this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 82 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Everywhere we should start changing parking charges to "by the foot". The longer your car is the more you need to pay. That will incentivize smaller, safer cars for people that don't really have any need for something big.

[–] BassaForte@lemmy.world 31 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Nah, square footage instead of length.

[–] IndefiniteBen@leminal.space 37 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Cubic feet would be better, especially as taller vehicles are more dangerous to pedestrians.

[–] filister@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Let's ban archaic units like feet and stick with cubic meter.

Plus there are vans, so the more accurate metric would be a cubic meter per passenger.

[–] IndefiniteBen@leminal.space 1 points 9 months ago

Oh yeah I'd prefer metric, but I was just being consistent with the thread, as the actual units are somewhat beside my point.

Now to find why I didn't get a notification for this reply...

[–] BassaForte@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Ah yeah, that's more accurate to what I was thinking

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Length × Width × Hood Height then?

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

Yeah, and just register it in a database. Like how I gotta pay $100 more in vehicle registration because my car's 50 fucking kg above the lower bracket. People with F350s can pay triple what I do. No, sextuple! Because they can't fit in just one park. Parking inspector puts in the number plate and machine calculates the rest.

[–] BassaForte@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

That's how we get double decker cars lol

[–] Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Problem is it's much easier to have someone just take a measuring tape to a car when ticketing and get the length. You can get the footprint, sure, but you have to ensure you measure from the same point twice, and that you're pretty much perfectly perpendicular. You could also have a database of makes and models but then you have to have somebody set up and maintain the database and that causes all sorts of headaches

[–] explodicle@local106.com 3 points 9 months ago

That's how we got camelback houses with more floors in the back than in the front. Measuring just length will make the cars fat.

[–] hddsx@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I need the length in my car right now. I’d rather charge by weight. I like sedans (currently in a wagon). What I’d like to get rid of is big trucks for no reason

[–] ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

But the cost of constructing parking infrastructure is more directly related to square meters than weight (in HCOL areas especially). Sure more weight means beefier structures and/or pavement are needed, but that tends to average over an area vs a large object requiring a larger investment regardless of whether it’s light or not.

[–] hddsx@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

Until everyone buys a hummer EV….

[–] soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] hddsx@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As much as I like cars, cars aren’t the answer. Public transport is.

[–] soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 1 points 9 months ago

Public transport is currently quadruple the price, double the duration and significantly more unreliable than personal car travel in the UK when travelling with another person.

Unfortunately it's just not viable to traverse major cities via train. I think it can be far better than it is right now but I have zero confidence it ever will be

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (14 children)

While still punishing larger families that absolutely need the space. I'm not against the concept generally speaking but we need to consider those kinds of ramifications. Low income families can be large too, afterall. Not even talking about with kids - many families have the grandparents/cousins/etc. around as well.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

people had larger families in the era where cars were smaller. no one needs an SUV in a city, they're meant for hauling firewood to the remote cabin where there's no paved roads

[–] Rinox@feddit.it 3 points 9 months ago

That's not what a Sport Utility Vehicle is for. An SUV's purpose is just to show off

[–] yamsham@lemm.ee 18 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Cars are not the only way to move people around. They are, however, the worst way to move people around. Take a bus and/or train, and you’ll never have to worry about parking again.

In response, more and more of our streets can be reclaimed for pedestrians spaces, adding walking/biking paths, adding greenery, adding outdoor patios, etc, instead of it all just going to ever increasingly large and crowded parking spaces and One More Lane™

[–] hddsx@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 months ago

As an avid fan of Cities Skylines, buses are not the answer. Give me a decent metro system.

The other issues is that I don’t mind people taking away lanes as long as they present other alternatives. Currently, my area is taking away a lane WITHOUT giving me an alternative.

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago

I never said cars are the only way to move around. I’m just saying we need to think through this a little bit. I agree with the idea for the most part.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, I understand, but a flat fee regardless of size of car as it now, is effectively a subsidy directly toward the development of car dependent cities. Also families don't tend to travel downtown by car on weekdays where space is a premium, those are usually single drivers going to work and often in NA, those lone drivers are often in large pickups and SUVs.

