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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

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's not entrapment. It's still highly unethical, especially when your target population is supposedly already paying tens of thousands for use of the facilities.

Highly unethical to expect people to follow the law? We're not talking acts of civil disobedience against unjust laws, we're talking willful abuse of laws designed for public safety. City streets are not the campus facilities, and what of the people using public transit or other means of transportation? Should they have to pay additional on their tens of thousands to subsidize those people with cars?

It is transparently using the enforcement in a predatory way. Their goal clearly isn't to keep the parking enforced or they would have done it from the start or at least after move in times. That is what is highly unethical - they deliberately let the /problem start/ for profit.

They aren't the law either any more than Jimmy's Pizza place is when the call to tow a car that was abandoned for a week.

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

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know how you encourage it? High price on parking, and punishing abusers.

Victorian thought is not dead I see. Well, instead you might incentiveise it through having car pool car parks that are closer to campus, or at least next to a well lit and preferably sheltered area. Then you could publicise the car pool scheme. You could even have a forum for finding other car poopers, and/or an app. Maybe allow people, with their consent, to be matched by approx origin/destination for easier findin…

Not to put too fine a point on it, but that's Uber. Which then raises the question of why there isn't public transit.

Given that there often is a bus or even many buses, the question then might turn to "Why do people prefer their cars to a bus?". And now we're back at the beginning.

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

#373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

That looks like it. Can't find any followup on the case or more importantly any ruling on the theft issue.

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

#374

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 find PayByPhone pretty convenient, especially now that it's got a few years of polish on the app. The key thing is that the signs are legible, and have the number you care about (parking zone?) right there in bold print. And hey, - at least that money isn't going to Impark.

They recently implemented PayByPhone at my apartment complex to the extreme chagrin of many residents including myself.

We had a guest parking lot where your guests would simply park. No sort of registration, but if the car stayed for 3+ days without notifying management it would be booted.

Now if I want a guest to visit, they have to download an app and enter their credit card info and license plate number for the pleasure. Every time I have a guest over, instead of the normal pleasantries I have to warn them to register their car lest they be ticketed by the overly zealous parking enforcement officers. The process takes around 10 minutes for someone unfamiliar. It is absolutely infuriating, though I blame apartment management more than PayByPhone.

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

#375
post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Victorian thought is not dead I see. Well, instead you might incentiveise it through having car pool car parks that are closer to campus, or at least next to a well lit and preferably sheltered area. Then you could publicise the car pool scheme. You could even have a forum for finding other car poopers, and/or an app. Maybe allow people, with their consent, to be matched by approx origin/destination for easier findin…

Not to put too fine a point on it, but that's Uber. Which then raises the question of why there isn't public transit. Given that there often is a bus or even many buses, the question then might turn to "Why do people prefer their cars to a bus?". And now we're back at the beginning.

It's only Uber in the apocryphal sense of opportunistic ride sharing. The reality it that most Ubers are taxis. I'm talking about people already at the departure point, where their marginal cost is like 20% more minutes/fuel, and they can save %50 of their parking and fuel. Also being able to use the HOV Lane is pretty sweet.

The disconnectedness of suburbia is at the heart of this, but essentially insoluble in the short term.

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