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How do we pay for parking?

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Re: How do we pay for parking?

#241

Post by pas »

d136o wrote: post #72

Some people say that the common folk now have cheap mass produced gadgets that were previously only available to the wealthy, and some rant about the enshitification (great term whose origin I need to learn more about of) of our society. I nod along to this piece and yet I don’t want to be so cynical.

the term is coined by Cory Doctorow, pointing out that big ecommerce middlemen, usually platforms have outsized pricing power (because they are in their quasi-oligopoly due to network effects). and as a consequence of the relative business success of these platfors nowadays "almost everyone" tries to become one, transform their business into something that might become one, try to replicate the shitty business methods

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#242

Post by the_snooze »

jonahbenton wrote: post #22

Agree. It is a serious problem when actual stuff in the world is based on shitty hell software- when the only way to do the stuff in the world is to enter into the shitty hell software world. Then it is exactly living in hell.

This is the "tech startup" playbook of not really caring about building good useful tech that solves real problems. It's all about rent-seeking.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#243

Post by notatoad »

winrid wrote: post #82
toddmorey wrote: post #58

Even worse, my Dad met us for brunch and overstayed his allotted time in one of these systems by 8 minutes. Would be ok if they billed him the same rate perhaps, but they "fined" him $80 for the "violation". All the while trying to look like the local police as much as possible. All these companies are scam artists.

Chargeback!

chargebacks have consequences.

they could easily ban you nationwide, at all the parking facilities that payment processor serves. or if their ToS doesn't allow banning, your payments will just start failing their fraud checks, and you'll be effectively banned. if that's an acceptable consequence then go ahead and do a chargeback, but don't recommend it to others who don't know the consequences.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#244

Post by deathanatos »

Spooky23 wrote: post #227
deathanatos wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually how New England handles toll roads. (Not parking.) You have to write a law with it that says "rental car company's can't charge a junk fee of $25/day" or whatever. (Which is roughly what we were charged the last time we accidentally — there wasn't a toll booth! — took a rental through a toll. $25 from the rental car company for a $1 toll. We own an EZ pass now to avoid this very problem.)

You have to be careful with that, as EZPass will fine you for not pre-registering your tag and plate.

We usually do that, specifically to avoid any chance that the rental company might get billed.

(For those unfamiliar, the EZPass is associated with a set of plates. You can register a rental car against your account during the term of your rental, which helps ensure the charges go to the right place, if the EZPass itself fails to register during the drive.)

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#245

Post by seabass-labrax »

p1mrx wrote: post #150
TheRealPomax wrote: post #2

But hey, it could be even worse . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG6KA6V4T7w

youtubetranscript.com + ChatGPT summary: Street parking, a universal hassle, is especially problematic in Chicago due to the infamous Chicago parking meter deal. This deal permitted a private company to take control and revenue from all 36,000 of the city's parking meters. In return, the city received a lump sum of $1.16 billion. However, this arrangement has led to numerous financial and political challenges that wo…

This is where the sovereignty of the people is so important. A country (or in this case, a city) should not be able to enter into a deal which it is unable to back out from. To actually prematurely terminate a public-private contract would be of course very damaging to the reputation of the city/state/country's reputation, and thus would increase the remuneration private companies expect from running public services due to the additional risk, but would be beneficial to each citizen in the long-term if done with caution.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#246

Post by asvitkine »

NeoTar wrote: post #132
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One way to park anywhere" sounds like a federated system, which is exactly how I think it should work. You could install one of many client apps, but all the parking companies can be paid for from any of them.

What is my incentive as a car-park owner to agree to your federated system when scummy company X has just offered me $1000 to exclusively allow them to collect fees for my car-park?

Have the city require it?

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#247

Post by janalsncm »

Every company wishes they could become a vending machine. Actually, these apps are even better than vending machines since their cost of sales is zero.

And the first rule of vending machines is that user experience doesn’t matter. Who cares if customers’ sodas are getting stuck? Neglect is the business model. What money you lose to bad UX you make up for in volume due to physical presence.

All of that is what it is. But with the erosion of public goods like a public parking lot for critical infrastructure (hospitals) that is what we are left with.

On a personal level, I hate the way all of this busted and unfixable technology is allowed to proliferate. If a refrigerator is broken you send out a repair man to fix it. But if your printer stops connecting to wifi there’s basically nothing you can do.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#248

Post by seabass-labrax »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #34
hermannj314 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you aren't literate, life is hard. If you aren't digitally literate, life is hard. The problem is some people were 50 years old when the the 2nd statement became true. For nearly everyone alive, the first statement has always been true. I think the government is failing its citizens by assuming digital literacy is commonplace.

The literacy rate for all males and females that are at least 15 years old is 86.3%. Males aged 15 and over have a literacy rate of 90%, while females lag only slightly behind at 82.7%.

What is the average literacy rate among drivers? Considering that street signs exist, I would imagine almost all countries require a basic ability to read as a pre-requisite for a licence.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#249

Post by bena »

djbusby wrote: post #57
LandR wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my city, in the rougher parts it used to be somewhat normal to pay someone to "look after your car", of course you were paying them not to vandalise it while you were away! Especially popular on football days when parking near the stadium. It was only a couple of pounds or so. I haven't been to these parts of town for years so I have no idea if this practice still goes on.

I'm aware, and have used, this practice in Oakland, CA, Los Angeles, SF, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and Portland OR. One reason I keep a small amount of cash around - just for the vig.

Canadianfella is correct. "Vig" is not the correct term. Vig, short for vigorish, is a yiddish/Slavic word used to describe the excessive interest on a loan from a lender of ill-repute. It's also used to describe the house's take of a book.

It's not just money you pay to shady people. If he charged you $5 for parking, but allowed you to pay when you came back, but it would be $10 instead, you could say the additional $5 was the vig as that represents a 100% interest on a short term loan.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#250

Post by ill13 »

bluepnume wrote: post #158
ill13 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So an enterprising individual puts a QR sticker right near or over yours and does the same thing, except theirs is a scam. - That should take all of 4-16 hours to setup the software / web side and payment processing [processors who do cannabis / adult products]. - 1 hour to run to Staples and get some laser Av3ry pre-cut stickers. - 1 hour to replace | supplement your 'real' stickers.

Sure -- phishing is a huge problem, but it's also an argument to never build anything ever, because QR codes, sites, apps, emails, etc. can all easily be cloned and used as a phishing attack vector.

I'm not sure if the term "phishing" even applies here. The scam would be straight up fraudulent credit card billing -that most users wont even notice.

During the processing part, The scammers could very well just overbill the user by saying "Do you agree to $2 for parking?" and then charge the user $50. Then say a "We will hold $50 while the transaction is approved" just like a gas station.

Your service will get all the complaints and the scammer just gets the cash.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea or anything, however there are many bored smart teenagers and many hungry people with sliding ethics.

Hell, an even better scam is to copy your QR code from each unit and then bill the user for $X more as a "convenience fee" ... then auto-submit correctly to your service.

I mean, that might not even be illegal [in the sense that the customer agreed to the fee].

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