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

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301–310 of 375 posts

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

#301

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.

There are both "residential" and "commuter" colleges. For instance in my locale, the Big Ten university is mostly residential for undergrads (served by large student rental neighborhoods), and the housing typically chosen by grad students has decent access to the bus service, or bike-friendly routes.

There's also a community college that serves a lot of commuting students, and has none of its own housing.

The regional colleges have more commuter students, since you can save a boatload of money by living at home, but also probably don't have such severe parking problems -- land is cheaper.

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

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t “first come first serve” fair?

It doesn’t seem fair to me, it seems like it favors people who have early classes or live on early schedules.

If the parking fees are too low, it’ll just turn into first-come-first-serve.

If you have high fees, you’d be just transferring the scare resource to the rich. And the people who can’t afford it are forced to figure something less convenient out.

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

#303

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.

Atleast with impark you can just deposit their idiotic overzealous tickets I'm the garbage with no repurcursions.

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

#304

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.

This really depends on the college town. In East-Coast urban cores, most students won't be able to afford to park at any time. Everywhere else in USA, they have free parking where they stay, and also they're culturally conditioned to consider walking or biking to be beneath their station, so they'll consider free parking near their classes to be their birthright.

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

#305

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…

Parking technology must be full of fascinating stories. It's pretty much everyman against the faceless administration.

I once parked at a smart meter, but it wouldn't take my coins. I put a note on the windshield, went inside for a short bit and came out to a missing note replaced by a parking ticket.

I came to realize that the "smart' meter wasn't registering a car in the spot, so it would just eat the coins. I took a video of this and wrote to the parking authority (rejected), then took the video to the parking authority, then finally gave up and paid it. I think I was entitled to a final hearing but I didn't have the time. It was a little like wrestling a pig.

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

#306
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And buying a licensed DVD player is simple and easy and non-destructive.

Giving money to a company supporting DRM is destructive.

Paying parking fees, taxes, and/or fines to a police department that uses "The Barnacle" is destructive.

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

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Even if that answer were not false it would still be ridiculous.

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

#308
post #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...

I understand where you're coming from! It's tough to be connected with a company associated with bad will or unfair cash grabs. I hope PayByPhone isn't in that territory, even if there are historic bad players in its industry. Measuring the thank-you's versus screw-you's I get, I'm happy to be associated with the company.

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

#309
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving money to a company supporting DRM is destructive.

Paying parking fees, taxes, and/or fines to a police department that uses "The Barnacle" is destructive.

Don't park selfishly and you don't suffer the consequences. It's that simple. The only issue here is that selfish parkers get their car back at all, they clearly aren't responsible enough to own one.

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

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your car gets booted and you pick the lock to remove it can you now legally sell the boot?

They abandoned it.

the same way the dockless scooter companies abandoned their scooters?
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