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Yes but not always applicable unfortunately… e.g. the other day I was in Italy, I needed to park on the publicly available parking which was paid to the municip
by muse900 4mo ago
Yes but not always applicable unfortunately… e.g. the other day I was in Italy, I needed to park on the publicly available parking which was paid to the municipality.
No other parking available anywhere near in 30 mins walking distance. (paid or free)
I had to download a 3rd party app that asked me to register. This app isn’t by the Italian government, it’s affiliated though.
So in that situation, I want nothing to do with your website or app, because I wouldn’t able to park.
- ivanjermakov 4mo agoHave exactly the same situation with parking in Italy. Having a private company operating all paid parking on an island is not very healthy.
- echelon 4mo agoHaving a handful of companies that can contact you has created a land of monopoly hyperscalers. It's so hard to build anything big and durable because they've created these steep gradients.
- KennyBlanken 4mo ago"They" didn't create them. They laid out the bait - free APIs to do all sorts of stuff, and lazy-ass programmers took the bait hook line and sinker without thinking through the consequences of everyone moving their sites into "the cloud." Or didn't care. Lot of people need to look in the mirror on this one - from programmers to execs.
- iamnothere 4mo agoI wouldn’t blame programmers. Free APIs and services were a great way to get bootstrapped, and nobody really understood why they existed: an extended period of low interest rates after the 2007/2008 crisis. The bait-and-switch wasn’t a conspiracy, it was a natural consequence of the unusual financial environment (which itself was a kick-the-can “solution” to cover up the damage caused by the GFC). Almost none of us were deeply familiar with how rates could affect the availability and pricing of services, and the implications for infrastructure. Many of us understand this now, but too late—it’s unlikely that we see rates that low again in our lifetimes.
- gedy 4mo agoIt's too bad there's no one willing to be a parking lot attendant on an Italian island.
- rapidaneurism 4mo agoI think there is plenty of people, but they have these obscene demands about getting paid a living wage.
- valleyer 4mo agoYou might not have used one, but there have long been parking meters / payment kiosks that take charge cards and even cash. Neither an app nor a human attendant is required. It bugs me that these are slowly being replaced by smartphone app systems.
- pjc50 4mo agoParking is expensive enough without having to pay a human.
- drnick1 4mo agoCan you not pay with cash or card anywhere? What if you don't have a "smart" phone? I would categorically refuse to park anywhere that requires running a proprietary app on my device. Fortunately, in the States at least, I have not encountered such a place yet.
- calvinmorrison 4mo agoEssentially too bad. Look at the parkmobile disaster.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 4mo agoThe what?
- calvinmorrison 4mo agobasically you have to use parkmobile in many places unless you carry literally rolls full of quarters due to the depreciation of the USD, some places dont even have machines anymore. ParkMobile is a moneygrabbing operation that municipalities use to run their parking stuff - yay saas. They got hacked and leaked everyones phone numbers, license plates, history, and more. The settlement in court was - you got I believe a $1.00 coupon to use parkmobile again - but you could only use .50 towards each transaction
- ElFitz 4mo agoThat, especially the conclusion, is hilariously bad.
- calvinmorrison 4mo agoIt's worse I just checked " You are eligible for up to a $1.00 credit to be applied to ParkMobile’s service fees. The code provides a $0.25 discount on ParkMobile’s service fees and may be used up to four times for a total discount of $1.00. The code will expire on October 8, 2026. For residents of California, the code will not expire. The code will only work for accounts associated with email addresses that are in the class."
- ABS 4mo agoyou can pay at the parking meters directly, no need for a 3rd party app
- qalmakka 4mo agoYes, but - the apps almost always allow you to remotely increase your stay - the apps almost always allow you to pay by the exact minute instead of by the quarter/half an hour
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 4mo agotutanota.com protonmail.com create a burner for when ‘not always applicable unfortunately’
- anakaine 4mo agoIve bumped into these been banned too. Apples temp addresses worked well where these didnt.
- pbgcp2026 4mo agoProton does require phone number now. It's not anaonymous email provider anymore.
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 4mo agodidn't know that, but the point of the burner is to trap junk email in an account you don't care to read
- akimbostrawman 4mo agoThey do have sign up with only a captcha but it seems to be ip reputation depended if you get them. https://proton.me/support/human-verification https://proton.me/support/human-verification
- inigyou 4mo agoI think in most countries the only way to challenge this kind of thing is to park illegally and then go to court and claim it was impossible for you to park legally. Which is a hard process, on purpose.
- stasomatic 4mo agoIn the States, they tow your car to a yard and hold it ransom until you fork out a $1K or so (depends on the state/municipality), with accrued daily surcharges. And, good luck finding the yard. They also only take cash or debit so that you cannot run a chargeback later on. I'd rather just pay a $300 ticket, don't tow my car.
- inigyou 4mo agoCan you sue them for not telling you where your car is and then to recover all fees resulting from you not knowing where your car is? I suspect you could but you'd be risking a car - better try it with the clunkiest clunker you can find.
- AngryData 4mo agoYou can try, but you won't be the first and they are going to have lawyers for this exact scenario with decades of legal rulings and legislation often in their favor already. It's not usually worth the time unless you are willing to risk losing many thousands in lawyer costs if you don't win.
- abustamam 4mo agoSometime ago I had to pay for parking to get access to a hiking trail (in US). The way to pay for parking was shady as hell. Just a random QR code sticker on the wall that said "pay here" that navigated to a payment portal that asked for your CC, address, license plate. I mentioned to my friend who was with me, "anyone could really just put any sort of QR code here and navigate you to a fake payment portal and steal your CC" But like you said, what are you supposed to do otherwise?
- Operyl 4mo agoThat's actually a common scam that happens, too. It's a constant problem in my city, and while I already have the app downloaded on my phone others do not and find themselves getting nasty bills in the mail months later.
- singleshot_ 4mo agoRoll the dice; pay the ticket if cited. The cost of parking.