Large families taking the train have to pay roughly proportionally to the size, which is one of many reasons why many families opt for car culture. It's not those fault the options are this way but my point is that it can be changed.

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I agree that in this particular case it makes sense. But the person that responded to said that everywhere should adopt this rule.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

(I was that person 😉). I suppose everywhere was a bit broad of wording. Where space isn't a premium, parking is often free anyway so I wasn't really including that. Like a Costco or Walmart wouldn't have any good reason to have someone just to go around measuring people's cars.

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Well that’s what I get for not checking usernames lol anyway glad to see it’s not as strict as it sounded.

[–] t0fr@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago

Honestly, get a car and then add a roof rack instead of an SUV You have the space you need, it's cheaper than an SUV, it's more fuel efficient, and you can take it off and not have to transport all the extra weight when it is not necessary

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The only place on the world where low income families have big trucks is the US because of debt and extremely car dependent infrastructure. French poor families use public transit.

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Large families don’t use big trucks. They use SUVs/minivans.

[–] azimir@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The latest trucks out are being marketed towards family movers now. Basically up to four kids (which is now a large US family) they try to push pickups as a family car.

Edit: current advertising listing off the best trucks to have for a family of 6, especially as the sole vehicle in the household: https://carbuzz.com/cars/trucks-for-family

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Dude, come on. Are we really going to debate this?

[–] iegod@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

People raised families through the 90s without the space of an SUV. You will survive.

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Station wagons and minivans were hardly compact lol

But yes many modern vehicles are ridiculous.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago

We need to bring back the station wagon

[–] Rinox@feddit.it 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Here in Italy the FIAT 500 was the first "family car" and was less than 3 meters long, the FIAT 500 Giardiniera was the station wagon version and it was 3.1 meters long. If you look at an old 500 now, you'd wonder how would a human fit inside.

Today's average SUV is over 4 meters long, with some going over 5 meters. In Japan there are Kei cars used as trucks, people movers, vans etc. The fact that you need a Jeep compass to be able to pick up your kid from school is absurd

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago

I definitely agree that some of these vehicles are ridiculous.

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[–] arymandias@feddit.de 46 points 9 months ago
[–] athos77@kbin.social 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

"It's not an SUV unless it's from the US, otherwise it's just a large sparkling hatchback."

Seriously, good for them!

[–] nekandro@lemmy.ml 14 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Good. Why are MY tax dollars being used to subsidize everyone else's parking?

[–] azimir@lemmy.ml 13 points 9 months ago

I've started to ask myself this more and more. Why is on street free parking (or even metered, but in a crowded core area) a value choice we make in our cities?

I'm still chewing on the concept, but once I considered challenging that status quo, it opened a lot of new approaches to what is considered a right vs exploiting the common city resources for individual use.

[–] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is in Paris you numpty

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago

Maybe they thought it was Paris, Texas?

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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 9 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Green activists in Paris are making a final push to win a landmark vote tripling parking charges for SUVs in a move aimed at tackling air pollution that is being closely watched by other cities such as London.

In final campaigning before Sunday’s vote, the socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, canvassed parents outside a primary school in the 10th arrondissement near the Gare du Nord, where pollution from large boulevards, traffic on small backstreets and a lack of green space had led many residents to call for fewer cars.

An Opinionway poll for Le Parisien this month found that 61% of Paris residents backed raising parking charges for SUVs.

Lucie, 39, a caterer dropping her nine-year-old to school, said: “I get so angry seeing people sitting alone in their big SUVs in traffic in the morning; it just doesn’t make sense.

Diane, a stylist, who travels by electric bike with her two children aged seven and two, said: “I’m voting to send a message that we don’t want cars in general: for air quality, noise, for the climate and even for the overall mood of the city.

Before Paris, Lyon – France’s third biggest city, which is run by the Greens – devised a progressive parking tariff system to incentivise people away from the use of heavy sports vehicles.


The original article contains 817 words, the summary contains 220 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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