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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

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a stupid question, but something I’ve always wondered about is how tow trucks disengage the clutch and/or the parking brake... am I to understand that they simply don’t? So if I park my manual transmission car in reverse and with the parking brake on, they’re just going to literally drag my car to their lot or destroy my gearbox? How is this not a bigger issue?

Thy pick it up by the end that actually does the driving. Not sure what happens with full four wheel drive locked. Use a full-size wrecker I suppose.

4WD/AWD cars can be towed by flat-bed, or by putting dollies below the wheels that are on the ground.

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

#292

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.

Why are college kids driving in the first place? Are there not enough apartments nearby to rent a room in walking/cycling/shuttle range? Isn't that a pretty foreseeable need when choosing a site for a university?

I can understand this problem if you're serving a lot of nontraditional students who already have households, but not with 18-22 year old full time students.

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

#293

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... Par…

Wait, the British PayByPhone app? That works pretty well actually, never had issues with it, honestly. Nothing to be ashamed of.

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

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative, tire boots, are equally asinine and more likely to damage the car. These seem fractionally better up to the point where they are hacked. Unessarily connected devices are a liability beyond measure, and it floors me that nobody seems to notice.

This is a stupid question, but something I’ve always wondered about is how tow trucks disengage the clutch and/or the parking brake... am I to understand that they simply don’t? So if I park my manual transmission car in reverse and with the parking brake on, they’re just going to literally drag my car to their lot or destroy my gearbox? How is this not a bigger issue?

They put carts under the wheels.

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

#295

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.

No it's like renting a car for a daily rate to be returned any day by midnight, coming back to return the car at 11:45pm and having to wait till after midnight to pay and being expected to pay for another day. ( yes not perfect analogy, but same idea. You were ready to return it, and they were not )

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

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What? No it's not. It's like if you were paying for a meal by each minute taken to eat it, then the waiter left your food on the counter for an hour before bringing it over because they were busy, then they charged you for that hour because "it already left the kitchen" Adding insult to injury caused by their own lack of preparedness.

Much better example. Thanks.

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

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colleges generally do require you to wear clothes to class.

That "requirement" doesn't make a difference. Society already requires you to generally wear clothes in public.

Society has no expectation that you'll go out in public. College does expect you to go to class.

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

#298

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... Par…

I thought people hated me when I worked at Ticketmaster.

I can't imagine what your life is like...

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

#299
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Both of which are more expensive and a bigger hassle for everybody. That's the point. The university was crowing about how they deployed 40000 of these things already. They wouldn't be able to tow 40000 people as easily.

You hit the nail on the head. It's not about enforcement it's ease of collecting money. Me and my wife had to fight a ticket at one point for a spot we had paid for. No ryme or reason the lot was just grabbing revenue by literally stealing from customers with small tickets that they thought would not be challenged because - you can have your license revoked for non payment of tickets - you aren't entitled to a court…

A system optimizing collective well-being will absolutely not make it more pleasant to park a car. It will tell you to ride the bus.

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

#300

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... Par…

Wait, the British PayByPhone app? That works pretty well actually, never had issues with it, honestly. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Thank you. :-)
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