Why do we have to pay for Parking?

steo87

Well....why are the public charged for parking their car on the side of a road? I can't see any logical explanation for it (well other than tax for the government to waster, but as I said 'logical' reasons)?

Berty

steo87 wrote: »

Well....why are the public charged for parking their car on the side of a road? I can't see any logical explanation for it (well other than tax for the government to waster, but as I said 'logical' reasons)?

Satellite towns for example have people coming into the town, parking their cars and travelling to work in somebody elses car clogging up the town.

I dont agree with Clare county council charging people to park in a car park since 2 years ago even though the same car park has been there 30 years. It makes no sense.

jaffa20

steo87 wrote: »

Well....why are the public charged for parking their car on the side of a road? I can't see any logical explanation for it (well other than tax for the government to waster, but as I said 'logical' reasons)?

Have you seen how much traffic is around?

FlutterinBantam

To try to ensure fair disribution of the most wanted parking spaces and to prevent **** parking in the on place all day thus denying others the chance to park for 10-15 mins.

Simple really:rolleyes:

davyjose

Because people will pay for it.

m83

Because the man said so.

Hagar

davyjose wrote: »

Because they have people by the short and curlies.

FYP

m83

Hagar wrote: »

FYP

Final year project?

Hagar

m83 wrote: »

Fixed your post

FYP.

See what I did there? :pac:

davyjose

Hagar wrote: »

I'm a traffic warden

FYP*

*This is fun

:pac:

Hande hoche!

Need the money to carry out roadworks on the same spot every year.

jaffa20

Hagar wrote: »

FYP

m83 wrote: »

Final year project?

Hagar wrote: »

FYP.

See what I did there? :pac:

davyjose wrote: »

FYP*

This is fun

:pac:

:rolleyes: WTF!!

davyjose

jaffa20 wrote: »

:rolleyes: FYP!!

FYP

tony1kenobi

I don't. I just change my car every 3 weeks.

CamperMan

I have never paid for parking.... I park the car where it costs you nothing then walk the rest of the way

galwayrush

Stealth Tax, many more on the way.:rolleyes:

JIZZLORD

stealth tax eh?
so a car park in the centre of a town isn't using valuable land that could be easily sold off and developed?

Boskowski

JIZZLORD wrote: »

stealth tax eh?
so a car park in the centre of a town isn't using valuable land that could be easily sold off and developed?

The side of the road is valuable land that could be easily sold off and developed? Single-lane bowling alleys all the way down main street ftw.

PurpleBerry

realcam wrote: »

Single-lane bowling alleys all the way down main street ftw.

dresden8

The answer to this and so many other questions is

They really, really, really want to get their hands on your money.

It's usually the answer to "Why are they doing something so nonsensical"

Hagar

JIZZLORD wrote: »

stealth tax eh?
so a car park in the centre of a town isn't using valuable land that could be easily sold off and developed?

For a start who owns it? The council is the people, the state is the people, of themselves these bodies own nothing, they merely hold it in trust for the people they are systematically fleecing. Anyway point to the queue of developers with bulging pockets of cash willing to build anything nowadays. They don't exist, do they?

asdasd

The council is the people, the state is the people, of themselves these bodies own nothing, they merely hold it in trust for the people they are systematically fleecing.

except some people use it more than others. You are paying for a road surface which has to be maintained, so better you than people who dont use it..

starn

CamperMan wrote: »

I have never paid for parking.... I park the car where it costs you nothing then walk the rest of the way

Me to.

I think shopping centers have some check charging for parking.

bythewoods

It makes perfect sense tbh.

Town Council's need a certain ammount of money, for obvious reasons. Sewage works, road maintanance, putting those pretty little flower baskets up, stuff like that. And probably a lot more.

So charging people for parking's obviously a good way to get it.
And if parking wasn't charged, people would, as has been mentioned, just leave their cars in places all day thus making it more difficult to get parking for short periods of time/ just in general.

towel401

davyjose wrote: »

FYP*

*This is fun

:pac:

I've been FYPping all day. now my stones are starting to hurt

Photi

CamperMan wrote: »

I have never paid for parking.... I park the car where it costs you nothing then walk the rest of the way

Your driveway?

