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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

#121

Post by pmiller2 »

dang wrote: post #115
pmiller2 wrote: post #106

Come on, now, why was the title changed? The originally submitted title, "Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car," is the title of the article, and it's true , not click bait at all.

Because the 'poor people' angle is a red herring and thus arguably misleading, and perhaps clickbait as well since it makes the story more sensational. Those are the two reasons why titles should be changed on HN, as described at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . The article's actual argument is that free parking forces people who don't drive to subsidize those who do. That's a sentence from the arti…

Sorry, but no.

Although the sequence of words "You may pay for the cost of parking...." does appear in the article, it is at best a trite gloss of the article's thesis.

And as for the 'poor people' angle, the article runs 426 words according to the word count facility in OpenOffice Writer, of which ~100 are devoted to the effects on the poor. The article's title is neither misleading nor clickbait.

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

#122

Post by sanderjd »

forgettableuser wrote: post #47
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…

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…

All of your hypotheticals seem to still assume individually-used cars. This is much nearer term thinking than the real interesting stuff. Cars wouldn't need to circle or park themselves. They would just go pick somebody else up. When you're done, some other car would come pick you up.

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

#123

Post by cwilkes »

hibikir wrote: post #91
drcode wrote: post #30

1. 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

If stores are helped by free parking, then we should be able to leave the parking space to the market: Let retail real state builders decide how much parking space they need, and let them act in their own best interest. However, that's not how it works. A large majority of US metro areas mandate huge amounts of free parking that are enough to have space in Black Friday, whether they need it or not. For instance, ther…

Citation needed for the claim that mandated parking spaces are done to keep poor people away.

Isn't the more likely reason that urban areas lack parking is that it is ... an urban area with less available land?

Maybe this is true somewhere in the country but I haven't seen it.

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

#124

Post by woah »

userbinator wrote: post #116
JDDunn9 wrote: post #98

This topic is discussed at length in the book, "Green Metropolis". It's part of a bigger issue of always putting cars first. You can't build a large building without first doing a traffic study. If you bring too much traffic, you can't build it. Never mind that traffic is about the only cost in America that you can increase to make public transportation more appealing. Generally U.S. building codes include a maximum…

I don't think that many people actually want higher population densities.

I think you're painting your own preferences onto everyone else. Why does land cost more in the cities?

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

#125

Post by nickff »

woah wrote: post #124
userbinator wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that many people actually want higher population densities.

I think you're painting your own preferences onto everyone else. Why does land cost more in the cities?

There are many jurisdictions which try to 'right-size', most notable among them is Portland. Many other cities have an implicit policy of preventing sharp increases in density through slow, restricted, and expensive zoning.

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

#126

Post by kuschku »

trentmb wrote: post #17
CalChris wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Handling cash ain't free.

But it's so much cheaper than handling credit cards that many small stores in Germany won't accept any cards at all.

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

#127

Post by JDDunn9 »

userbinator wrote: post #116
JDDunn9 wrote: post #98

This topic is discussed at length in the book, "Green Metropolis". It's part of a bigger issue of always putting cars first. You can't build a large building without first doing a traffic study. If you bring too much traffic, you can't build it. Never mind that traffic is about the only cost in America that you can increase to make public transportation more appealing. Generally U.S. building codes include a maximum…

I don't think that many people actually want higher population densities.

Actually, we are seeing a return towards urbanisation globally, which is a positive trends, since it's a vital component for curbing global warming. Residents of NYC use 1/3 as much electricity as their suburban counterparts, use a tiny fraction of the carbon emissions on transportation, and produce less garbage. All without convincing New Yorkers to recycle or drive electric cars. Environmental responsibility is baked into the city's design.

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

#128

Post by pcr0 »

Keverw wrote: post #24
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)

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

For 1 parking spot

There was a spot that went for 620k earlier: http://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/2040679...

It should be noted that car ownership is much lower here though.

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

#129

Post by pcr0 »

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-...

It's crazy, but that's actually the typical price of a single space in Hong Kong. A single space here sold for 620k last month.
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