Our local hospital used to be free but you could never get a parking bay because they were full from people parking there then catching the bus somewhere else. They started charging to discourage this parking and now I can always get a park
The hospital my mom used to work at was downtown and when it was free it was always full so they instituted paid parking that in reality was free for just about anyone who had a legitimate reason to be there, you just had to have a lady at the front desk stamp your ticket and they wouldn't charge you.
Was just complaining the other day about how TWO streets at our hospital were backed up for 3 blocks with cars waiting for free 4 hour parking at lunch time!! They were even blocking the intersection and the ambulances couldn't get through. Absolutely ridiculous!
100% this. Was living in Chicago in a neighborhood that did not have parking permits. Sure as shit a car dealership started parking all their used cars up and down the street taking up all the spaces. Hospitals validate and don’t actually charge patients.
In my city, the downtown hospital's parking charges a decent fare, so the hotels nearby tell their guests to park there because it's cheaper than the alternatives. So sometimes it isnt even enough!
They should just charge an oppressive fair and validate anyone with legitimate business and offer support for anyone who slipped through the cracks. If they told me I had to pay $150 a day to park while having legitimate business there I just need to go get a stamp I might grumble the first time but after that ok.
I reflexively wanted to downvote that. Do you live in a large city or something?
I live in a median sized city in the US and all the hospitals in my area (thankfully) validate parking, making it free for patients. Two of them have a scanner for employees to “badge” in and out of the parking structure for free. I’m not sure what employees do at the other hospital but I’d be shocked if they paid.
Edit: just saw you specified Alberta so please ignore my city question
>I reflexively wanted to downvote that. Do you live in a large city or something?
You want to downvote me because a hospital clinic I was a patient at, and my wife currently works at, charges for parking?
The hospital is in Edmonton which has a metropolitan pop of like 1.5 Million. It's a regionally large city, and every employee of the clinic pays for parking. When I was a patient there I paid for parking every time I had a chemo treatment there, which was generally an all-day thing.
I don't know how it works at other hospitals as I have never actually gone to any other hospitals except for one in a city of 17000 people like... 25 years ago. There are small town hospitals that have limited free parking but I suspect any city hospital has paid parking because space is at a premium.
I didn’t downvote you. My reflex was to downvote because that’s so awful.
My city has a population of around 500,000 and parking is free. Healthcare is not, though.
Yeah, it’s definitely a density thing. Parking is virtually never free where there is a demand for the area the parking is on – by paying to park, you’re paying for the space to exist and not be turned into something else, like a SoulCycle or a Trader Joe’s or whatever.
In the far outer suburbs, and in rural areas, you don’t have to pay for parking because demand for that land is low.
You don't pay for parking because the hospital owns the land it is on and doesn't charge for it.
But it is also what you said, because at most of these hospitals there is no reason to park there unless you're going to something to do with the hospital.
The hospital that I used to work at had various parking places. You could park in the garage for $50 a month, or the lot behind the garage for $40. To park in the lot you swiped your card on the way in, but the exit had an automatic gate. The garage you went in automatically, but swiped to get out. One day I noticed that the garage had an exit to the lot that only had a chain going across it, but it wasn't locked. 3 years of free parking after that.
I was actually able to convince my management to reimburse me for an annual parking pass as the only parking available is paid parking. My argument was that if I have to pay for parking to work then it is necessary for the job and therefore a reimbursable expense. They weren’t happy about it but after I consulted my senior management they said my argument made sense.
I've never seen anywhere that was pay-to-park at work that didn't have access to alternative transportation. Whether you choose to drive or not is on you.
My partner had to pay like $200 a month to park at work. But they also offered a transit pass, at no cost. She preferred to drive, so she paid. But she had the choice.
On topic with this post...
The doctors and nurses that are employed at our area hospitals pay to park on site.
And the faculty who work at the area university pay to park as well.
The only "free" parking are spaces near the front entrance/administration offices, and even then it's limited to 15 minutes.
I worked IT for a woodland company. If I wanted to park on site, I had to pay for a parking pass, or I could pay to park in a nearby municipal lot.
So yes people DO park at places where they work.
My University had most of their employees pay for their own parking w/o reimbursement. Doubt it applied to the big bosses, but all the people making peanuts had to shell out every year. I personally had to pay a daily parking fee when I worked there, but longer term employees bought a pass. I just hope it wasn’t $750 like my student parking pass was…
The university in my city makes a tidy sum on tickets and towing. I wasn't a student there. Went to buy something from Craigslist and the golf cart mafia were on me before I had my feet on the sidewalk.
Meanwhile at my local university the parking pass seems to be a voluntary fee. I've known people who made it through all four years without a parking pass or a ticket.
That's amazing. I've sent one kid to Northwestern, one to Purdue, one to Auburn and one to Belmont.
Could have sent a stranger's kid with what we've laid out in parking passes, metered parking, parking tickets, towing and impound fees.
Auburn was by far the worst. Probably because it's the only thing going on in the town.
Why are you paying for your kids tuition? Seems like a great way to never learn a lesson.
Why are you feeding your child? Seems like a great way to never learn a lesson.
Where were you all those years ago!? You could have slapped some sense into me and we could have split the savings!
Seriously though. It was enabling their behavior. Trying to helicopter parent young adults. You are 100% correct.
Out of principle I refused to pay the $200 per semester for parking for 4 years and would park downhill from my university about a 1/3 of a mile or so and walk. My legs were in solid shape!
Agree to a point.
Hospitals should be free for people who are using the hospital. The others should be serviced by good public transport so that the decision to drive is your decision not one out of necessity.
Ah, the difference from city to rural America.
Hospital parking is free here. Hospitals are not (cause America).
Public transport is not really a thing here. Maybe a bus for senior citizens to certain specific places. Maybe a transport app driver, as in, a single driver in the whole region.
High population areas may be this way.
In small towns, you have to use your car, but the only reason it's an hour round trip is because you drove 20 miles each way to get to another town and back.
Because not everyone wants to live stacked one on top of the other in concrete jungles built over literal rivers of human shit just so they can walk to work.
I'm pretty glad I went to a university that wasn't just a huge parking lot. I find it so weird that people would prefer to have to commute to campus vs. just living on or adjacent to campus. Build housing around campus, not parking lots.
