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Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#81

Post by xphilter »

sfall wrote: post #15
xphilter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the argument is that city planners (the State) requires a minimum amount of parking for all structures, thereby raising the price of all goods. It's not that expensive things are bad, but that maybe the State should focus on affordable housing for the poor.

enacting the regulations has no direct cost to the public. Public housing is a line item on the government budget. Some towns purposely dont want to vary from the public standard b/c if something where to happen they would not have to justify them altering the standard.

How could that possibly be the case? Suppose the regulation states every new unit needs 10 parking spots--now that single unit must carry the cost of those additional parking spots.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#82

Post by paulmd »

sfall wrote: post #15
xphilter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the argument is that city planners (the State) requires a minimum amount of parking for all structures, thereby raising the price of all goods. It's not that expensive things are bad, but that maybe the State should focus on affordable housing for the poor.

enacting the regulations has no direct cost to the public. Public housing is a line item on the government budget. Some towns purposely dont want to vary from the public standard b/c if something where to happen they would not have to justify them altering the standard.

Ding ding ding.

Under the modern American consensus, regulations on residential/commercial development are acceptable but public spending on housing is "socialism".

Public housing is all downsides but the costs of urban sprawl are distributed among the community and commercial development costs primarily affects developers (and it's a lot cheaper to build parking lots than subway service at a reasonable density per unit area).

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#83

Post by jedberg »

hibikir wrote: post #70
jedberg wrote: post #16

There was a study a while back that showed that the USA has eight times as many parking spaces as it has cars. At first that seems crazy, but it makes sense if you think about the fact that all the places you go in a day need to have enough parking to meet their peak demand all year, so places like malls have huge empty lots most of the year until Christmas rolls around. And then there is the spot your car is in at w…

I'd be very surprised if shared self driving cars lead to a major reduction in excess parking, or lower the number of traffic jams. People want to do the same things at more or less the same time: Having time off while your social circle is at work is not as fun. Many jobs require customers, and others require entire groups of people to be there together. This means the minimum capacity needed to handle peaks is not…

The traffic reduction will come from two sources -- fewer cars and the fact that the cars can drive at optimal speed, reducing unnecessary slowdowns.

That being said, while some cars would need to be stationary, there are plenty of people moving around all day long.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#84

Post by tn13 »

So in principle WaPo or anyone else willing except that it is immoral to create regulations about X where people who do not benefit from X end up paying for it ?

Will WaPo argue the case to abolish things like college education subsidies where people who never even go to college end up subsidizing those who do ?

While WaPo is absolutely right in stating the facts it may or may not be bad for the poor people. I live in Sunnyvale and prefer to work around Sunnyvale precisely because of the ample parking spaces everywhere. If the regulations don't exist for those spaces I might consider moving to some other place where they have more parking space.

Poor people benefit by having well off people living around them for many number of reasons.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#85

Post by gohrt »

employee8000 wrote: post #35

I'm getting really sick of these media companies pushing their anti-rich agenda. Blaming rich people for parking that causes costs to rise for poor people is just insulting. I didn't believe in much liberal bias in the media until this election. This is simply another extent of it, it's really eye opening.

Do you have any reasoning to accompany your emotion?

The news media of course has a an anti-status-quo bias. The status quo isn't news.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#86

Post by readme »

Implicitly, the author assumes that a car would be the last thing this hypothetical poor person would purchase.

There are in fact, many impoverished homeless people who live in cars. In this case, they might find themselves parking in one of those abundant spaces.

I wonder when the last time she walked by a walmart was.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#87

Post by bbcbasic »

manicdee wrote: post #65
forgettableuser wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Now you got me thinking more about what things might change with self-driving cars. Will cars offer an "orbiting" mode where they keep driving in a circle until you are ready to be picked up. Will stores offer a driving ring where cars can drive around in circles off the main street in the case where no parking slots are available? Will cars be able to drop you off, and park themselves when a space becom…

"Orbiting" seems like a great way to add unnecessary wear and tear. I imagine an alternative is cars that travel to parking then come and pick you up when summoned. There is also the possibility of having your car work for hire to help you afford to buy a new one sooner :D

Orbiting would turn the surrounding streets into a car park too.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#88

Post by [deleted] »

theparanoid wrote: post #68
CalChris wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit cards make everything more expensive Full stop. Credit cards provide a service and that service isn't free. It gets factored into prices. https://www.merchantmaverick.com/the-complete-guide-to-credi... I'll add that Visa charges 1.43% - 2.4% of the transaction. I'd be curious to know what the cost of a cash transaction is as a percentage of the transaction. I doubt it climbs that high.

Gas stations and car mechanics give cash discounts, sometimes as high as 10%.

[deleted]

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#89

Post by dba7dba »

hibikir wrote: post #70
jedberg wrote: post #16

There was a study a while back that showed that the USA has eight times as many parking spaces as it has cars. At first that seems crazy, but it makes sense if you think about the fact that all the places you go in a day need to have enough parking to meet their peak demand all year, so places like malls have huge empty lots most of the year until Christmas rolls around. And then there is the spot your car is in at w…

I'd be very surprised if shared self driving cars lead to a major reduction in excess parking, or lower the number of traffic jams. People want to do the same things at more or less the same time: Having time off while your social circle is at work is not as fun. Many jobs require customers, and others require entire groups of people to be there together. This means the minimum capacity needed to handle peaks is not…

>I'd be very surprised if shared self driving cars lead to a major reduction in excess parking, or lower the number of traffic jams.

I agree. Years ago in a certain Asian city when chauffeurs were still common for well off families, traffic around luxury department stores was bad even during day time.

A chauffeur would drop off the housewife for a shopping trip, and than he would drive around and around until her shopping was done (because parking is hard to find).

I expect same thing to happen with self-driving cars.

Re: Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car

#90

Post by cldellow »

employee8000 wrote: post #35

I'm getting really sick of these media companies pushing their anti-rich agenda. Blaming rich people for parking that causes costs to rise for poor people is just insulting. I didn't believe in much liberal bias in the media until this election. This is simply another extent of it, it's really eye opening.

The argument isn't blaming rich people for parking that causes costs to rise for poor people.

The argument is:

* mandatory parking is imposed by urban planners

* mandatory parking raises costs for all people

* poor people are less able to absorb the increased costs

Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking goes into a lot of detail and approaches it from the point of view of planning theory. It's a good read, I recommend it.

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