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Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

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Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#91

Post by cortesoft »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #69
gonehome wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If if I was trying to solve this problem and actually cared about the students I would do some capacity based pricing. Almost always free, as you approach parking capacity price increases. You could probably also set up a system to text people who have been there more than X hours that they will start to be charged due to high capacity.

> You could probably also set up a system to text people who have been there more than X hours that they will start to be charged due to high capacity. Your plan is to have pricing that is not knowable in advance, and assess it against the students retroactively? I'm not sure it's possible to come up with a worse plan.

I mean, the plan could be to destroy random cars if the parking lot is full, to make space for more. That might be slightly worse than this person's plan.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#92

Post by anon463637 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #45
legohead wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They wouldn't have to resort to any shenanigans if parking on campus was free for students.

Why are these people driving to college in the first place? Take public transport.

It's not UC Davis or Europe. Btw, if living near the main centroid of Davis, it's faster to bike than it is to drive or take a bus because parking + walking takes time. I even had the gate code to park right next to classrooms (it's good to know the parking folks, especially on rainy days) but that still took more time and costed more money than biking. Davis is also one of the most walkable cities, especially living around downtown.

PS: I took the ten year professional student plan between working at Stanford for a couple years and consulting. I had half of my courses canceled in 2000 when they couldn't find lecturers because most were out making $250-500k in industry.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#93

Post by chrisseaton »

prostheticvamp wrote: post #90
chrisseaton wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is everyone in this thread celebrating people who park selfishly?! Taking up spaces with abandoned cars is a particularly miserable thing to do that makes the original underlying problem worse!

Because schools pretend to charge cash in order to separate casual drivers from those that absolutely need it. However, given the costs of car ownership and tuition, the cost of parking permits are generally (a) not a deterrant to “casual drivers” (people willing to bear the cost without urgent need), (b) disproportionately impactful on those that Do need to drive, (c) basically just milking students. Of course peopl…

Who do you think should pay for the impact of your parking? The land use, pollution, congestion. Someone else, I guess?

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#94

Post by kodablah »

cortesoft wrote: post #78
rtempaccount1 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it make sense that the university, that is charging the students all this money, ensure they have enough parking spaces to satisfy likely demand? Doesn't seem unreasonable for universities with very high tuitions, to provide amenities like reliably available parking.

This is just spreading the cost of parking to people who don't use it... instead of only people who drive their own cars paying for the parking, now everyone has to. Does the school also pay for public transportation for people who don't drive? Or the extra housing costs of the people who pay extra to live close enough to walk?

Universities often disproportionately distribute costs, especially with facilities that are not used by everyone. This should be treated no differently despite the anti-car (or anti-sports, or anti-leisure, or anti-gaming, or anti-phone, etc) sentiment of late.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#95

Post by samatman »

cortesoft wrote: post #78
rtempaccount1 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it make sense that the university, that is charging the students all this money, ensure they have enough parking spaces to satisfy likely demand? Doesn't seem unreasonable for universities with very high tuitions, to provide amenities like reliably available parking.

This is just spreading the cost of parking to people who don't use it... instead of only people who drive their own cars paying for the parking, now everyone has to. Does the school also pay for public transportation for people who don't drive? Or the extra housing costs of the people who pay extra to live close enough to walk?

> Does the school also pay for public transportation for people who don't drive?

Frequently enough, yes, it does.

The University of Michigan runs free shuttles from central campus to north campus. They don't check student IDs either, anyone can ride them.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#96

Post by jeroenhd »

awillen wrote: post #6

"a user who found out his campus only had 12 wheel boots to go around and bought and illegally parked 12 scrapyard cars that could be “sacrificed” so everyone else could park however they wanted." Not all heroes wear capes.

Yes, this way the people who ignore parking fines can keep filling spaces, of which there are now 12 less.

Sure, it's a fun example how simple tricks can beat complicated devices, but this only benefits the people who willfully take up valuable parking space that others might want.

It's only a matter of time before the university will switch back to the boot, risking more damage to everybody's cars, or to good old towing, dragging up the price of getting your car back.

Everybody loses because of a few childish students showing off how they're so much smarter than the system.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#97

Post by legohead »

acdha wrote: post #68
legohead wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They wouldn't have to resort to any shenanigans if parking on campus was free for students.

Why should the campus subsidize the car-owning students? If those students want exclusive use of a public space why not let them pay market rates for it?

The students are paying for a service from the University. It's very reasonable that the University provide parking space for those who can't afford to live on campus. Actually, it's in their best interest, unless they want to be an online school. And thus similarly in the best interest of all students, if they want a locally accessible University to exist.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#98

Post by bredren »

My SUS company, EasyALPR focuses on commercial parking enforcement / vehicle control.

First, the people who get "in trouble" are often absolutely brazen in their unfair use of common parking. They're warned multiple times and even when given a "last chance" notice they'll just keep breaking rules.

At that point you have to TOW them. And let me tell you, a TOW is something you can't lampoon or get free internet off of. Towing SUCKS and drivers bend the knee after this happens. I have data to prove it!

Anyhow, another thing about these folks is that they will go so far as to dispute that the vehicle was in fact in violation of whatever parking rule.

They'll say the warnings were not real and the tow reason was definitely not real. They'll tell the business IT needs to pay for the tow. Well, their faces change when confronted with photos and maps and times showing each violation!

It isn't really that funny, but it is a big deal to any facility because some low-level administrator has to face some really pissed off people who will break rules and lie because it has always worked. So it is really important to give them great evidence so there isn't really a discussion needed.

If you want to check out my product, here's the landing page: https://easyalpr.com/products/parking-enforcer

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#99

Post by kevvok »

salawat wrote: post #63

It is downright amazing how much information asymmetry is seen as a prerequisite to maintain law and order. For instance, implementation details of devices being leaked are a surefire way of obviating any mitigatory measure employed to coerce cooperation out of an uninformed population. The irony of this happening at a University, an Institution centered around equipping people with the tools they need to overcome in…

Really demonstrates why “security through obscurity” is no security at all.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#100

Post by [deleted] »

cortesoft wrote: post #26

> Obviously, some students thought that fee was ridiculous – just like paying for parking at a university where you’re already paying a hefty tuition fee I hate parking fees as much as the next person, and totally appreciate the creativity of the people who defeated this device. However, how should we handle distributing a limited number of parking spaces when there are more people who want to park than available spa…

[deleted]
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