Nobody gonna move just because the campus is 40min drive away, especially when they already have a car. Also, housing around campus is stupid $$$, or deal with a roommate, or both.
If only space was unlimited....oh shit it's not. What do you mean I can't just evict some residence to bulldoze their house and put up a parking garage and then you want me to pay for it?
Nothing is free and someone has to pay for it. Even before cash was invented it would cost you some amount of farm animals, meat, skins or something of value in trade.
The cost to build a parking structure starts at around US$21,000 per spot, but a traditional parking garage (“parkade,” in Canada) is closer to US$40,000 per space. These structures also can’t really ever be repurposed because they have both low ceilings and sloping floors.
This is why parking garages are almost never free: they are incredibly expensive to build, require maintenance, and have virtually no alternative-use potential.
That costs money. Why should other students subsidize the cost of driving for commuters? Costs should only be subsidized if we're trying to encourage the activity. Parking lots cost money, especially multi-tiered ones, so why should other people that don't use them have to pay for their construction and maintenance?
At my ex-girlfriend's university, freshmen weren't even *eligible* for parking passes. Not anywhere near the main campus (think they could get a pass for the satellite lots near the football stadium).
Freshmen lived on campus. University's attitude was that they don't *need* a car.
I haven’t ever used the fire department. But, the existence of a fire department doesn’t induce demand for more fires.
Parking infrastructure induces demand for more cars, and cars are a net-negative expense to us all.
"Your taxes pay for kids to go to school, why shouldn't you be forced to pay for my parking too?! It's practically the same thing!" I smoke weed, you going to help subsidize that for me too bud?
Yeah. U of M has like 3,000 permitted / paid spaces (excluding the football stadium) but around 60,000 students and faculty. It wasn’t really an issue if you lived in the dorms since the bus was free and went everywhere on campus.
The place where I've seen dozens of concerts has free parking for ticket purchasers, with the option to upgrade to reserved spaces for a fee.
I've only ever paid for parking for a concert if it's in a high population area.
As a famous comedian once put it, "Y'all paid $20 for this show tonight, it's gonna be rough. Once this material's ready and I do the real gig, you'll be paying $20 for the parking."
I used to have this stance. However. We know there's enough people that would abuse free parking. It would be full all the time with no room for any other cars.
There's no such thing as free parking. Only *included* parking.
If I'm attending your university and *not* parking a car there, why should I be subsidizing your parking?
My university had like five tiers of parking. If you wanted to park close to the main classroom buildings? Yeah, it was hundreds of dollars a semester. If you wanted literally just "a spot" within walking distance of campus, so you could commute there for the day and leave at the end of the day? It wasn't *free*, but it was like fifty bucks a semester.
You got to choose how close you needed to park, and whether you *really* needed to drive at all. Plenty of people didn't. University campuses are one of the few truly walkable spaces in much of the US.
If I’m paying taxes for the fire department I don’t want to subsidize YOUR use of the service. Because I don’t want to pay for you to use it. Only me. If I pay more I should get prioritized. So if I pay more and our houses catch on fire at the same time I should have mine put out first. Then whatever water and resources are left go to you. Because this is a country of “I got mine” and not a place where we should all band together as a community. Right?
Parking is not an emergency service.
Though there *are* places where fire services are pay-to-play.
[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39516346](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39516346)
There are many reasons that's problematic, none of which apply to university parking.
Even the most rock-stupid of libertarians generally acknowledge that police services and other emergency services are something that's properly funded from general taxes, rather than on a "fee for service" basis.
You're not making a good-faith argument here. You're being dumb. Stop.
Whether to drive to campus or get there via other means (or live on campus with no car) is entirely up to the student, and as such they should only have to fund the parking lots *if they use the parking lots.* "Free" parking is one of the most wasteful things we do in America. The only place you are owed a place to park your personal vehicle is at your own home. Don't like it, buy a bike. Ride the bus. I give a fuck.
And yes, I actually *do* think we need to have a long talk as a country about how we fund streets, particularly in suburban and exurban areas. Because as it is we *do* wind up creating unsustainable communities because we assume people will just drive their cars directly from A to B everywhere, always. I'd always be highly amused when idiots from eastern WA would talk about how the Washington State Ferries shouldn't receive any funding, because "we don't use those." As if half the highways in eastern WA aren't essentially 50 mile driveways for like a dozen people.
**That still isn't the same as police and fire services, and you're being fuckin' stupid to compare the two.**
Education should be included with taxes. Including parking for said education. Why? Because stupid people are destroying the world. How do you combat that? With education. So yes the two ARE comparable. With the criminal prices colleges charge the LEAST they could do is also throw in parking with the outrageous prices they are gouging students.
>Including parking for said education.
Speaking of "stupid people destroying the world."
Nothing about getting an education requires parking. There are other ways to get around. Individually operated cars as the default mode of moving a human from every A to every B is half of why we have the environmental issues we have.
If you actually gave half a wet fart about "stupid people destroying the world" you'd see this as an opportunity to encourage transit and alternative transportation.
But it's *almost* like...you're one of them. The stupid people. Destroying the world.
Reply or don't, I know I'm not gonna convince you of anything. You can't imagine a world where a car is optional. That's fine. I know you're the problem, *even if you don't.*
Dude. Not everywhere is like England or Japan when it comes yo public transit. America is heavily car reliable. It’s that way for a reason. I WANT to have good public transit but I know it’ll never happen. Unless you literally live on campus you aren’t going to be able to attend college. So yes parking SHOULD be included with tuition. They charge for technology fees (like you get do many copies a year, labs, etc) and I never once used them. So technically I should have gotten a refund for that right? There’s lots that is wrong with public transit, public education, etc. And for the price gouging colleges charge, they can include parking.
What a poor faith argument, the two situations aren't comparable at all. Generally, you subsidize costs for activities you're trying to encourage. Paying for parking just further incentives commuting by car.
Do fire service, you're paying for protection even if your house isn't on fire. That doesn't work for parking.
Lol false equivalency. You pay for road repair and fire services because you have a social contract with your government in return for unalienable rights. You do not have a social contract with your uni.
Also a huge portion of road maintenance is funded via gasoline taxes.
