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It's a false dichotomy between parking minimums that are too high, or that fail to account for existing under utilized parking, and no minimums. There are sever

It's a false dichotomy between parking minimums that are too high, or that fail to account for existing under utilized parking, and no minimums. There are several projects I have seen built with insufficient parking that have created problems for surrounding businesses and homes, traffic safety issues, and a great business for shady towing companies.

davemp 8y ago
I've always like the solution of the town/city center having limited to no parking. Then within walking/biking distance, but outside the centers, the city maintains or contracts out sufficient (distributed) parking in whatever form. Increasing the minimum required parking would of course cause they business to foot part of the bill.
emiliobumachar 8y ago
What's shady about towing away cars of those that are essentially stealing parking? Or did I assume wrong?
- setr 8y ago
  towing companies are inherently shady: they're stealing your car, with little to no proof of justification, with little to no recourse, and charging you to get it back (often with obscenely inconvenient and long waiting periods). My friend has had his car towed from in front of his house, because his neighbor called it in thinking it was.. I dunno, ditched there? And there's no recourse. He paid up, because it'd cost more and be a massive headache to try to fight it. I'm not sure there's anything stopping me from calling it in on any neighbor I dislike. (AAA has a weird setup as well; they've never once properly verified I owned the car I was having towed.. but they're not antagonistic, and the caller is verifiable by their AAA account, so I'm not worried about them as much) The only thing that keeps towing companies in line is that if they caused too much trouble with their bullshit, they'd see repercussion from populace/city. But as long as they're justified 70% of the time they take your car, they'll keep on truckin' I mean shit, how do you even consistently verify that the car was parked at the wrong business... you watch someone park and go into the neighboring business? 5 minutes later he goes to the correct one, and whoops, there goes his car. There's not much difference between a well-behaving towing company and misbehaving one.

davemp 8y ago

I've always like the solution of the town/city center having limited to no parking. Then within walking/biking distance, but outside the centers, the city maintains or contracts out sufficient (distributed) parking in whatever form. Increasing the minimum required parking would of course cause they business to foot part of the bill.

emiliobumachar 8y ago

What's shady about towing away cars of those that are essentially stealing parking? Or did I assume wrong?

setr 8y ago
towing companies are inherently shady: they're stealing your car, with little to no proof of justification, with little to no recourse, and charging you to get it back (often with obscenely inconvenient and long waiting periods). My friend has had his car towed from in front of his house, because his neighbor called it in thinking it was.. I dunno, ditched there? And there's no recourse. He paid up, because it'd cost more and be a massive headache to try to fight it. I'm not sure there's anything stopping me from calling it in on any neighbor I dislike. (AAA has a weird setup as well; they've never once properly verified I owned the car I was having towed.. but they're not antagonistic, and the caller is verifiable by their AAA account, so I'm not worried about them as much) The only thing that keeps towing companies in line is that if they caused too much trouble with their bullshit, they'd see repercussion from populace/city. But as long as they're justified 70% of the time they take your car, they'll keep on truckin' I mean shit, how do you even consistently verify that the car was parked at the wrong business... you watch someone park and go into the neighboring business? 5 minutes later he goes to the correct one, and whoops, there goes his car. There's not much difference between a well-behaving towing company and misbehaving one.