Free parking is a massive subsidy for drivers at the cost of everyone else. Don’t go painting “barely nudged this back towards the neutral column” situations into oppression. It’s a bad look.
Yes, the companies suck (Chicago selling their parking to a private org that recouped the price they paid in like 3 years is top of this list) but the law bends over backwards to make private transit seem appealing, cause literally no part of it makes a lick of sense, otherwise. It’s only treated like this because it’s the most profitable transit methods, which is why it got shoved down our collective throats.
Don’t forget that in a lot of the USA public transport simply doesn’t work. For example in my state the only town u can get around in reasonably in is the big city, and even then your isolated to that city. In my town, (second biggest city in the state with a population smaller than the “small town” in mass I moved from, where everybody said I lived in the “sticks”) there is a small bus network that can get u around town and to the next town, but not enough of a network to make it feasible to commute to work unless u live and work in the same town and are willing to hoof it through snow. Rural areas and public transport simply don’t work, there are some places where private transport simply is the only solution. Now the cities getting planned around cars is another story, but every city I have been in in New England has been a nightmare to traverse in a car and a breeze via public transport so YMMV
Meh, in so many places (in the US) you would need to flatten the entire city and start from the ground up to make no parking and instead here is public transportation that would work. That’s the unfortunate world we live in. Or because of how public transportation so often works, you spend the ‘poor’ tax of so much more time getting places. Oh need to get to work that is five miles away? it’s 1 hour each way by public transportation, or 20 minutes by car with traffic.
Actually you don’t really have to “flatten” anything, the parking lots are already flat enough. Remove asphalt and build mixed-use housing there. Take away a couple lanes from cars and build a tram line or at least a dedicated bus lane. It’s not that difficult if there’s political willpower for it.
Funny thing, flattening the entire city is what did happen in the 20th century. But for cars.
Bad transit and big parking lots are a policy choice, and many cities around the world are showing that we can still make better choices. We don’t just have to put up with car shit.
One of the cities I live near had a scandal recently where a company just decided to put meters in public lots. No permits, no permission from nearby businesses (who don’t even own the lot or care for it) and yet cops still enforced tickets for “going over the time limit”
There was a lawsuit last I heard, but someone went ahead and smashed the kiosk, cut all the meters down, and left everything in a pile by a dumpster.
It’s crazy to me how many companies are just doing things and expect the people to just go along with it. Even crazier how often the company is right about that…
I have been driving for 20 years without having to pay for parking, and now I’m struggling to find free parking anywhere.
First world problem, but still dystopian compaired to what i grew up with.
More rent seeking. Some company convinced cities that pay for parking would make the city money…with a nice cut for the company.
it’s more about the city not losing money by offering parking for free. infrastructure and space aren’t cheap
now the private companies, fuck those
Free parking is a massive subsidy for drivers at the cost of everyone else. Don’t go painting “barely nudged this back towards the neutral column” situations into oppression. It’s a bad look.
Yes, the companies suck (Chicago selling their parking to a private org that recouped the price they paid in like 3 years is top of this list) but the law bends over backwards to make private transit seem appealing, cause literally no part of it makes a lick of sense, otherwise. It’s only treated like this because it’s the most profitable transit methods, which is why it got shoved down our collective throats.
Don’t forget that in a lot of the USA public transport simply doesn’t work. For example in my state the only town u can get around in reasonably in is the big city, and even then your isolated to that city. In my town, (second biggest city in the state with a population smaller than the “small town” in mass I moved from, where everybody said I lived in the “sticks”) there is a small bus network that can get u around town and to the next town, but not enough of a network to make it feasible to commute to work unless u live and work in the same town and are willing to hoof it through snow. Rural areas and public transport simply don’t work, there are some places where private transport simply is the only solution. Now the cities getting planned around cars is another story, but every city I have been in in New England has been a nightmare to traverse in a car and a breeze via public transport so YMMV
Meh, in so many places (in the US) you would need to flatten the entire city and start from the ground up to make no parking and instead here is public transportation that would work. That’s the unfortunate world we live in. Or because of how public transportation so often works, you spend the ‘poor’ tax of so much more time getting places. Oh need to get to work that is five miles away? it’s 1 hour each way by public transportation, or 20 minutes by car with traffic.
That’s just a lack of imagination.
Actually you don’t really have to “flatten” anything, the parking lots are already flat enough. Remove asphalt and build mixed-use housing there. Take away a couple lanes from cars and build a tram line or at least a dedicated bus lane. It’s not that difficult if there’s political willpower for it.
We took a long time to get here, yeah. But you’d be surprised how little work it takes to make things easy better, too.
A little bit of car dieting in the last decade where I live and there’s, like, 3-4 times the pedestrians as there once were
Houston it’s taken 50 years with few regulations and while better is still very car centric.
Funny thing, flattening the entire city is what did happen in the 20th century. But for cars.
Bad transit and big parking lots are a policy choice, and many cities around the world are showing that we can still make better choices. We don’t just have to put up with car shit.
A lot of place around the world aren’t as large as the US either. It’s not as simple as ‘fuckcars’ would make you believe.
Nah it’s not first world problems. Our cities are selling us out.
One of the cities I live near had a scandal recently where a company just decided to put meters in public lots. No permits, no permission from nearby businesses (who don’t even own the lot or care for it) and yet cops still enforced tickets for “going over the time limit”
There was a lawsuit last I heard, but someone went ahead and smashed the kiosk, cut all the meters down, and left everything in a pile by a dumpster.
It’s crazy to me how many companies are just doing things and expect the people to just go along with it. Even crazier how often the company is right about that…