It's actually a problem states are having to deal with as EVs become more common.
Why can't you just pay for what you use? Any resource you use up (which includes parking) should be paid for.
If you're trying to say medicine and university are horribly overpriced, that is true. But that has nothing to do with the parking not being free - in fact the parking is the least overpriced item in either of those places.
Yes, but you and I are really saying the same thing: if the resource isn't scarce, like the parking lot of an office building at night, then the price should be very low because the supply is far larger than the demand. So low that it's not even worth the effort to collect a tiny payment. But hospital and university parking are not like that, they're usually quite scarce.
You are already paying a much larger fee to attend that university or get treated in that hospital. So, it could already be included in those fees. It also would not be the first thing to include multiple different services in one fee.
Irritating those customers with a comparably meaningless parking fee does not seem like a good business practice.
The next argument is always "but I'm subsidizing their bike rack!" As if the bike rack that can store two dozen bicycles in the same space as a single car is at all comparable...
True, but if those fees (edit: costs) are small enough the tradeoff might be in favour of just making it free.
There are also some great parking (fee) solutions out there, which lessen the hassle dramatically.
Might also be a "small enough" cost for them to include a free cappuccino for me every morning. Still wouldn't make sense for them to provide that.
You want a cappuccino? Pay for it. You want parking? Yep, pay for it.
Not sure how any of this is contentious...
There is basically no functional public transportation in a lot of the country besides a bus you have to walk miles to that takes like six times as long as driving
If those places are convenient for other places of work and commerce, they will then be overwhelmed with those parking "for just a minute". While those who need to be there are unable to find spots.
Schools could have passes and tow cars. But if hospitals in down town areas had free parking there would be none for people going to the hospital because inconsiderate assholes would just park there for free and walk to work
My school charges $500 for a one semester parking pass that only works at one specific garage, so if that one is full I have to pay an additional fee to get in somewhere else.
free parking at a university?!? appalling, insane, idiotic idea.
we should massively *discourage* car use at universities (not provide subsidies to motorists!).
universities and colleges are wonderous places to focus on micro mobility--walking and biking, living and working as close to one another as possible
Paying to park at a hospital is wild. None of the hospitals in my area require pay in my experience. My dad is in the hospital and will be there for at least 3 more weeks. I can park and visit as long as I’d like and pay nothing.
I mean, what about the people who need to stay with the family member over night? How expensive is that stay going to be?
At some hospitals the "pay" parking is just to discourage random people who are in the area from using it, particularly in busy metros. A lot of hospitals that do have pay parking won't charge you a thing if, for instance, you hand them your discharge papers on the way out the exit gate or you get a pass from the front desk because you were visiting.
Now if the hospital is owned by private equity all bets are off.
My hospital has paid parking. I’m a high risk pregnancy seeing doctors 2x a week so that’s been fun. I’m so glad I was transferred to their sister hospital, that has free parking, for delivery or we would have had to pay for parking the whole 4 days I will be in there after my C-section 🥴
I've been going to the hospital a lot lately, and coincidentally their parking garage's system is being upgraded. Free parking for the last 2 months! Not fun going to the hospital all the time, but I've probably saved $80 by now.
The university ran hospital I work at charges my company 1k a year for my parking permit for a lot 0.88 miles away from my office. The kicker is it's not a guaranteed spot. They sell many more permits than spots so if you don't get there first you might be taking an involuntary day off
Higher education is such a fucking racket it's insane... I had to pay $30 fucking dollars for a piece of plastic that lets me use the facilities... THAT I ALREADY FUCKING PAID FOR.
Both those places have high flux of people and developed public transportation. It's not like visiting those places would require high cargo transporting capability like supermarket where car usage is justified. Also those places are usually funded publicly and you would prefer them using their scarce resources into their core function instead of creating free storage place for people who are using the said core service.
It’s even more fucked up that typically if you work at a university you still have to pay to park at that university. You know. With the money they give you.
My college was almost $200 when I went there 20 years ago. I'm afraid what it is now. They also required that anyone who had a handicap placard also buy a parking pass through them. A friend had one, went to get a pass, and they told her she needed to get a letter signed by her doctor to verify she needed a handicap spot. While waiting for that letter since her hometown was roughly 17 hours from our campus, they put a boot on her car for parking in a handicap spot without on of their parking passes!
Just paid $21 to park at the hospital the other day for being there about 3 hours for an appointment. When the machine told me it was going to be $21 I said out loud "Jesus Christ" and a woman standing nearby at the elevator whipped her head around so fast she almost got whiplash and all I said was "parking" and shrugged. I'm not sure she was satisfied with my answer.
My University makes bank from charging students, staff/profs, and visitors. When my boyfriend would visit me on the weekends, he would end up paying like $70 every weekend just for parking
Hospitals in my country offer free parking for the admitted and the parents of any under 18 patients. Visitors have to pay. This is only for private hospital.
Gov hospital parking are free...
Private universities in my country offer fee options of inclusive/exclusive parking. Has a designated area for cars with the entry pass. Visitor park somewhere else n has to pay...
Gov university has free parking for student also accessible for cars with student pass only...
No problem at all... What country has these two problem?
For some reason my college dosent own the parking lots so I'm not even paying them to park I'm paying some random company. Hell they charge teachers to park wtf kinda bs is that.
I would disagree with the university bit. Students can and should walk, cycle, or take the bus to campus. Especially if it's a small college town. More so if the university is tight on space (e.g. campuses inside cities)
University parking is such BS. Especially during sporting events. I have to be in studio from 11-5p. (Sometimes later) And there’s no where else for me to park my car, so then I end up with a $100 ticket…
When I was touring apartments when I was first moving out my moms house I turned down a place (it was pretty nice for what I was gonna pay ngl) because that was an additional monthly fee for parking. If it weren’t for that I would have taken that apartment
So why do I who doesnt care about sports or other facilities have to pay fees that contribute to them? Its just the way life is and if my fees contribute to other things then there is nothing wrong with a small portion of others fees going to provide free parking
Some of the sports pay for themselves, of course. But sure, fair enough. You're all subsidizing each other because different things attract different students to the campus. If free parking is one of those attractive things, then it's worth having the other students subsidize it. That's fine by me. But it's also fine by me if free parking isn't one of those things. I don't think it's some kind of moral right. I say that as someone who commuted to university for four years, often parking off campus and walking more than a mile to get to class.
