4 ms·

There are so many alternatives other than commuting by car and parking on the street... 1. Bus 2. Bike 3. Walk 4. Carpool 5. Move 6. Parking ramps ^ And

There are so many alternatives other than commuting by car and parking on the street... 1. Bus 2. Bike 3. Walk 4. Carpool 5. Move 6. Parking ramps ^ And combinations of these, such as park-and-rides, parking outside the core downtown area and bus/biking in, etc. Not to mention, at least in my City (Madison, WI) there's thousands of off-street car parking spots in public ramps, and removing 5 spots for 5 corrals in high demand areas negatively affects nobody. Unless you happen to be the 0.00001% of downtown car traffic affected by this and needing to walking a block or two from the nearest ramp to park your private vehicle is such a big deal... There's zero argument here.

DocTomoe 7y ago
Not every city is Madison, Wi, which you yourself considered to be a special case when it came to parking just seven little months ago. And not everyone can bus - especially in America, where public transport is essentially a sad joke. Not everyone can walk - distances are actually a thing. Not everyone has the ability to find someone to carpool with (which might either be related to different schedules or different locations). Not everyone can move, especially not for rare city business (city living is expensive, not everyone is a VC-funded startup engineer). And parking ramps are a thing, but still limited - the issue is not with "parking options exist", but with "parking options in sufficient availabilities exist". That being said, I would love to see you haul a fridge three miles on foot to your next parking ramp.
- aeharding 7y ago
  What city do you live in? EDIT Also I am a little confused by > That being said, I would love to see you haul a fridge three miles on foot to your next parking ramp. I thought we were talking about commuting? I am not saying get rid of your car, I am saying perhaps don't commute with one every single day and then expect to park on-street, because there might be better options...
  - DocTomoe 7y ago
    > What city do you live in? A small town with about 7000 citizens some 50 kilometers away from the city I work in in southern Germany. No colleagues living near me, so no carpooling. Public transport, while arguably a lot better than in the states, is so fractures that it means leaving at 5 and returning at 21:30 - unless you need the "flexibility" of attending late-evening meetings or after-work activities, then it pretty much becomes unusable. Biking in? Sure, takes even more time (I average some 20 km/h, this is hilly terrain), and I am completely finished when I arrive. And moving here? I would pay four times what I pay now in rent for the privilege of living in an industrial wasteland. Without the car, I could not do my job. That being said, I am lucky that my employer provides a parking ramp at the location I currently work at. When they make us move locations again, there is a good chance streetcurb parking is the only option available to me. What we need to do is to make cities places where cyclists, motor vehicle drivers and pedestrians can coexist. I think playing the cheap, political "divide and conquer" card by diminishing one side for the other will make them worse for everyone involved. For starters, we should check if we can just move vehicle traffic underground for major arteries and use the space above for cyclists and pedestrians. > I thought we were talking about commuting? Ah, here's the misunderstanding. I am talking about access to the city, regardless of frequency. The problem does not go away if you prohibit commuting.

DocTomoe 7y ago

Not every city is Madison, Wi, which you yourself considered to be a special case when it came to parking just seven little months ago. And not everyone can bus - especially in America, where public transport is essentially a sad joke. Not everyone can walk - distances are actually a thing. Not everyone has the ability to find someone to carpool with (which might either be related to different schedules or different locations). Not everyone can move, especially not for rare city business (city living is expensive, not everyone is a VC-funded startup engineer). And parking ramps are a thing, but still limited - the issue is not with "parking options exist", but with "parking options in sufficient availabilities exist". That being said, I would love to see you haul a fridge three miles on foot to your next parking ramp.

aeharding 7y ago
What city do you live in? EDIT Also I am a little confused by > That being said, I would love to see you haul a fridge three miles on foot to your next parking ramp. I thought we were talking about commuting? I am not saying get rid of your car, I am saying perhaps don't commute with one every single day and then expect to park on-street, because there might be better options...
- DocTomoe 7y ago
  > What city do you live in? A small town with about 7000 citizens some 50 kilometers away from the city I work in in southern Germany. No colleagues living near me, so no carpooling. Public transport, while arguably a lot better than in the states, is so fractures that it means leaving at 5 and returning at 21:30 - unless you need the "flexibility" of attending late-evening meetings or after-work activities, then it pretty much becomes unusable. Biking in? Sure, takes even more time (I average some 20 km/h, this is hilly terrain), and I am completely finished when I arrive. And moving here? I would pay four times what I pay now in rent for the privilege of living in an industrial wasteland. Without the car, I could not do my job. That being said, I am lucky that my employer provides a parking ramp at the location I currently work at. When they make us move locations again, there is a good chance streetcurb parking is the only option available to me. What we need to do is to make cities places where cyclists, motor vehicle drivers and pedestrians can coexist. I think playing the cheap, political "divide and conquer" card by diminishing one side for the other will make them worse for everyone involved. For starters, we should check if we can just move vehicle traffic underground for major arteries and use the space above for cyclists and pedestrians. > I thought we were talking about commuting? Ah, here's the misunderstanding. I am talking about access to the city, regardless of frequency. The problem does not go away if you prohibit commuting.