Feb 20 2025 - The King of Congestion

 

Donald Trump declared himself KING recently - in relation to ordering New York to stop its congestion fee system.  It doesn't seem possible to have two kings in the congestion world.  And that is not even considering Elon Musk. The real king of congestion and parking is Donald Shoup.  He is the author of The High Cost of Free Parking - 20 years ago - and he changed the urban parking landscape significantly.   He was a PhD and research economist at UCLA. He was inspired by a master's thesis that found that Los Angeles County employees were almost twice as likely to drive alone than federal employees in the Los Angeles Civic Centre.  Why?  It was free parking. Shoup had estimated that 700 million rot 2 billion parking spots existed in the U.S. - a ratio of 2.5 to 7 times as many parking spaces as registered vehicles.     His investigation and studies resulted in his theory that an 85% occupancy rate of on-street -parking spaces would be the most efficient use of public parking.  The expression "cruising for parking" was one of his findings - driving around to find the closest parking spot. Congestion was the result.  Parking cash-out was a solution he advocated.  As parking spaces are subsidized at work, he devised options for the employee the choice to keep the parking space, use the money to pay for transit or vanpool fares, or sae the money by carpooling, bicycling, etc.  He also advocated removing parking minimums for condos, etc.  These resulted in a bias towards owning cars and driving.  It was found that parking minimums failed to reduce or eliminate curb congestion and increased it. The expression of being the king of congestion comes with the full sentence that Donald Trump used.    "Long live the king" no longer can apply to Donald Shoup as he died a few weeks ago.   The declaration that Donald Trump actually made was:  LONG LIVE THE KING!   All upper case.  I looked it up and there's a name for that:  language intensity.  Surprise that this is meant to signal that something is important here and that there's intense emotion with the words.

This is the road to the Peninsula Ridge Winery restaurant.  The Kitchen House - a heritage site - is the actual focal point everyone knows.   The second picture shows  a different perspective with the road diagonally in front - and of course a spring view with the fruit trees in bloom.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 22 2024 - Each Day, Same Spot

 

Monday to Friday there are three vehicles parked out front.  They are workers who are building the new hospital, two streets over.  The same vehicles park in the same spots, arriving at the same time, each day.  I expect this is occurring all over the neighbourhood - I see streets parked up all around the hospital.   I wonder what makes us choose exactly the same time and same spot each day.  And the cars park in their spots even if other cars are not present.  No one changes position.   One neuroscientist explains that the recognition of actions with large duration is hindered by the capacity of our memory.  So we choose a simple solution and set up repetitive actions to solve this limitation.. So we are set up to develop repetitions or habits for most things.  Pick any topic and put habit after the word and you will find recommended ways of doing that activity. I found an article that explained why people park next to each other every day - even in company parking lots.  The rationale is given as being "out of habit". Another question that pops up a lot is "why do people park right next to a car in an otherwise empty parking lot?" Rationales and habits are curious things.

There's nothing like a summer flower in the field - this is Queen Anne's Lace. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

There's Nothing for you, really

Is 'nothing' a negative?  Don't we think of 'anything' as positive?  That seems so interesting to me.  The definition of nothing is:  not anything, no single thing. However, when I compare these two sentences: "There is nothing for you".  vs.  "There isn't anything for you". There seems to be a subtle difference.  The first sentence could be continued with "and don't check with me again", while the second sentence could be continued with "and check with me again later". Can you imagine learning a new language such as English with these kinds of distinctions? Here is a quote from Richard Rodgers: "There isn't anything I wanted to do that I haven't.  At the same time there isn't anything I've ever done that I didn't want to do better".   So on to the opposite of nothing - something.   Here are two funny sights from my Toronto trip a few weeks ago.  First the delivery truck of parking machines.  The second shows two men doing some measuring with what looked like a camera, but is an instrument to measure speed.  I noticed them because of the running, jumping and various athletic activities.