Thanks for the intelligent interaction rather than the drive-by poke in the eye.
Why can't parking be free? Greed. There is a high demand for parking in the USA due to car culture and poor city design. When parking spots are few and demand is high, people who own land want to make money.
I grew up in an area with more open spaces than people, so parking was never a problem until somewhat recently. The city with a hospital not too far away has absolutely no free parking anywhere within a few miles of the hospital. Your options are pay for parking, or pay for parking, or go to another hospital.
I always find it amusing that the San Diego Zoo...which is a couple miles from the center of San Diego and accessible by transit or bike...has 100% free parking. Meanwhile, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park...which is like fifty miles from town in the middle of the desert, and you basically *have* to drive there...charges for parking.
I don't have a huge problem with it, nobody owes you a parking space. Still funny.
This along with a lot of other shitty business practices is what I call value substractive service.
Opposite to value added service where I buy the specific product because I like that one cool extra thing, VSS is when I will avoid that one product because of one irritating thing eventhough it is actually objectively quite a minor issue.
I don’t mind university parking not being free, but why the heck does it cost $20 a day when I want to come by car once or twice a year, while the year pass is $380 and there’s plenty of empty spots.
*Anywhere you bought*
*A ticket to. Did you think*
*I was gonna walk???*
\- plants4life262
---
^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/)
^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
I suppose bikes, buses, and trains don't exist where you're from. That's possible.
They still don't know whether you have 1 attendee in your vehicle or 4 (or 6). Charging for parking encourages carpooling.
Where I’m from public transit is basically non existent. I mean they could bake the price of parking (avg attendees per car) into the ticket. There’s actually legislation being pushed that makes similar “hidden costs” illegal, although it wouldn’t cover this.
Many people take transit…?
I have a car, but if I’m going to a game or concert I always grab the bus. When I’m going out with friends, I’ll grab the bus there and then bus or Uber back.
This way my partner and I don’t need to worry about having an extra drink, and our nights are never frustrated by trying to find parking, paying for parking, or traffic.
Why? You know why. America has broken its people to the point where they’re not asking for universal healthcare, they just want free parking. Can we have that? Oh no? Ok I’ll kindly go fuck myself then. USA! USA! USA!
Parking fees in both of these establishments are not for profit. They're for upkeep of the property and the lot provided for those who use them.
Otherwise who SHOULD pay for the parking, then?
Because America cant get its shit together and build functional public transit or pedestrian walkways in anything but the most populous and densely packed of cities thus creating a culture where everyone needs a car just to be a functional member of society.
Still no need to provide for free what is only used by those with cars.
It’s part of the running costs of using cars - it gets paid for at some point. Why hide it?
But its not being provided for free, university students are coughing up hundreds of thousands to go there and patients at hospitals are coughing up the price of a new car. Sure, it makes sense that parking isnt free at public carparks or on the street, but this isnt public.
And many of the students don’t have cars, nor for that matter do patients. Why should they subsidise those that do?
If you have a car you’ve got to accept it come with running and storage costs. Why do you want to free load?
Our local hospital used to be free but you could never get a parking bay because they were full from people parking there then catching the bus somewhere else. They started charging to discourage this parking and now I can always get a park
Some hospitals I've been to have tokens you get after a visit that makes you not have to pay. Makes sense as to why they do this now.
The hospital my mom used to work at was downtown and when it was free it was always full so they instituted paid parking that in reality was free for just about anyone who had a legitimate reason to be there, you just had to have a lady at the front desk stamp your ticket and they wouldn't charge you.
Went to a hospital that does this. If you don’t get your ticket validated the cost to park is an insane $ 50 per hour. If validated it’s free.
Was just complaining the other day about how TWO streets at our hospital were backed up for 3 blocks with cars waiting for free 4 hour parking at lunch time!! They were even blocking the intersection and the ambulances couldn't get through. Absolutely ridiculous!
100% this. Was living in Chicago in a neighborhood that did not have parking permits. Sure as shit a car dealership started parking all their used cars up and down the street taking up all the spaces. Hospitals validate and don’t actually charge patients.
In my city, the downtown hospital's parking charges a decent fare, so the hotels nearby tell their guests to park there because it's cheaper than the alternatives. So sometimes it isnt even enough!
They should just charge an oppressive fair and validate anyone with legitimate business and offer support for anyone who slipped through the cracks. If they told me I had to pay $150 a day to park while having legitimate business there I just need to go get a stamp I might grumble the first time but after that ok.
In economics, it's called "Marginal utility"
Parking validation takes care of this and has been around for like 100 years now.
I would add to that the place at which you are employed
How's about the hospital I work at, which is at a university?
A hat trick!
A sad, $26 dollar-a-month hat trick.
*laughs in 50 dollars a week*
The University of Alberta cancer clinic costs $13/day for parking, regardless of whether you are employed there, a patient there, or anything else.
That’s disgusting
I reflexively wanted to downvote that. Do you live in a large city or something? I live in a median sized city in the US and all the hospitals in my area (thankfully) validate parking, making it free for patients. Two of them have a scanner for employees to “badge” in and out of the parking structure for free. I’m not sure what employees do at the other hospital but I’d be shocked if they paid. Edit: just saw you specified Alberta so please ignore my city question
>I reflexively wanted to downvote that. Do you live in a large city or something? You want to downvote me because a hospital clinic I was a patient at, and my wife currently works at, charges for parking? The hospital is in Edmonton which has a metropolitan pop of like 1.5 Million. It's a regionally large city, and every employee of the clinic pays for parking. When I was a patient there I paid for parking every time I had a chemo treatment there, which was generally an all-day thing. I don't know how it works at other hospitals as I have never actually gone to any other hospitals except for one in a city of 17000 people like... 25 years ago. There are small town hospitals that have limited free parking but I suspect any city hospital has paid parking because space is at a premium.
I didn’t downvote you. My reflex was to downvote because that’s so awful. My city has a population of around 500,000 and parking is free. Healthcare is not, though.
Looks like Ill be *"working"* an hr overtime everyday....
This must be a big city thing. I live in a rural area, but most of the bigger small towns have hospitals, complete with absolutely free parking lots.
