Comments on: When a Two-Car Garage Just Isn’t Enough

By: AD

AD — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:38:39 +0000

Absolutely. Actually I was pretty much being facetious. Any business model predicated on selling something people don’t really need probably isn’t going to work in the long run.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:04:04 +0000

AD – Anyone who actually manufactures a product and hopes to make increasing profits off of the sales is going to go bankrupt…such a 20th Century business model.

The high profit margins are in the financing, servicing products and reorganizing logistics to increase efficiency.

If the auto industry wants fat margins, they need to outsource production and move into maximizing the efficiency of each automobile.

And there are great market niches in the space between full automobile ownership and relying on taxis for your automobile needs.

As much as we can make automobile usage “pay per trip” instead of large upfront investment and maximization of utility after that, the better.

By: donr

donr — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 18:01:59 +0000

people do that on my street in brooklyn too. and they did it in manhattan when i lived in the l.e.s. – people are stupid everywhere.

By: AD

AD — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:31:21 +0000

But Glenn, how will the automakers be able to make a profit if they can’t sell one vehicle for every person?

By: Angus Grieve-Smith

Angus Grieve-Smith — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:29:24 +0000

Tps12, this is a joke about vehicles “in” the family vs. “for” the family, right? Because I can’t muster much sympathy for people who choose to spend thousands of dollars on five vehicles in one of the most congested and transit-friendly areas in the country. Yes, even Staten Island is transit-friendly, relatively speaking.

I grew up upstate, and no, please don’t tell more people to bring cars up there. The increase in car culture is one reason that my hometown no longer has a supermarket. When I was growing up, I knew several adults who lived just fine without a car, but a few years ago it became that much harder to sustain a car-free lifestyle up there.

By: tps12

tps12 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:00:14 +0000

It’s easy to be scornful, but then again, I’m not related to any cars…I don’t mind parking my Civic a couple blocks away, but would I feel the same way about a favorite aunt or younger cousin? If I try to put myself in the shoes of someone with five vehicles in their family, maybe I’ll find more sympathy for their situation.

By: Doc Barnett

Doc Barnett — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:42:07 +0000

You’re right; I don’t want to see upstate be trashed / “economically developed.” I guess it’s just too tempting to tell people to get lost when you tire of telling them to lose their cars.

By: brent

brent — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:22:45 +0000

Yes Doc, but one of the great benefits of living in a dense urban place is that it can preserve undeveloped areas nearby. Just because Long Island, Jersey, and Staten Island are over- developed and ruined doesn’t mean upstate should be devastated on the same scale.

By: Doc Barnett

Doc Barnett — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:50:43 +0000

Re: “moving upstate”

I’m sure it’s just me, but I’ve only heard this as a retort for car nuisances. Once a very loud, very old (and surely very polluting) car was having trouble starting up and departing our central village street. After midnight, on a weeknight. One resident complained out his window, and was of course told that he “should move upstate.”

Here’s an idea: take all your damn cars upstate. This is a city of people.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:32:32 +0000

I used to get notes on my car in Astoria when I lived there (I’ve since sold my car and moved to Manhattan) and they would drive me crazy. People would put their garbage cans in front of their houses, park in front of their curb cut driveways instead of pulling in or pull two cars in the driveway and blocking the sidewalk.

And anything over 3 stories was opposed because people feared the explosion in people looking for parking.

What these areas really need is more shared automobiles. The only time I really used my car when I lived in Queens was for the weekly grocery run and weekend trips to visit friends and relatives. In a month I might really use it 5-6 times, sitting unused the rest of the time. Zipcar is a part answer for these issues…for the family with 5 cars, they need to start communicating better to each other and they could save a lot of money I bet.

By: Angus Grieve-Smith

Angus Grieve-Smith — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:09:56 +0000

According to the article, this happened on Colon Avenue. The entire length of Colon Avenue is within walking distance of the SIRT, three express buses to Manhattan (more if you’re willing to walk over to Richmond Avenue) and two local buses.

I think that this undermines the arguments of people like John Liu who favor more of a “carrot” approach to getting people out of their cars, in the form of investing in transit options. Look at all the carrots around Colon Avenue, and these people still want to drive everywhere. Time to break out the stick.