Macha

1. Carparks cost money. Tarmacking, painting, maintenance, dealing with run-off, water pollution, etc. These costs need to be covered. No such thing as a free lunch.

2. Free carparking would mean everybody and their dog jumping in the car, rather than using public transport/cycling/walking. Do you really think we need more incentives to drive in this country?

3. Free carparking would mean everyone parking for as long as they wanted with little turnover. This would be particularly bad for local businesses.

Hagar

asdasd wrote: »

except some people use it more than others. You are paying for a road surface which has to be maintained, so better you than people who dont use it..

Hair splitting, some of the people driving have no children yet their taxes support schools and teachers salaries. The answer to councils economic woes lies not in screwing over people for cents here and there but better management of resources. They are without exception scandalously inept and self-serving.

ejmaztec

It's so that the cretins voted on to the local councils by other cretins can do their bit to bankrupt all of the shops in a town-centre, by charging an arm and a leg to park there and keeping the customers away.

towel401

it doesn't cost that much to run a car park - nobody really complains about their parking spot so it's a great business to be in. you can allocate a plot of wasteland for parking like they do in some towns and people will park on it.

you don't need to have flower pots and a perfectly smooth surface before people will park their cars on it so if the space is available parking should be free so that people can get access to the town. it doesn't really encourage people to go and shop in the town if they are already down a few eur before they even leave the car park

in america you hardly ever have to pay for parking because they have huge amounts of land available to them. here towns are built into a very small space because thats how they used to do it long ago before there were cars. now every space that can hold a car is worth money

Macha

towel401 wrote: »

it doesn't cost that much to run a car park - nobody really complains about their parking spot so it's a great business to be in. you can allocate a plot of wasteland for parking like they do in some towns and people will park on it.

For a properly run car-park, the p.a. cost/car space is estimated at around €4000/year. Surprisingly enough, there are laws and you can't just throw up a sign and call it a carpark.

towel401 wrote: »

you don't need to have flower pots and a perfectly smooth surface before people will park their cars on it so if the space is available parking should be free so that people can get access to the town. it doesn't really encourage people to go and shop in the town if they are already down a few eur before they even leave the car park

The point is for people to pay for the service they're using and encourage them to use other, more sustainable forms of transport.

towel401 wrote: »

in america you hardly ever have to pay for parking because they have huge amounts of land available to them. here towns are built into a very small space because thats how they used to do it long ago before there were cars. now every space that can hold a car is worth money

The urban development in Ireland over the last 20 years has been of an incredibly low-density and basically copying the American model. This makes these places very car-dependent. America is not an ideal to be lived up to, rather it's an example of what not to do in urban planning.

towel401

taconnol wrote: »

For a properly run car-park, the p.a. cost/car space is estimated at around €4000/year. Surprisingly enough, there are laws and you can't just throw up a sign and call it a carpark.


The point is for people to pay for the service they're using and encourage them to use other, more sustainable forms of transport.


The urban development in Ireland over the last 20 years has been of an incredibly low-density and basically copying the American model. This makes these places very car-dependent. America is not an ideal to be lived up to, rather it's an example of what not to do in urban planning.

that must be some very fancy car park. 'round here people are happy with a gravel field. not even a sign up saying its a car park but everyone parks there, lines their car up perfectly as if it was a proper car park with spaces and nothing ever seems to go wrong there.

if there is any law that gets in the way of having a free car park it should be got rid of. putting up a sign that says "car park" is exactly what they did here a couple of years ago with the ploughing championship and you basically drive onto some ****ers field and leave when you're finished. maybe this was even paid parking so they had to pay some guy to stand there and take the money which was probably their biggest expense.

there is no shame in driving or owning a car and that mentality belongs to the tree hugger loonies. so basically paid car parking is just another way of punishing people for driving a car instead of using other inferior forms of transport. but cars are not going to go away so the councils might as well build a proper free car park or otherwise ensure there are enough parking spots to go around because a town with nowhere to park is near worthless.

