Live data from Hacker News

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

postmediadriving.wordpress.com

181–190 of 375 posts

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

#181
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SIM card thing might be a felony.

Didnt a court recently rule that someone taking off a GPS tracker (and throwing it away?) was not theft? My memory is fuzzy on that one.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/man-charged-with...

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

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>parking illegally is just something you have to do driving to college is not something you have to do . it's something you choose to do. parking is a side effect of driving, not a god-given right.

If you are low income, and need to get to school but have no other way to go than to drive, what else should you do? It seems like you are suggesting that some people have other choices than driving. There are a lot of colleges with no accessible public transportation infrastructure. Many people don’t have the financial means to do anything else, especially when there isn’t the public transportation infrastructure to…

what does low income have to do with this? driving is expensive. between fuel, vehicle maintenance, parking, and insurance, driving your personal vehicle should not be the "low income" choice.

If there's truly no choice other than driving (which isn't really possible, because if driving alone is an option then so is carpooling), your income level has nothing to do with it. If there is a choice, then low income is not a reason to drive.

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

#183
I spent a decade in the parking technology space. (Co-founder PayByPhone -- don't hate me, I genuinely tried to make things more civilized and convenient, I swear!). Anyways, I miss hearing about hilarious and genius hacks and escalations like this. The brilliance deployed to work around parking regulations is amazing.

Not condoning, but here's a (naive?) though experiment if the Barnacle shows up in use again... Park your car and cover it. Many car covers have cable locks to prevent removal and openings to expose plates for legal/bylaw reasons, so this should be permissible. This may provide protection from sun, frost, birdshit, and now Barnacles(tm)! My assumption is that parking enforcers don't have permission to modify, remove, or damage property on a parked car like this.

Of course, there's always a tow-truck. Or you could pay for the parking you use, but I respect the hacker spirit!

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

#184
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This new engineering building is just spreading the cost of classrooms to people who don’t use it. This new fitness building is just spreading the cost of athletics to people who don’t use it. The new wheelchair ramps are just spreading the cost of being handicapped to people who don’t use it. You could apply that logic to all of a college (or life, if you count taxes and insurance) experience. Not everybody is going…

You've just made a claim that your wealth to own a car is comparable to someone who can't use their legs. Accessibility is also something which is becoming a legal requirement, eg https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/12/10/fifty-college... A new engineering building would be an investment, it's expected to increase future returns

While I disagree with the car centric model that parking lots encourage this is about how can an University ease attendance for students.

If for various reasons on campus housing and public transport are unavailable then parking can be a forced option

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

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>parking illegally is just something you have to do driving to college is not something you have to do . it's something you choose to do. parking is a side effect of driving, not a god-given right.

You must live in a city...

I live in a north american town 100km from the nearest city. we have a population of 13000 and a population density of ~200ppl/km2.

but go on...

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

#186
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mass transportation options coupled with high density buildings should be the way to go. Parking just doesn’t scale. The uni I went to had a decent bus system that had routes along the major apt complexes (private and uni owner). Buses were usually on time, and likely faster than trying to find a parking spot.

We don't need to mold the whole world into the tightly packed metropolis model. Those areas are fine for people who like that kind of living but a lot of others including me don't. Make the parking lots more efficiently packed, expand a bit of parking into grassy areas, build a parking garage instead of spending more on sports, there are lots of solutions here.

The thing however is that the tightly packed urban model allows the more rural lifestyles to exist. Designing towns and cities to be densely packed or at least space efficient allows people in those environments to get where they need to go with public transportation, bikes, and walking. This allows these people to get rid of their cars and makes space for people like you who prefer living away from the densely packed landscape to live your life with reduced inconveniences like traffic and lack of parking spaces.

Both lifestyles win out because this isn't trying to eliminate the rural lifestyle, it instead is setting the incentives so that people can and will use the transportation medium most efficient for their lifestyle and distributing the population between different channels of transportation to keep from over-saturating any one of them.

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

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This new engineering building is just spreading the cost of classrooms to people who don’t use it. This new fitness building is just spreading the cost of athletics to people who don’t use it. The new wheelchair ramps are just spreading the cost of being handicapped to people who don’t use it. You could apply that logic to all of a college (or life, if you count taxes and insurance) experience. Not everybody is going…

To be fair, many college buildings are provided in large part by donations, but I don't think the same is true for parking lots. Ideally, each student would receive value from the university roughly relative to the tuition they pay, and things that are completely optional should be charged for separately. I think it's reasonable to charge separately for: - cafeterias - housing - tickets to performances Why should par…

Parking fares are generally more about congestion controll rather than dissuasion

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

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Increasing density is precisely what we must do, because the alternative, car-centric kind of living is this close to giving us an expiration date that’s perceptibly on the horizon.

I'd rather deal with climate change than have every nice woodsy town turned into Manhattan-lite.

You don’t have to be manhattan-lite. You can totally be Tokyo-lite instead. Of course one of the main hurdles is America’s race and class problem which caused the segregation and dispersion in the first place.

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

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't need to mold the whole world into the tightly packed metropolis model. Those areas are fine for people who like that kind of living but a lot of others including me don't. Make the parking lots more efficiently packed, expand a bit of parking into grassy areas, build a parking garage instead of spending more on sports, there are lots of solutions here.

Nah, the world does far more than enough unreasonable subsidizing of driving as it is. By all means, have some space for parking. And then charge market rate for it at peak hours, with free transit/shuttle passes for students.

That's great for urban campuses. But what about suburban and rural ones?

Also: Great, you've got the students covered. What about the faculty and staff? They just have to pay "market rate" for the privilege of parking at their own damn jobs?

(Full disclosure: I work on a rural college campus, where there are chronic problems with parking, and an administration that cares far more about the campus being beautiful than about whether its staff can park within 20 minutes' walk of their job.)

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

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Are you kidding? If parking was free then nobody would be able to park there. Everyone would drive even if they only lived a few blocks away or a single bus ride away. It would be unavailable to students who actually need it.

So only the privileged should be able to park? If that would seriously be the issue with free parking, then build parking garages.
Post reply on HN