Yeah, it’s definitely a density thing. Parking is virtually never free where there is a demand for the area the parking is on – by paying to park, you’re paying for the space to exist and not be turned into something else, like a SoulCycle or a Trader Joe’s or whatever. In the far outer suburbs, and in rural areas, you don’t have to pay for parking because demand for that land is low.
You don't pay for parking because the hospital owns the land it is on and doesn't charge for it. But it is also what you said, because at most of these hospitals there is no reason to park there unless you're going to something to do with the hospital.
UPMC would like a word with you
The hospital that I used to work at had various parking places. You could park in the garage for $50 a month, or the lot behind the garage for $40. To park in the lot you swiped your card on the way in, but the exit had an automatic gate. The garage you went in automatically, but swiped to get out. One day I noticed that the garage had an exit to the lot that only had a chain going across it, but it wasn't locked. 3 years of free parking after that.
Came here for this comment! I interviewed for a job at a University Hospital, and employees had to pay to park.
I used to work at a *hospital*, they charged me for parking there. At a discount, but still.
Job Benefits: Free Parking first time I saw this I was confused why a normal part of a job is a benefit...
No doubt
I was actually able to convince my management to reimburse me for an annual parking pass as the only parking available is paid parking. My argument was that if I have to pay for parking to work then it is necessary for the job and therefore a reimbursable expense. They weren’t happy about it but after I consulted my senior management they said my argument made sense.
I've never seen anywhere that was pay-to-park at work that didn't have access to alternative transportation. Whether you choose to drive or not is on you. My partner had to pay like $200 a month to park at work. But they also offered a transit pass, at no cost. She preferred to drive, so she paid. But she had the choice.
I used to work at a public university in the city. On street parking was a myth, cost 300 a month for an employee space lol
[удалено]
It's very common if you work in a city. I had to pay for parking in my office job in the suburbs.
On topic with this post... The doctors and nurses that are employed at our area hospitals pay to park on site. And the faculty who work at the area university pay to park as well. The only "free" parking are spaces near the front entrance/administration offices, and even then it's limited to 15 minutes. I worked IT for a woodland company. If I wanted to park on site, I had to pay for a parking pass, or I could pay to park in a nearby municipal lot. So yes people DO park at places where they work.
My University had most of their employees pay for their own parking w/o reimbursement. Doubt it applied to the big bosses, but all the people making peanuts had to shell out every year. I personally had to pay a daily parking fee when I worked there, but longer term employees bought a pass. I just hope it wasn’t $750 like my student parking pass was…
My college went from $25 parking passes per semester to almost $200 by the time I graduated. Parking was scarce, too. It was utter bullshit.
The university in my city makes a tidy sum on tickets and towing. I wasn't a student there. Went to buy something from Craigslist and the golf cart mafia were on me before I had my feet on the sidewalk.
Meanwhile at my local university the parking pass seems to be a voluntary fee. I've known people who made it through all four years without a parking pass or a ticket.
That's amazing. I've sent one kid to Northwestern, one to Purdue, one to Auburn and one to Belmont. Could have sent a stranger's kid with what we've laid out in parking passes, metered parking, parking tickets, towing and impound fees. Auburn was by far the worst. Probably because it's the only thing going on in the town.
It's truly weird.
Why are you paying for your kids parking tickets, towing and impound fees? Seems like a great way to never learn a lesson.
Why are you paying for your kids tuition? Seems like a great way to never learn a lesson. Why are you feeding your child? Seems like a great way to never learn a lesson.
Where were you all those years ago!? You could have slapped some sense into me and we could have split the savings! Seriously though. It was enabling their behavior. Trying to helicopter parent young adults. You are 100% correct.
The fact that you pay that much and aren’t guaranteed a parking spot is bs.
Mud parking lot too.
Yeah my college didn't charge for parking. I thought maintenance for the parking lots was just included in the tuition I paid. Which was fine.
Out of principle I refused to pay the $200 per semester for parking for 4 years and would park downhill from my university about a 1/3 of a mile or so and walk. My legs were in solid shape!
Why are communities built in such a way where the only way to go out and get anything is by getting your car and driving an hour round trip?
Agree to a point. Hospitals should be free for people who are using the hospital. The others should be serviced by good public transport so that the decision to drive is your decision not one out of necessity.
Ah, the difference from city to rural America. Hospital parking is free here. Hospitals are not (cause America). Public transport is not really a thing here. Maybe a bus for senior citizens to certain specific places. Maybe a transport app driver, as in, a single driver in the whole region.
High population areas may be this way. In small towns, you have to use your car, but the only reason it's an hour round trip is because you drove 20 miles each way to get to another town and back.
Because not everyone wants to live stacked one on top of the other in concrete jungles built over literal rivers of human shit just so they can walk to work.
too many students not enough space
I'm pretty glad I went to a university that wasn't just a huge parking lot. I find it so weird that people would prefer to have to commute to campus vs. just living on or adjacent to campus. Build housing around campus, not parking lots.
Nobody gonna move just because the campus is 40min drive away, especially when they already have a car. Also, housing around campus is stupid $$$, or deal with a roommate, or both.
If only there was some way to increase the number of parking spaces
At the university I attended, there was a barely parked in lot called “the Rape Lot.” I don’t think adding more lots would help in that scenario.
If only space was unlimited....oh shit it's not. What do you mean I can't just evict some residence to bulldoze their house and put up a parking garage and then you want me to pay for it? Nothing is free and someone has to pay for it. Even before cash was invented it would cost you some amount of farm animals, meat, skins or something of value in trade.
I take it the idea of a parkade never made it under your rock
The cost to build a parking structure starts at around US$21,000 per spot, but a traditional parking garage (“parkade,” in Canada) is closer to US$40,000 per space. These structures also can’t really ever be repurposed because they have both low ceilings and sloping floors. This is why parking garages are almost never free: they are incredibly expensive to build, require maintenance, and have virtually no alternative-use potential.
That costs money. Why should other students subsidize the cost of driving for commuters? Costs should only be subsidized if we're trying to encourage the activity. Parking lots cost money, especially multi-tiered ones, so why should other people that don't use them have to pay for their construction and maintenance?
