Miscellaneous
Why aren’t parents buying technology that protects kids in hot cars?
Parents who forget their kids in hot cars are viewed pretty harshly by others, but the sad truth is that it can happen to even the most loving parent or caregiver. Hot car fatalities claim an average of 38 kids per year in the US. From 1998 to 2013, 606 children in the age group […]
Mobile, AL considers instituting parking minimums
Neither Tuscaloosa nor Auburn—two cities in Alabama with significant college populations—have special zoning regulating parking for student housing, so why does Mobile farther south want to deviate from the norm? “Students require more parking spaces than our current code requires,” says Mobile councilmember Bess Rich, though she doesn’t cite supporting evidence. Rich’s argument rests on […]
Michigan Theater: Beat-up landmark or world’s most opulent parking lot?
Described in the press as “a jewel” and “the world’s finest” during its heyday, the fall of the Michigan Theater in Detriot is indicative of the city’s decline from a prosperous car manufacturing hub to a struggling economy. The derelict theater that once made headlines for its opulence and magnificence – and was built atop […]
Apps point the way to higher prices for public parking
Four apps — MonkeyParking, Sweetch, ParkModo, and Haystack — aiming to disrupt the parking industry may reach their goal, but in the public sector, not private. Each app allows drivers to advertise the metered spots at which they’re currently parked. Other motorists then bid for the spots to avoid having to look for parking, a […]
L.A. group proposes to cap parking tickets at $23
Drivers should only pay $23 when they’re issued parking tickets that don’t involve public safety, say members of the Parking Freedom Initiative (PFI), a citizens group that formed in Los Angeles to combat what it sees as abuses in the way the city enforces parking. What’s more, City Hall should create a process for involving […]
NYC Citi Bike pedaling through an uphill battle
Ever since its inception, New York City’s much-hyped Citi Bike program has hit roadblocks. In its second year now, the problems seem far from over for the bike-share program. New York City is now asking Alta Bicycle Share (which oversees the entire bike-share program through its subsidiary) to pay up $1 million to cover the parking […]
San Francisco conducts an in-depth parking census
San Francisco has one of the largest vehicle densities in the world – about 10,000 registered vehicles per square mile, according to SF State University geography professor Jason Henderson. Still, it has a comparatively large number of publicly available parking spots, 441,950, a majority of which are on-street rather than in garages. Census findings 90% […]
NYC fire hydrant earns twice minumum wage
The dome-headed, knee-height object looks like an average fire hydrant, but the water gusher on Forsyth Street in New York City’s Lower East Side is netting the city extraordinary gains: $33,118 annually, Ben Wellington estimates. The statistics professor from Pratt Institute, studying figures from NYC Open Data, suspected something was amiss when one address repeatedly […]
Parking lot rage: Why so furious?
We’ve all heard about road rage, but parking rage is just as common. Over 10% of respondents in a survey admitted to having gone to extreme measures to get a parking spot. Recent spate of attacks in parking lots Recently, a man named Christopher Heben was shot when he exchanged words with someone who nearly […]
Audi testing cars that predict open parking spaces
Finding an empty parking space remains one of the most daunting tasks drivers face, but Audi’s got you covered. The German automobile manufacturer is working on an Urban Intelligent Assist research initiative that predicts when the parking spaces around your destination will open up. Initiative to address parking woes Besides its own group of researchers […]
Washington, D.C. earns highest parking ticket revenues per citizen
Each year, American cities balance their budgets, looking to see what’s fattened the wallet and what’s kept it slender. The list can include the collection of development fees, property taxes, and parking and traffic fines. In fact, the latter can be a veritable cash cow for some cities, according to TicketZen. The Boston-based mobile app […]