[I_Like_Plants]

Here's an idea from a post by a ShroedingersCat on another forum.

To get rid of cars, just ban parking.

Define parking as "stopping the car, getting out of it, and walking away".

That's right, you can drive all you want, you just have to stay in your car!

Since walking and biking are now "victorian activities" and no longer desirable, and since American cars are designed with mirrors inside the sunshades for appplying make-up and doing one's morning toilet, and have cup-holders, DVD players in back, etc., just require those who want to have cars to put their money where their mouth is and never park them, as defined above.

I think a certain number of Americans would go for this, since they drive more and more, are gaining rather than losing weight, and as a telling indication of "consumer sentiment" by some of the best psychologists in the world, American car makers are building even bigger models for 2006.

[KiddieKorral]

It's certainly creative; you've got to give it that.

[I_Like_Plants]

SchroedingersCat's idea not mine!

And I love it, I'd love to see that Singer guy do cartoons about it.

[SchroedingersCat]

It wasn't meant to be tongue in cheek. We can't ban cars. We can't ban gas. We can get local governments to reduce parking availability. It'll be a fight, but what isn't?

You can 'rent' a 200 square foot space to park your car in downtown San Francisco for about $300 per month. That's $1.50 sq ft. The cheaper office space is going for $2.50 sq ft/month.

All those metered spaces are taking up valuable pedestrian or green space. At only $2.00 per hour. Let's see...a block is 440 feet long, 2 - 10 ft wide parking lanes, 8800 sq ft per block reserved for cars. What's that: a fifth of an acre? Give me a break.

Jack those prices up where they belong. Why should I be subsidising the parking cost of somebody's car? Let them park at the Park & Ride and take public transit. It's a start.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SchroedingersCat', 'I')t wasn't meant to be tongue in cheek. We can't ban cars. We can't ban gas. We can get local governments to reduce parking availability. It'll be a fight, but what isn't?

You can 'rent' a 200 square foot space to park your car in downtown San Francisco for about $300 per month. That's $1.50 sq ft. The cheaper office space is going for $2.50 sq ft/month.

All those metered spaces are taking up valuable pedestrian or green space. At only $2.00 per hour. Let's see...a block is 440 feet long, 2 - 10 ft wide parking lanes, 8800 sq ft per block reserved for cars. What's that: a fifth of an acre? Give me a break.

Jack those prices up where they belong. Why should I be subsidising the parking cost of somebody's car? Let them park at the Park & Ride and take public transit. It's a start.

[BiGG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'H')ere's an idea from a post by a ShroedingersCat on another forum.

To get rid of cars, just ban parking.

Define parking as "stopping the car, getting out of it, and walking away".

That's right, you can drive all you want, you just have to stay in your car!

[BiGG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SchroedingersCat', 'I')t wasn't meant to be tongue in cheek. We can't ban cars. We can't ban gas. We can get local governments to reduce parking availability. It'll be a fight, but what isn't?

You can 'rent' a 200 square foot space to park your car in downtown San Francisco for about $300 per month. That's $1.50 sq ft. The cheaper office space is going for $2.50 sq ft/month.

All those metered spaces are taking up valuable pedestrian or green space. At only $2.00 per hour. Let's see...a block is 440 feet long, 2 - 10 ft wide parking lanes, 8800 sq ft per block reserved for cars. What's that: a fifth of an acre? Give me a break.

Jack those prices up where they belong. Why should I be subsidising the parking cost of somebody's car? Let them park at the Park & Ride and take public transit. It's a start.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BiGG', '
')Gee what a grand idea! Right after we ban parking we can ban the poor & elderly as they seem to require a lot of subsidies also. What the hell is the government thinking subsidizing low rent housing & shelters for the poor & elderly when we could be getting top dollar for that space!

[I_Like_Plants]

BiGG only someone like you could consider cars and the elderly to be equivalent, and this coming from someone who probably thinks it's great that in the US the elderly are shut away in old folks' homes and turned into soylent green or something. Go have a Krispy Kreme or something OK?

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Doly', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BiGG', '
')Gee what a grand idea! Right after we ban parking we can ban the poor & elderly as they seem to require a lot of subsidies also. What the hell is the government thinking subsidizing low rent housing & shelters for the poor & elderly when we could be getting top dollar for that space!

[SchroedingersCat]

David Shoup, a professor at UCLA, wrote the book linked to above. Here's a great factoid:

We never tally the hidden cost of driving. Americans spend $200 million a day building and rebuilding the country’s roads (and pork barrel projects in local districts mean this is the one thing Congress agrees on). Gas taxes and user fees cover only 60 percent of the more than $30 billion spent annually. Add on another $68 billion annually for highway patrols, traffic management and accident-related policework. The estimated annual external cost of driving (including air pollution, climate change, imported oil security, congestion, accidents, noise, etc.) is $126.3 billion.

I wonder how many of BiGG's ZPE-Hydrogen-Biofuel-turkey gut power plants could be built with that money?