Sam Vimes

haven't read the whole thread so this might have been covered but if all they cared about was the money there wouldn't be a 3 hour max time as there are at most. Without the limit people working there would park there all day blocking shoppers from parking. The point is to keep high value spaces free. The money they get from it is just a bonus

Sam Vimes

however putting charges at train stations where people are supposed to park all day is just gouging. It encourages them to drive in since they're paying more anyway

towel401

Sam Vimes wrote: »

haven't read the whole thread so this might have been covered but if all they cared about was the money there wouldn't be a 3 hour max time as there are at most. Without the limit people working there would park there all day blocking shoppers from parking. The point is to keep high value spaces free. The money they get from it is just a bonus

so where are the people working there supposed to park?

Sam Vimes

towel401 wrote: »

so basically paid car parking is just another way of punishing people for driving a car instead of using other inferior forms of transport. but cars are not going to go away so the councils might as well build a proper free car park or otherwise ensure there are enough parking spots to go around because a town with nowhere to park is near worthless.

If all parking was free then dublin city centre would need about 200,000 spaces to meet demand. Apparently parking used to be free but it was impossible to drive around dublin city so paid parking was introduced to combat it

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

steo87 wrote: »

Well....why are the public charged for parking their car on the side of a road? I can't see any logical explanation for it (well other than tax for the government to waster, but as I said 'logical' reasons)?

To reduce the use of cars. I won't drive into town because of the price. But I would if the parking is free...

I don't agree with people having to pay to park outside their house. That is complete crap. I was looking at a house in Dun Laoghire and I had to pay for my parking every year... fcuk off...

Sam Vimes

towel401 wrote: »

so where are the people working there supposed to park?

They're supposed to use the public transport that serves the city. I do it every day and i much prefer it to driving and takes me about 1/3 of the time

Macha

towel401 wrote: »

that must be some very fancy car park. 'round here people are happy with a gravel field. not even a sign up saying its a car park but everyone parks there, lines their car up perfectly as if it was a proper car park with spaces and nothing ever seems to go wrong there.

I don't know about you but when it's night time I like to, y'know have some lights and stuff? Regardless of how "fancy" the car park is, there will still be overheads that need to be covered.

towel401 wrote: »

if there is any law that gets in the way of having a free car park it should be got rid of.

Why? Just because you want it to be free doesn't mean that it should. You have yet to provide an argument for free carparking other than "I don't want to pay".

towel401 wrote: »

there is no shame in driving or owning a car and that mentality belongs to the tree hugger loonies.

*yawn* the name-calling is quite tiresome. I never said there was anything wrong with owning or using a car. But everybody using cars all the time doesn't work - you don't even need half a brain to see that.

towel401 wrote: »

so basically paid car parking is just another way of punishing people for driving a car instead of using other inferior forms of transport.

Now who's looking down on other people?
There are many, many reasons for people to use other forms of transport. Cars have their place but Ireland is far too dependent on private car-use.

towel401 wrote: »

but cars are not going to go away so the councils might as well build a proper free car park or otherwise ensure there are enough parking spots to go around because a town with nowhere to park is near worthless.

Again, no one is saying anything about getting rid of cars but I don't see why my taxes should go towards paying for free parking. There are about a million other things that are more important than subsidising carparking fees.

You think a town with nowhere to park is near worthless? I'd hate to live where you live.

Sam Vimes

Emilio Black Walrus wrote: »

To reduce the use of cars. I won't drive into town because of the price. But I would if the parking is free...

I don't agree with people having to pay to park outside their house. That is complete crap. I was looking at a house in Dun Laoghire and I had to pay for my parking every year... fcuk off...

That's a scam tbh. They build you a house that's inferior in that it doesn't have a parking space and then charge you extra because of this?

Sam Vimes

towel401, if parking was free it would be completely impossible for you to get a space unless you got there about 4am so you still wouldn't be able to bring your car and it'd take you 3 times as long to get there to find out there was nowhere to park

towel401

Sam Vimes wrote: »

They're supposed to use the public transport that serves the city. I do it every day and i much prefer it to driving and takes me about 1/3 of the time

well you`re lucky. because for a lot of people that just isn't an option. really they should have worked out how many parking spots they need for employees and customers before they build the damned thing.

