Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

postmediadriving.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 375 posts

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

#241

Post by Thriptic »

cortesoft wrote: post #81
Thriptic wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Increase supply. Most schools use flat parking lots instead of multistory car parks which would be far more efficient. Alternatively, run public transportation that doesn't suck.

Building a bigger parking lot requires money... who should pay for that, all students or just students who drive? Why should non-driving students subsidize driving students? Also, the school is not in charge of public transportation.

The school should pay for it out of their capital funds from their endowment. A lot of Midwestern schools have literally no public transportation so if you want to go anywhere you need a car. Stop looking at basic services as cash flow generators.

Also, schools frequently are in charge of public transportation in the form of shuttles, buses, safe rides, etc.

Regarding subsidies, yes everyone should pay because it's a community and that's how communities maintain large collections of shared infrastructure equitably. Spreading the costs over a large group keeps them down for the individual users. Also, you can extend that logic infinitely. Why did I have to pay for football fields I never got to play on? Why did I have to pay for performing arts theaters I never used? Why did I have to pay for community facilities that weren't targeted towards my race or religion? Why did I have to pay for expensive research labs in departments other than mine? If you abandon the community model then everyone ends up getting slammed with highly variable usury taxes that they may not be able to pay.

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

#242

Post by hanniabu »

jlarocco wrote: post #203

Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong? An alternative headline could be something like, "Entitled College Kids Learn How To Keep Parking Like Assholes Without Paying Fines." And it's a pyrhic victory anyway, because chances are now the cars will get one of the metal tire boots put on, or get towed. Both of which are more expensive and a bigger hassle for everybody.

The issue I have is cases like at my school where they basically had entrapment. At the start of every year there'd be like 2-3 months where it's a free for all and students could park wherever. The certainty was nowhere near adequate parking and not everywhere that people parked was readily obvious to be illegal. Some spots had the yellow on the curb worn away 90%, others were things like too close to a corner or hydrant by everyone was doing it those 2-3 months that you get used to it and think it's okay and when there's no other spots left you park in one of those spaces (kind of like when people start creating a new parking lane in the center of a full parking lot).

After a few months of no enforcement and letting the students get used to parking like this, then they'll crack down with brutal enforcement. I'm talking about them sniping you a few minutes after you walk away. Every year they'd reset and do the same thing over again to get some fresh meat.

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

#243

Post by pbhjpbhj »

gdgdhsjakdb wrote: post #144
apcragg wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A spot in a multistory parking desk costs upwards of $30,000 per spot. Even if you oversell permits by 2x and assume a 50-year lifespan with no maintenance, that is still $300/yr per parking permit. Why should students who want the exclusive right to leave their property on campus be subsidized by students who take more space/environmentally efficients modes of getting to campus?

$30k is in a place like NYC. The typical cost is much lower: > As of March 2019, our statistical data indicates that the median construction cost for a new parking structure is $21,500 per space

>>A spot in a multistory parking desk costs upwards of $30,000 per spot

>for a new parking structure is $21,500 per

That only leaves 8500 to cover land charges, maintenance, and any other costs involved (fitting barriers, terminals, paying for electric) to come in at $30k, so perhaps the cost of pricing a place isn't "much lower".

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

#244

Post by drfuchs »

hanniabu wrote: post #230
javiramos wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other day I went to a concert and parked my car at a parking lot. When the concert ended, of course there were masses of people trying to exit the parking lot. There were only 2 cashiers to pay the parking ticket — no automated machines. So we waited over an hour to pay our ticket. Time that we ended up paying with our ticket (per hour parking). The cashier didn’t want to refund us for the waiting time. If the la…

While I agree that's a hassle, I don't think this should result in a refund. It's like ordering dinner, eating it, and then wanting a refund for the meal because you waited a long time for the meal.

The point was that you shouldn’t be charged for the hour you spent waiting in the line to pay.

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

#246

Post by TulliusCicero »

danaris wrote: post #189
TulliusCicero wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> They just have to pay "market rate" for the privilege of parking at their own damn jobs?

Yes? Why wouldn't they? At the office where I work, yeah if you want a spot in the parking garage, everyone pays. My company has free space for bikes, and they do give people a 'commute allowance' which you could certainly use for that parking if you want. Other people just use the money for public transport, or other random things.

Personally I'm open to compromise, but your attitude of treating having to pay for 100 sq ft of permanent storage at your work as some sort of atrocity is pretty weird to me.

edit: apparently it's a lot more than 100 sq ft

> The average size of a parking space is 320 square feet. Another common size is 270 square feet. These sizes include the landscaping or end of aisle areas, the circulation areas and the parking space. For perpendicular or angled parking spaces, the length is commonly 16 feet to 18 feet. Meanwhile, the standard width is 7.9 feet to 9 feet.

https://franklinst.com/about-us/newsroom/news-details/2019/0...

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

#247

Post by dfc »

uncletaco wrote: post #214
jlarocco wrote: post #203

Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong? An alternative headline could be something like, "Entitled College Kids Learn How To Keep Parking Like Assholes Without Paying Fines." And it's a pyrhic victory anyway, because chances are now the cars will get one of the metal tire boots put on, or get towed. Both of which are more expensive and a bigger hassle for everybody.

Yeah, but further down in the article it mentioned that students illegally parked junkyard cards to get booted so that all the boots would be in use when the cops found someone's actual vehicle they wouldn't have any boots left.

The user on twitter that "claimed" to do that mentioned the cars only cost "20 quid." I think it's safe to say he was not a Sooner.

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

#248

Post by zzo38computer »

Let it be known that putting that kind of stuff on the student's car is NOT OK. A locked car cover may be helpful (would it help with the stuff in the wheel too? even if not, put your own locked cover on the wheel) (it would also prevent people from putting papers in the wind shield, I think).

But nevertheless the students should pay the fine for parking if they wish to park their car in the parking space that requires payment. If the fee is too much then they should file a public complaint with the owner of the parking lot.

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

#249

Post by RHSeeger »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #236
RHSeeger wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the same reason that lots of other things are subsidized, paid for even if you don't use them - school buses and the like - sporting equipment and facilities - library There's lots of services that schools provide, and charge everyone for, because they think it's good for the student body as a while. Maybe a more controversial one... a school that supplies free transit to/from the local night scene, so that peopl…

Your examples all seem like things that are beneficial to all, and that all should use.

> school buses and the like

Not useful to people that live on campus and don't need to travel off-site much.

> sporting equipment and facilities

Completely useless to a lot of people. I used the swimming pool in college exactly once, during the swimming class/test. I certainly didn't use the sports fields. I used the bowling alleys, but those were paid-to-use and not covered by the sports fee we had to pay.

> library

I certainly got a lot of benefit out of this. However, with the internet nowadays, I'm not sure I would if I was in school.

The point being, for many school services, everyone pays for them while only some people get a benefit. The scale of "some people" that benefit varies, but the concept doesn't.

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

#250

Post by petee »

angry_octet wrote: post #112
bredren wrote: post #98

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…

[flagged]

Park legally then. It's easy, and tons of poor people do it every day. It's just a select noisy few who want to park wherever and blame someone else.
Post reply on HN