Interesting. Now you got me thinking more about what things might change with self-driving cars. Will cars offer an "orbiting" mode where they keep driving in a circle until you are ready to be picked up. Will stores offer a driving ring where cars can drive around in circles off the main street in the case where no parking slots are available? Will cars be able to drop you off, and park themselves when a space becom…
"Orbiting" seems like a great way to add unnecessary wear and tear. I imagine an alternative is cars that travel to parking then come and pick you up when summoned.
There is also the possibility of having your car work for hire to help you afford to buy a new one sooner :D
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#661. Stores that offer free parking have more customers 2. Stores that have more customers can offer better prices to all their customers (including poor people) due to greater sales volumes
What? Increased demand does not generally lead to lower prices.
Increasing the quantity demanded at a lower price sufficiently can reduce the optimal, profit maximizing price for the seller.
Your thinking of usual asymptotic behavior of idealized competitive markets, which while it has some relation to the concerns of a single seller in a real market facing real changes in ranges where the factors which dominate in the asymptotic case aren't the only important factors, it's not a perfect guide for them.
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. Now you got me thinking more about what things might change with self-driving cars. Will cars offer an "orbiting" mode where they keep driving in a circle until you are ready to be picked up. Will stores offer a driving ring where cars can drive around in circles off the main street in the case where no parking slots are available? Will cars be able to drop you off, and park themselves when a space becom…
Cars moving take up more space that stationary parked cars. What you've stumbled on is actually a concern for transit planners - more traffic because self driving cars are circling without any passengers.
Well, I think this is probably a case where a bit of number crunching will save the day - considering a world in which driverless cars are the norm and fully embraced by the city, the coordination system can likely determine based on historical data and also current queue request pressure how many cars to launch into traffic at any given time to satisfy demand for a summon in less than 5 minutes or whatever target they want. When not summoned or being sent to meet demand, the cars return to an enclosure outside the city for maintenance.
Admittedly, there is a lot of planning that needs to happen for even a prototype of this to happen, as well as some major cultural shifts, but when it does happen, I think it will run pretty smoothly. The biggest issue in my mind isn't the logistics as much as the cultural attitude that will need to happen - right now everyone seems to assume ownership of driverless cars, but the more reasonable approach seems to be summoned fleets instead. I can envision something like the city owning the control infrastructure and leasing slots to competing companies, or even just competing companies and leaving the city controller out of the picture.
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#68I 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.
Gas stations and car mechanics give cash discounts, sometimes as high as 10%.
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#69There 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…
Even at peak demand many spots are empty. The reason for so much parking is that it is legally required. Nothing more, nothing less. Many of the businesses will never make full use of their parking. Places without parking requirement laws develop very differently, and if parking is provided at all, it's usually in far smaller quantities and it's not free. Compare, say, third tier Japanese cities that lack subway syst…
That might apply in cities, but I don't believe parking spaces at suburban malls are typically regulated.
Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car
#70There 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…
I'd be very surprised if shared self driving cars lead to a major reduction in excess parking, or lower the number of traffic jams.
People want to do the same things at more or less the same time: Having time off while your social circle is at work is not as fun. Many jobs require customers, and others require entire groups of people to be there together. This means the minimum capacity needed to handle peaks is not going to be very far off from where we are right now.
Think of your typical morning traffic: One side of the highway is in gridlock, while the other is doing well. In the evenings, the directions reverse. A lot of people want to be at the office at 8:00, so you need capacity for that. And what do the cars do now that it's 8:05 and they are downtown? Probably nothing, as there is no demand for that much capacity for most of the day.
Same thing with a sporting event: People will get to the stadium to watch the 49ers, but Santa Clara doesn't have any use for 40K+ cars for 3 hours on sunday morning. The most you can do is have the cars do some otherwise useless miles to park in a cheaper area further away from the stadium.
I'd love to be wrong on this, but this phenomenon would make it surprising if we got a double digit decrease in traffic with shared self driving cars.