How the “Right” to Cheap Parking Makes Streets Less Equitable: Streetsblog NYC →
In this, as in so many else, the sense of entitlement from haves (I already have a car that makes it easy for me; why aren’t public funds making things easier still?) is overwhelming. It reminds me of luxury restaurant owners who complain about how hard it is to sack their staff.
One of the comments there (about Boston) really highlights the incompatibility of resident only street parking and parking meters. While I’m not a huge fan of making on-premises parking compulsory, the idea of parking meters is that the street belongs to everybody and whoever wants to use it to park a tonne of metal there so no one else can use that space has to pay.
You don’t need a car to live in a house. The two things are separate. If you’re putting a car in the street, you pay for it, just like you pay rates on a dwelling. If you live in the inner city, where on street parking is scarce, why the hell do you own a car? If you’re “lucky” enough to have a car park as part of your dwelling, then you’re paying for it through your rent (whether you realise it or not). If not, then you should be able to recognise that the on street parking is a scarce commodity that you are not entitled to at a discount rate just because you live there.
If you work in the inner city there are plenty of transport options. If you work out of the city, you’re crazy for living in the city. If your work requires the use of your own vehicle (you own a cab, you’re a delivery driver, etc.) then your vehicle earns you money and if the amount you pay for parking outside your home eats that far into your margins then your business model is not very good.
This isn’t to say that people who live on narrow streets in established neighbourhoods (West End, Kelvin Grove, etc.) can’t own a car, just that they have to be prepared for using the space to park a car. And as always we should price parking such that there are empty spaces, like Donald Shoup tells us to.
I agree with monkeytypist, it’s an entitlement culture.
