A tale about "saving money" on transportation (and parking) ... I used to live in San Mateo, CA near 92 / Hillsdale (up in the hills between US-101 and I-280).

A tale about "saving money" on transportation (and parking) ... I used to live in San Mateo, CA near 92 / Hillsdale (up in the hills between US-101 and I-280). My wife, daughter, and I would fly out of SFO Airport to Arizona or North Carolina frequently. Rather than paying for a taxi or for on- or near-airport parking (Uber/Lyft wasn't a thing yet) we'd opt to take the SamTrans bus from Belmont -- the service was good, on-time per schedule, and cost $2 per adult each way, meaning we could be away for a week or two and pay just $8 round-trip to/from airport. The minor catch was where to park our car in Belmont while we were away. There was plenty of parking about two or three blocks away from the bus stop (Belmont Caltrain) in places not directly in front of any houses or condos. We took seven or eight such trips ... no problem! ... till it was a problem. After one almost-three-week trip we got back to the airport and then went on to Belmont -- CAR WAS MISSING. So we figured the car had been stolen or towed. I called the police to see which, and they confirmed the car had been reported as "abandoned" and impounded. Apparently Belmont (and perhaps other municipalities) have a 72-hour law for cars parked on public roads. You must "move your car" every 72 hours, or else risk somebody reporting your vehicle as abandoned. We must have taken somebody's favorite parking spot. Total monetary damage, with city fees, towing fees, storage fees, our cut of the towing-and-storage-company's side-kickback to a city government official ... all came out to about $800. I figure across all our trips we probably ended up with a net loss compared to taxi-or-airport-parking.