4000 a year for a parking spot is a load of bollox. you can rent a half decent apartment in a second (not third) world country for that.

supply and demand is the only thing that governs the value of a parking spot. if you try to charge people for parking in some little village in the backarse of nowhere then people would rather walk or keep driving to the next village. if a town is planned properly then there wouldn't be a shortage of parking spaces and would ensure that all parking spots are near-worthless like they should be

JIZZLORD

realcam wrote: »

The side of the road is valuable land that could be easily sold off and developed? Single-lane bowling alleys all the way down main street ftw.

not the side of the road but town centre car parks that exist nationwide

Sam Vimes

towel401 wrote: »

well you`re lucky. because for a lot of people that just isn't an option. really they should have worked out how many parking spots they need for employees and customers before they build the damned thing.

That's not a feasible plan because they would need a car park about the size of galway to accommodate everyone.

And who can't drive to a train station and get a train from there?

towel401 wrote: »

4000 a year for a parking spot is a load of bollox. you can rent a half decent apartment in a second (not third) world country for that.

This is true. It could be cheaper but free parking just wouldn't work

towel401 wrote: »

supply and demand is the only thing that governs the value of a parking spot. if you try to charge people for parking in some little village in the backarse of nowhere then people would rather walk or keep driving to the next village. if a town is planned properly then there wouldn't be a shortage of parking spaces and would ensure that all parking spots are near-worthless like they should be

again, you're drastically underestimating the amount of space this would take. About 1.5 million people work in dublin (a reasonable figure plucked from my head). How big is the average parking space?

towel401

taconnol wrote: »

I don't know about you but when it's night time I like to, y'know have some lights and stuff? Regardless of how "fancy" the car park is, there will still be overheads that need to be covered.


Why? Just because you want it to be free doesn't mean that it should. You have yet to provide an argument for free carparking other than "I don't want to pay".


*yawn* the name-calling is quite tiresome. I never said there was anything wrong with owning or using a car. But everybody using cars all the time doesn't work - you don't even need half a brain to see that.


Now who's looking down on other people?
There are many, many reasons for people to use other forms of transport. Cars have their place but Ireland is far too dependent on private car-use.


Again, no one is saying anything about getting rid of cars but I don't see why my taxes should go towards paying for free parking. There are about a million other things that are more important than subsidising carparking fees.

You think a town with nowhere to park is near worthless? I'd hate to live where you live.

you don't need lights on a car park. literally all you need is a field maybe with a few pebbles on it so it won't get soggy. people will park anywhere if it`s free and it costs no more to maintain than any other plot of open space the council happens to own.

if its not free then a lot of people, including myself will go on to the next place where you can park for free. unless you think there should be some sort of minimum parking fee to put the overcrowded places that charge for parking on a level playing field.

being dependent on cars doesn't have to be a bad thing as long the government doesn't go around ripping off car owners at every opportunity (the ridiculous petrol tax, etc)

Sam Vimes

i estimated a space at 10 by 8 feet and multiplied by 1.5 million. The result was 10,800,000m2. Does dublin have that much free do you think?

Sam Vimes

seems i underestimated the size
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_parking_space_size

I know that's america but it's a good guide

towel401

Sam Vimes wrote: »

i estimated a space at 10 by 8 feet and multiplied by 1.5 million. The result was 10,800,000m2. Does dublin have that much free do you think?

Build one of those artificial islands in the sea like they do in Bahrain or those other countries where all that nice juicy crude oil comes from. Dublin is a lost cause really for adding more parking spaces so the 5e per hour thing will stay, people will pay it and think its good value. parking at the train station isn't a bad idea but even here in culchie land you have to pay 2e per day for that - a recent thing they brought in although there are always free spaces.

i'd hate to drive around in dublin so I always take the train there. just because the place was never designed for cars. there has to be something in between the american town planning where you're basically ****ed without a car and the irish one

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

towel401 wrote: »

well you`re lucky. because for a lot of people that just isn't an option. really they should have worked out how many parking spots they need for employees and customers before they build the damned thing.

