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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

#71

Post by gohrt »

thatcat wrote: post #25
trentmb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

These aspects also have some advantage - being handled on site means having employees that spend that money locally. All the credit card fees are effectively removed from the local economy.

Or it just means wasted work on deadweight loss activities, instead of doing something useful to increase the value of the shopping experience.

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

#72

Post by gohrt »

Thane wrote: post #38
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…

Bezos owns WP. He doesn't like the fact that the city forces him to build built-in parking for his imported drones so they're not clogging the locals' ability to live in their own city.

Seattle locals are opposed to parking for exactly the reason the WaPo explains -- it's a subsidy paid by non-drivers to support drivers. Locals would do better if parking lanes were gone and buses had those lanes.

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

#73

Post by dclowd9901 »

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…

It floors me that businesses are allowed to keep their parking lots off limits during non business hours. That alone would go a long way to freeing up spaces.

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

#74

Post by gohrt »

mikepurvis wrote: post #13
wvenable wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wonde…

I can buy myself a car. I can't buy myself a train. That's the problem.

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

#75

Post by allemagne »

employee8000 wrote: post #39
pcr0 wrote: post #18

Parking shouldn't be free. If it's to entice customers at a store/shopping mall, they can be provided an hour of parking for every x dollars spent. Under-utilised parking spots should be leased or sold. (They sell for 80-300k where I live)

Then poverty activists will vilify you for making it too expensive for poor people to shop at your store. There are so many factions that will attack you for doing something, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Is your point that both of these options have an equal or negligible effect on the poor, that one option is better but those damn "poverty activists" can't see which one that is, or that attempts to accommodate the poor shouldn't inconvenience businesses?

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

#76

Post by gohrt »

kylec wrote: post #58
pcr0 wrote: post #18

Parking shouldn't be free. If it's to entice customers at a store/shopping mall, they can be provided an hour of parking for every x dollars spent. Under-utilised parking spots should be leased or sold. (They sell for 80-300k where I live)

Given the choice between a mall with paid parking and a mall with free parking, I'm picking the mall with free parking. Even if there's some sort of validation system if you buy something, dealing with the whole ticketing system on entry and exit is annoying, and in the circumstances where I don't end up buying anything I have to deal with paying for the parking. It's much less of a hassle to just avoid all that.

How much farther will you drive (wasting time and gas) to avoid paid parking? It's the 21st century, paid parking can be a radio transmitter in your car or on your receipt.

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

#77

Post by bsznjyewgd »

djsumdog wrote: post #28
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…

I think we wouldn't see things as being nearly this bad if all American cities didn't rip out their tram networks. Every city I've lived in, even small ones with ~100k people, use to have Streetcars. Today, cities like Cincinnati struggle to get a tiny segment put in. Trams carry a ton more people than buses. People are more likely to ride them too. If American cities hadn't given in to GM and Ford and kept streetcar…

I don't really get why trams are better than buses. Do they really carry a ton more people than buses? Why are people more likely to ride them?

Buses come in short/long/articulated/double-decker sizes and don't need to be on rails or require overhead electrical lines. The only argument I can think of is that you get a smoother ride and no need to burn fuel with a tram.

(I've only ridden the trams in one city, and they were pretty much slower buses on rails that happened to make a lot of dinging noises. Worked fine in the central district, I guess.)

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

#78

Post by Keverw »

PebblesHD wrote: post #56
Keverw wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80-300K for 1 parking spot or a whole lot?

For reference, a single car space in Sydney sold for over $100k[0]... [0] - http://www.domain.com.au/news/kirribilli-car-spot-sells-for-...

Oh wow. That is insane. I actually agree with houses including parking. Just seems like a common sense thing to do. Don't drive, use your garage for a startup, a gym or game room I guess.

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

#79

Post by vondur »

Here in my part of the greater Los Angeles area, in the poorer areas, you will see most houses with more than a few cars in each house. In my area we have some people who have more than five cars/household for houses that are probably no larger than 1500 sq. ft.

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

#80

Post by coldtea »

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…

>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

"Need to", because, god forbid if people:

(a) take the public transit (or build a decent public transit in the first place),

(b) park a little further down (e.g. half a mile or so), and walk to the place you want to go.

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