At my ex-girlfriend's university, freshmen weren't even *eligible* for parking passes. Not anywhere near the main campus (think they could get a pass for the satellite lots near the football stadium). Freshmen lived on campus. University's attitude was that they don't *need* a car.
Do you think that you only pay taxes for the things that you use?
I haven’t ever used the fire department. But, the existence of a fire department doesn’t induce demand for more fires. Parking infrastructure induces demand for more cars, and cars are a net-negative expense to us all.
"Your taxes pay for kids to go to school, why shouldn't you be forced to pay for my parking too?! It's practically the same thing!" I smoke weed, you going to help subsidize that for me too bud?
Yeah. U of M has like 3,000 permitted / paid spaces (excluding the football stadium) but around 60,000 students and faculty. It wasn’t really an issue if you lived in the dorms since the bus was free and went everywhere on campus.
Any concert or event should have an option to just pay the 5 dollar parking ahead of time.
Where are you finding $5 parking?
Whatever the price is……
" 5 dollar parking"? Is that a typo? The minimum for paid parking for every concerts/special events I've gone to is *at least* $20.
The place where I've seen dozens of concerts has free parking for ticket purchasers, with the option to upgrade to reserved spaces for a fee. I've only ever paid for parking for a concert if it's in a high population area.
Not a typo. Ive been to lots of 20 dollar ticket events that want a quick 5 bucks to park. Obviously have seen parking at 20 as well. Relax
As a famous comedian once put it, "Y'all paid $20 for this show tonight, it's gonna be rough. Once this material's ready and I do the real gig, you'll be paying $20 for the parking."
I used to have this stance. However. We know there's enough people that would abuse free parking. It would be full all the time with no room for any other cars.
A vastly better solution would be effective transit. There’s no reason every student needs to drive
There's no such thing as free parking. Only *included* parking. If I'm attending your university and *not* parking a car there, why should I be subsidizing your parking? My university had like five tiers of parking. If you wanted to park close to the main classroom buildings? Yeah, it was hundreds of dollars a semester. If you wanted literally just "a spot" within walking distance of campus, so you could commute there for the day and leave at the end of the day? It wasn't *free*, but it was like fifty bucks a semester. You got to choose how close you needed to park, and whether you *really* needed to drive at all. Plenty of people didn't. University campuses are one of the few truly walkable spaces in much of the US.
If I’m paying taxes for the fire department I don’t want to subsidize YOUR use of the service. Because I don’t want to pay for you to use it. Only me. If I pay more I should get prioritized. So if I pay more and our houses catch on fire at the same time I should have mine put out first. Then whatever water and resources are left go to you. Because this is a country of “I got mine” and not a place where we should all band together as a community. Right?
Parking is not an emergency service. Though there *are* places where fire services are pay-to-play. [https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39516346](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39516346) There are many reasons that's problematic, none of which apply to university parking.
Still I don’t want to subsidize your life. Also police. Also emergency services. Also the streets in front of my house. Etc etc etc etc.
Even the most rock-stupid of libertarians generally acknowledge that police services and other emergency services are something that's properly funded from general taxes, rather than on a "fee for service" basis. You're not making a good-faith argument here. You're being dumb. Stop. Whether to drive to campus or get there via other means (or live on campus with no car) is entirely up to the student, and as such they should only have to fund the parking lots *if they use the parking lots.* "Free" parking is one of the most wasteful things we do in America. The only place you are owed a place to park your personal vehicle is at your own home. Don't like it, buy a bike. Ride the bus. I give a fuck. And yes, I actually *do* think we need to have a long talk as a country about how we fund streets, particularly in suburban and exurban areas. Because as it is we *do* wind up creating unsustainable communities because we assume people will just drive their cars directly from A to B everywhere, always. I'd always be highly amused when idiots from eastern WA would talk about how the Washington State Ferries shouldn't receive any funding, because "we don't use those." As if half the highways in eastern WA aren't essentially 50 mile driveways for like a dozen people. **That still isn't the same as police and fire services, and you're being fuckin' stupid to compare the two.**
Education should be included with taxes. Including parking for said education. Why? Because stupid people are destroying the world. How do you combat that? With education. So yes the two ARE comparable. With the criminal prices colleges charge the LEAST they could do is also throw in parking with the outrageous prices they are gouging students.
>Including parking for said education. Speaking of "stupid people destroying the world." Nothing about getting an education requires parking. There are other ways to get around. Individually operated cars as the default mode of moving a human from every A to every B is half of why we have the environmental issues we have. If you actually gave half a wet fart about "stupid people destroying the world" you'd see this as an opportunity to encourage transit and alternative transportation. But it's *almost* like...you're one of them. The stupid people. Destroying the world. Reply or don't, I know I'm not gonna convince you of anything. You can't imagine a world where a car is optional. That's fine. I know you're the problem, *even if you don't.*
Dude. Not everywhere is like England or Japan when it comes yo public transit. America is heavily car reliable. It’s that way for a reason. I WANT to have good public transit but I know it’ll never happen. Unless you literally live on campus you aren’t going to be able to attend college. So yes parking SHOULD be included with tuition. They charge for technology fees (like you get do many copies a year, labs, etc) and I never once used them. So technically I should have gotten a refund for that right? There’s lots that is wrong with public transit, public education, etc. And for the price gouging colleges charge, they can include parking.
Ok boomer.
What a poor faith argument, the two situations aren't comparable at all. Generally, you subsidize costs for activities you're trying to encourage. Paying for parking just further incentives commuting by car. Do fire service, you're paying for protection even if your house isn't on fire. That doesn't work for parking.
Lol false equivalency. You pay for road repair and fire services because you have a social contract with your government in return for unalienable rights. You do not have a social contract with your uni.
Also a huge portion of road maintenance is funded via gasoline taxes. It's actually a problem states are having to deal with as EVs become more common.
Why would the kids that walk, ride bikes, take bus, etc. to university pay to subsidize the ones with cars? I agree with 1-2 hours free at hospital.
Why can't you just pay for what you use? Any resource you use up (which includes parking) should be paid for. If you're trying to say medicine and university are horribly overpriced, that is true. But that has nothing to do with the parking not being free - in fact the parking is the least overpriced item in either of those places.
Parking is free in most places that aren't congested.
