We should encourage less driving for many reasons, which is why municipalities should have fewer, not more parking spaces. If there aren’t enough available parking spaces, that’s a failure of pricing. Increase the price of parking to a level where there is always an acceptable number of available parking spots.
Possibly, but let’s not lose sight of the goal, which is to get people to drive less. There is no solution to this problem that allows everyone to keep driving the same amount as they always have! It may seem unfair that a small number of sufficiently wealthy people do not have to change their behavior, but enjoying privileges that are not available to most people is what it means to be wealthy. And in the meantime, the rest of us can console ourselves by remembering that if only rich people drive because only they can afford it, at least they are bearing the full cost of it, and hopefully the money they pay will go to something all of us benefit from.
All methods of decreasing driving are unduly burdensome on the poor.
That’s why I object to these policies:
They’re middle class and up people advocating that other people bear the burden for what they want done — often times, burdening the more productive members of society who perform critical jobs. If you actually thought it was important, you’d take unilateral action… instead of making “tragedy of the commons” excuses and demanding authoritarian impositions on lower classes.
That kind of entitlement by the bourgeoise is how we ended up with the worst governments in human history — and I’m sad to see us repeating it.
The cost for unlimited public transportation in NYC is $127/month (not counting the 50% discount if you're extra poor). I dare you to prove that owning a car (depreciation, interest, gas, insurance, registration, taxes, tolls, maintenance, inspections, etc.) actually costs less than that per month.