4000 a year for a parking spot is a load of bollox. you can rent a half decent apartment in a second (not third) world country for that.

supply and demand is the only thing that governs the value of a parking spot. if you try to charge people for parking in some little village in the backarse of nowhere then people would rather walk or keep driving to the next village. if a town is planned properly then there wouldn't be a shortage of parking spaces and would ensure that all parking spots are near-worthless like they should be

So the upkeep of the parking lot, the security, lighting, insurance... that's all free? I am sure there are more overheads but I can't think of them at the moment.

There is no need for free parking in the city. It is not feesible, it is not good for the environment, it's not good for traffic congestion etc etc.

JIZZLORD

Hagar wrote: »

For a start who owns it? The council is the people, the state is the people, of themselves these bodies own nothing, they merely hold it in trust for the people they are systematically fleecing. Anyway point to the queue of developers with bulging pockets of cash willing to build anything nowadays. They don't exist, do they?

Obviously with the state of the economy today the sale and development of this land will not and shouldn't happen. And yes we the people of this country are stakeholders in these publicly owned land banks, but in terms of parking, regulation must occur. Parking in an orderly fashion like joining a queue is civilised. were the town councils and city councils not to give a toss about how people parked there would be no order as to how we park. Ideally public transport would eliminate a lot of the journeys by car into towns for certain people but as everyone knows this is not an option in this country today. Look at the congestion charge in London. This is designed to encourage people who may not need to drive in to consider their other options.

I'm living on a housing estate that is as the crow flies under 300 metres from Eyre square in Galway. now i often see cars parked that i dont recognise and arrive back to the house a few hours later to find that car clamped. Why? Because people think that they can get away with parking in a residents spot (though i'll admit that the clamping company are over zealous). I know a guy who lives close to me on bohermore, one of the roads that leads from the centre of town out towards the dublin road and he has to pay residents parking to the council, the cost is definitely cheaper than walking up the street to a ticket machine and getting a ticket each day, yet still these kinda charges are dodgy.

inner city car parking is a service, granted in a lot of cases we'll be paying for use of something that we'll have a stake in. but it's a service none the less goverened by the concept of supply and demand. Council operated parking is a money spinner that goes towards several things. apart from maintenance of the site itself it'll be used in different areas. Everyone wants a good parking spot, and often to get one you will have to pay for the convenience.

That's life. We may not agree with it but that's how it is.

Macha

towel401 wrote: »

you don't need lights on a car park. literally all you need is a field maybe with a few pebbles on it so it won't get soggy. people will park anywhere if it`s free and it costs no more to maintain than any other plot of open space the council happens to own.

Ah come on. Even if just for security you need lights.

towel401 wrote: »

if its not free then a lot of people, including myself will go on to the next place where you can park for free. unless you think there should be some sort of minimum parking fee to put the overcrowded places that charge for parking on a level playing field.

The point is that no where is free...

towel401 wrote: »

being dependent on cars doesn't have to be a bad thing as long the government doesn't go around ripping off car owners at every opportunity (the ridiculous petrol tax, etc)

You really think being dependent on cars isn't a bad thing? Ok...

- cars are expensive and it's a burden to have to buy one
- many people can't use cars (poor, young, elderly, sick) and having a city dependent on cars ostracizes these people. They either have to use inefficient public transport, pay for expensive taxis or go without.
- even if you don't believe in global warming, cars emit other pollution into the air, such as dioxins, contributing to asthma and other respiratory diseases
- cars are a source of noise pollution
- roads are expensive to build, for the cars to run on (unless you're happy with a dirt track with no lights? :pac:)
- road are an impermeable surface, which causes problems in times of heavy rain
- run-off from roads is highly polluted with motor oil and requires additional cleaning and filtration
-habitat loss as more roads are built
- as of yet, no viable alternative has been found to 100% replace oil as the fuel for cars. It is not a good idea to be totally dependent on a fuel that has to be sourced from another country, has signs of running out in the not-so-distant future and is open to volatile fluctations on the global market.
- increased car usage is associated with more road accidents,
- cars take up a larger amount of space on the road per passenger than any other form of road transport.

Do I need to keep going? Because there's more