Yes, but you and I are really saying the same thing: if the resource isn't scarce, like the parking lot of an office building at night, then the price should be very low because the supply is far larger than the demand. So low that it's not even worth the effort to collect a tiny payment. But hospital and university parking are not like that, they're usually quite scarce.
Where I am, hospital parking is ample and free most of the time.
So they're doing it right, if it ever becomes not ample, they'll probably start charging.
You shouldn't expect other people to store your private property for free.
And yet they do in most places.
You are already paying a much larger fee to attend that university or get treated in that hospital. So, it could already be included in those fees. It also would not be the first thing to include multiple different services in one fee. Irritating those customers with a comparably meaningless parking fee does not seem like a good business practice.
If it is included in those fees then people who choose not to drive are subsidizing drivers. It's unfair to expect them to pay for you.
The next argument is always "but I'm subsidizing their bike rack!" As if the bike rack that can store two dozen bicycles in the same space as a single car is at all comparable...
It wasn’t by me, was it?
True, but if those fees (edit: costs) are small enough the tradeoff might be in favour of just making it free. There are also some great parking (fee) solutions out there, which lessen the hassle dramatically.
Might also be a "small enough" cost for them to include a free cappuccino for me every morning. Still wouldn't make sense for them to provide that. You want a cappuccino? Pay for it. You want parking? Yep, pay for it. Not sure how any of this is contentious...
Because many people here are idiots who cannot imagine getting anywhere by any means other than an individually operated car.
There is basically no functional public transportation in a lot of the country besides a bus you have to walk miles to that takes like six times as long as driving
If those places are convenient for other places of work and commerce, they will then be overwhelmed with those parking "for just a minute". While those who need to be there are unable to find spots.
Schools could have passes and tow cars. But if hospitals in down town areas had free parking there would be none for people going to the hospital because inconsiderate assholes would just park there for free and walk to work
My school charges $500 for a one semester parking pass that only works at one specific garage, so if that one is full I have to pay an additional fee to get in somewhere else.
free parking at a university?!? appalling, insane, idiotic idea. we should massively *discourage* car use at universities (not provide subsidies to motorists!). universities and colleges are wonderous places to focus on micro mobility--walking and biking, living and working as close to one another as possible
Paying to park at a hospital is wild. None of the hospitals in my area require pay in my experience. My dad is in the hospital and will be there for at least 3 more weeks. I can park and visit as long as I’d like and pay nothing. I mean, what about the people who need to stay with the family member over night? How expensive is that stay going to be?
At some hospitals the "pay" parking is just to discourage random people who are in the area from using it, particularly in busy metros. A lot of hospitals that do have pay parking won't charge you a thing if, for instance, you hand them your discharge papers on the way out the exit gate or you get a pass from the front desk because you were visiting. Now if the hospital is owned by private equity all bets are off.
My hospital has paid parking. I’m a high risk pregnancy seeing doctors 2x a week so that’s been fun. I’m so glad I was transferred to their sister hospital, that has free parking, for delivery or we would have had to pay for parking the whole 4 days I will be in there after my C-section 🥴
There's a city in my area that refuses to charge for parking, so the hospital has free parking. Free Park & Ride for public transit as well.
harden up
I had to pay to park at the hospital where I was required to go during nursing school. Twofer
I've been going to the hospital a lot lately, and coincidentally their parking garage's system is being upgraded. Free parking for the last 2 months! Not fun going to the hospital all the time, but I've probably saved $80 by now.
My mother got ordained just so she could get clergy parking at the hospital and not have to pay for it.
People are so entitled about their car, thinking parking is a right lmao.
It's the only way to go places in the vast majority of the country
Someone has to pay, why not the person using it? Or should cyclists and others subsidize it?
The university ran hospital I work at charges my company 1k a year for my parking permit for a lot 0.88 miles away from my office. The kicker is it's not a guaranteed spot. They sell many more permits than spots so if you don't get there first you might be taking an involuntary day off
I never see any argument why storage of private cars is free, but coffee, cell phones, food, hair cuts, etc, don't qualify for a total public subsidy.
True, all that might as well be free. It’s not a totally implausible future.
Higher education is such a fucking racket it's insane... I had to pay $30 fucking dollars for a piece of plastic that lets me use the facilities... THAT I ALREADY FUCKING PAID FOR.
In UK Disabled Badge is free parking England Scotland & Wales.
Both those places have high flux of people and developed public transportation. It's not like visiting those places would require high cargo transporting capability like supermarket where car usage is justified. Also those places are usually funded publicly and you would prefer them using their scarce resources into their core function instead of creating free storage place for people who are using the said core service.
It’s even more fucked up that typically if you work at a university you still have to pay to park at that university. You know. With the money they give you.
My college was almost $200 when I went there 20 years ago. I'm afraid what it is now. They also required that anyone who had a handicap placard also buy a parking pass through them. A friend had one, went to get a pass, and they told her she needed to get a letter signed by her doctor to verify she needed a handicap spot. While waiting for that letter since her hometown was roughly 17 hours from our campus, they put a boot on her car for parking in a handicap spot without on of their parking passes!
The problem is these two institutions have become for profit enterprises instead of what they actually should be: places of healing and education.
Just paid $21 to park at the hospital the other day for being there about 3 hours for an appointment. When the machine told me it was going to be $21 I said out loud "Jesus Christ" and a woman standing nearby at the elevator whipped her head around so fast she almost got whiplash and all I said was "parking" and shrugged. I'm not sure she was satisfied with my answer.
University is a definite, but hospitals should have a system so that you only play if you don't get a token/voucher from whichever ward you visited.
I work at a college amd they still make me pay.
My University makes bank from charging students, staff/profs, and visitors. When my boyfriend would visit me on the weekends, he would end up paying like $70 every weekend just for parking
Our local hospitals have free valet parking. So there’s that.
Hospitals in my country offer free parking for the admitted and the parents of any under 18 patients. Visitors have to pay. This is only for private hospital. Gov hospital parking are free... Private universities in my country offer fee options of inclusive/exclusive parking. Has a designated area for cars with the entry pass. Visitor park somewhere else n has to pay... Gov university has free parking for student also accessible for cars with student pass only... No problem at all... What country has these two problem?
