Space Saver

[woodwardiocom]

For those who, like me, spent part of the weekend digging out a parking space, I point out that you can buy orange safety cones from Home Depot for $10-$16, depending on size. They tend to get more respect, and look less tacky than lawn furniture.

(There are many schools of thought on the ethics of space-saving. If you feel a need to weigh in, please preface your comments with A) whether you have a driveway, and B) whether you personally shoveled out a space this past weekend.)

EDIT: I note that the "tragedy of the commons" can, on casual inspection, be used to argue both sides of this practice. If marking a space counts as depleting a common resource, than each digger making a rational situation thus makes everyone's situation worse. If, on the other hand, marking a space is seen as privatizing it, then TotC theory holds that private space is treated better than public space (e.g., more thoroughly dug out and maintained).

Hmm. I think the appropriate way to start thinking about this is to recognize that "digging" is the opposite of the traditional TotC example of "grazing". With cows grazing on the commons, the herder gets the full benefit of the additional cow, but the overgrazing damage is spread out over everyone. With digging out a spot, if the spot benefits everyone, then the digger does not get the full benefit. Thus, if people couldn't mark spots, then they wouldn't dig them out unless absolutely necessary, and wouldn't have incentive to do a good job of it, since they do not receive the full benefit of their work.

Comments

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

(A) No...sort of, (B) Hell, yeah!
I admit that this combination of answers would present bias
It's just unfortunate to be the one who shoveled your car out of a parking space only for some random wanker to swipe it after a five-minute errand...so I've heard.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

!A+7B

Yeah, it all really sucks when someone takes a space you've worked hard to clear. i hate it, and it makes me disappointed and angry.

All of those feelings aside, they aren't my spaces. It's so hard to find parking sometimes even without weather, that I work to recognize my feelings about the matter quickly, let them go, and wish the new person who has the space well. I recognize that other people *don't* feel this way, and so because I don't want to screw over somebody else, I try to park precisely where I was, and also because we unfortunately live in a world where people might take their frustrations out on the vehicle.

All of that having been said, this year I'm much less vulnerable to this sort of thing, working two T stops away.

Also, I'm slightly obsessive about rules.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this, exactly. Ethical or not, is not *legal* in Somerville to try to keep a parking space with a space saver, and so I wouldn't try. (Yes, car owner, and Nick and I spent a joint 15+ hours clearing our space this weekend, noting with resentment that we were doing a much more thorough job of it than anyone else on our street -- maybe all the other cars have four wheel drive or something, but if we try to park in spaces shoveled out by anyone else we are likely to get stuck in them because they were done so crappily. That happens to us at least once a year.)

(Come to think of it, I get a lot angrier about other people doing a crappy job shoveling out their spaces than I do about people taking the space we shoveled -- I guess because I've already accepted that we're not going to get to keep "ours.")

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

I live in Medford. Parking rules are slightly different.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. That's why I specified Somerville. In Boston, by contrast, it is explicitly legal to leave a space saver in your shoveled-out spot for a certain number of days. And if I lived there I would probably take advantage of that.

[tactical-grace.livejournal.com]

I have a driveway. I didn't have to shovel out a space, because I have a garage (although I did have to clear snow off of about 175 feet of driveway, so I am familiar with the general concept of snow removal).

I did, however, live in Somerville for five years and spent my fair share of time shoveling out parking spaces, and people who reserve parking spaces are generally jerks. More than once I returned to the parking space that I had shoveled out to discover it occupied, and then later empty and marked with some random bit of detritus. Alternatively, I remember parking in unreserved spaces and returning to find that some kind soul had generously freed the air from my tires in retribution.

One more reason to be glad I don't live in Somerville anymore.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Your anecdotes don't seem to have much to do with the conclusion you draw. In the first you seem cranky that someone took "your" unmarked space, and in the second someone was cranky with you for taking an unmarked space. In neither case have you established that someone who marked a space they dug out is a jerk.

[tactical-grace.livejournal.com]

Sorry. Brevity is occasionally the enemy of clarity.

It annoys me on a visceral level to have someone take a spot that I have spent time shoveling out. This is different from feeling some sort of entitlement to a public parking spot because I have bothered to clear it.

I parked in a spot that someone had presumably marked for themselves, but then the marker had been removed by (presumably a third party). The person who let the air out of my tires, I can only guess, assumed that a) I had moved their marker and taken 'their' spot, and that b) they were entitled to enact some sort of revenge on me and my car for the offense. Frontier justice.

The 'random crap as parking space reservation' mechanic is deeply flawed.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

My thoughts, prefaced with a) no driveway and b) having personally shoveled out a space (well, Trowa and I split the work):

I try really hard not to be That Guy Who Marks Parking Spots in Snowbanks with Large Objects. I have this naive idea that things would mostly work out for parking if everyone stopped doing that, because the space marking inflates parking scarcity. It seems rude to deprive others of a perfectly good space during the time that I am not using it. The problem is that so few others cooperate. So yeah, I am tempted, but I still don't do it.

As my friend lioritgioret said to me, "Sometimes, being the change you hope to see in the world means losing your parking space."

That said, I do try to move my car as little as possible when there is so much snow that parking space is at a premium, but I see that as different because I'm actually using the space, not taunting others with the possibility of a place to park their cars if they could just get up the nerve to move whatever object is occupying the space in my absence.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

the space marking inflates parking scarcity.

That can be argued either way. Does space-saving encourage people to shovel out more spots, since they can't take existing ones, and will be able to reserve their own?

Clearly a scientific study is indicated!

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on where you are. in Somerville, the parking ban is still on due to still being under snow emergency, so every single available spot on the odd side of the road (only side you can currently park on) is already shoveled out. that might change when the ban ends.

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

no driveway & did shovel out a space. it drives me nuts when people mark off their spaces with crap. I shoveled out a spot, and if I leave and come back & it's taken, I want to be able to find another spot nearby (since I'm a lady with a toddler & a health issue that means carrying a small toddler a long distance will make me not feel very well). I have no issue with getting out of my car & moving the crap onto the sidewalk & taking the spot. if they have an issue with that, they can come help me find other parking & carry said toddler to my house for me.

[inkedandkinked.livejournal.com]

In my neighborhood a heavy snow fall always meant new chairs for the kitchen

[veek.livejournal.com]

(Wandered over to your journal as I sometimes do, saw this.)

No driveway; yes shoveled; I live just over the Somerville line in Winter Hill, Medford.

And feel pretty strongly about NOT marking spaces. I think it's a jerky thing to do. And I say this as someone who routinely shuffles around 40-60lbs of child, car seat, and bags.

The spot I shoveled out is often taken. If I heeded the chairs etc., I'd be parking three blocks away and shuffling all that stuff a LONG way. No thanks. And along the same line, one never knows exactly what physical constraints are on one's neighbor.

I don't shovel out spaces *just* because I need my car. It's also because I live in a neighborhood where parking space (and sidewalk) shoveling is part of the social contract. In some cases it's legally mandated, in others it's not, but it's always a social contract. So I try to be a neighbor, and not live behind a castle wall literally or metaphorically.

I'm fully aware that some people will be jerks, and will take advantage of the rest of us. Are my socialist tendencies showing? :)