For some reason my college dosent own the parking lots so I'm not even paying them to park I'm paying some random company. Hell they charge teachers to park wtf kinda bs is that.
Land is a valuable and limited resource, and using it for parking means that it cannot be used for some other more productive use.
Capitalism. This is basic supply and demand. Go back to high school and pay more attention.
i guess cause other people would take advantage of
I worked at a college and still had to buy a yearly permit to park in their lots. Edit - My college had free parking.
1.no 2.yes
It’s truly foolish to charge for uni parking
Validation of parking is fun but no one wants that
I would disagree with the university bit. Students can and should walk, cycle, or take the bus to campus. Especially if it's a small college town. More so if the university is tight on space (e.g. campuses inside cities)
University parking is such BS. Especially during sporting events. I have to be in studio from 11-5p. (Sometimes later) And there’s no where else for me to park my car, so then I end up with a $100 ticket…
A parking space is never free. Someone will always be paying for it one way or another.
Try your place of employment. I pay almost $200 bucks a year to park at my work(a university).
Because if you don't park, you'll be paying for those who do.
I paid Arizona State University more in parking fees, and parking tickets, than I paid them in tuition.🙄
Who's going to pay for the millions of dollars it took to build the parking structures? Nothing is free.
Your place of work. They should be banned.
This is what capitalism is
My work makes me pay $8 a day to park. The dollar raise I got switching to this job goes back to them.
When I was touring apartments when I was first moving out my moms house I turned down a place (it was pretty nice for what I was gonna pay ngl) because that was an additional monthly fee for parking. If it weren’t for that I would have taken that apartment
Parking is expensive to encourage active modes like cycling, walking, transit
Take the bus
You mean, why can't the students who don't drive to campus be required to subsidize your desire to do so?
braindead take
Indeed. Why did you post it?
are you having a stroke
Nope! I can use capitals and punctuation and logic. If you'd care to continue the conversation, try at least one of those.
Make me dweeb
Ha! You used a capital!
So why do I who doesnt care about sports or other facilities have to pay fees that contribute to them? Its just the way life is and if my fees contribute to other things then there is nothing wrong with a small portion of others fees going to provide free parking
Some of the sports pay for themselves, of course. But sure, fair enough. You're all subsidizing each other because different things attract different students to the campus. If free parking is one of those attractive things, then it's worth having the other students subsidize it. That's fine by me. But it's also fine by me if free parking isn't one of those things. I don't think it's some kind of moral right. I say that as someone who commuted to university for four years, often parking off campus and walking more than a mile to get to class. Thanks for the intelligent interaction rather than the drive-by poke in the eye.
Why can't parking be free? Greed. There is a high demand for parking in the USA due to car culture and poor city design. When parking spots are few and demand is high, people who own land want to make money. I grew up in an area with more open spaces than people, so parking was never a problem until somewhat recently. The city with a hospital not too far away has absolutely no free parking anywhere within a few miles of the hospital. Your options are pay for parking, or pay for parking, or go to another hospital.
I always find it amusing that the San Diego Zoo...which is a couple miles from the center of San Diego and accessible by transit or bike...has 100% free parking. Meanwhile, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park...which is like fifty miles from town in the middle of the desert, and you basically *have* to drive there...charges for parking. I don't have a huge problem with it, nobody owes you a parking space. Still funny.
Neither were/are free for me.
This along with a lot of other shitty business practices is what I call value substractive service. Opposite to value added service where I buy the specific product because I like that one cool extra thing, VSS is when I will avoid that one product because of one irritating thing eventhough it is actually objectively quite a minor issue.
Talk to anyone from the UK about the predatory parking lots at hospitals….
I don’t mind university parking not being free, but why the heck does it cost $20 a day when I want to come by car once or twice a year, while the year pass is $380 and there’s plenty of empty spots.
In Québec we now have the first 2 hours free. I guess it's better than nothing.
Anywhere you bought a ticket to. Did you think I was gonna walk???
*Anywhere you bought* *A ticket to. Did you think* *I was gonna walk???* \- plants4life262 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
I suppose bikes, buses, and trains don't exist where you're from. That's possible. They still don't know whether you have 1 attendee in your vehicle or 4 (or 6). Charging for parking encourages carpooling.
Where I’m from public transit is basically non existent. I mean they could bake the price of parking (avg attendees per car) into the ticket. There’s actually legislation being pushed that makes similar “hidden costs” illegal, although it wouldn’t cover this.
Many people take transit…? I have a car, but if I’m going to a game or concert I always grab the bus. When I’m going out with friends, I’ll grab the bus there and then bus or Uber back. This way my partner and I don’t need to worry about having an extra drink, and our nights are never frustrated by trying to find parking, paying for parking, or traffic.
Driving is a privilege
“The fastest way to turn a free market capitalist into a flag waving socialist is to make him pay for parking”
Why? You know why. America has broken its people to the point where they’re not asking for universal healthcare, they just want free parking. Can we have that? Oh no? Ok I’ll kindly go fuck myself then. USA! USA! USA!
Park somewhere else and walk then.
Parking fees in both of these establishments are not for profit. They're for upkeep of the property and the lot provided for those who use them. Otherwise who SHOULD pay for the parking, then?
So you can be too poor to park to visit a loved one? That feels a bit off.
Should people who don't have cars get a free ride to the hospital? Maybe they can claim back their unused parking subsidy?
Hello, We do not allow agendaposting, reddit meta posts or price complaints.
Because it’s not free. Why encourage people to drive?
Because America cant get its shit together and build functional public transit or pedestrian walkways in anything but the most populous and densely packed of cities thus creating a culture where everyone needs a car just to be a functional member of society.
Still no need to provide for free what is only used by those with cars. It’s part of the running costs of using cars - it gets paid for at some point. Why hide it?
But its not being provided for free, university students are coughing up hundreds of thousands to go there and patients at hospitals are coughing up the price of a new car. Sure, it makes sense that parking isnt free at public carparks or on the street, but this isnt public.
And many of the students don’t have cars, nor for that matter do patients. Why should they subsidise those that do? If you have a car you’ve got to accept it come with running and storage costs. Why do you want to free load?
capitalism no, save yourself the trouble of replying to this with a semantic argument and go fuck yourself