MonkeyParking FLINGS AWAY San Francisco service Embattled mobile app vendor MonkeyParking has suspended service in San Francisco under threat of legal action from City Hall. The company said that users in San Francisco would no longer be able to bid on parking spots through the mobile app. The move leaves Rome as the only city in which MonkeyParking currently operates. …
Whether we like it or not, parking meters is not a "racket". It is the job of voted in councils to manage such public space. Democracy isn't perfect, but at least delegating power through voting is a good start. A private entity does not have that same authority.
I'm not fond of parking meters either, and certainly don't agree with much of what city councils are doing in different cities. However, I do prefer some version of democratic control as opposed to a private company trying to scam folks. Perhaps I'm wrong in my assessment of MonkeyParking and other posters can come up with a good justification of their actions. We'll see.
is really to make money!
The real challenge is that they cannot sell the actual space itself, they can only sell the info that there is a space.
That means the current parker has no legal claim to the current parking spot and cannot choose who he sells it to.
If a third party sees a person about to pull out and wait for the space, they can have it even if someone else has "bought" it.
Since only the information, and not the spot, can be sold, that introduces a whole opportunity for parking trolling. As you walk along the sidewalk and see someone about to pull out, you could "sell" their spot. There is nothing limiting the seller to being the current parker.
That means there is nothing stopping multiple people selling the same spot, nor is there anything stopping someone selling non-existent spots or selling a spot that someone else occupies.
Net result: lots of pissed off people, road rage, fights,...
SF are doing the right thing nipping this in the bud.
If you've ever driven round for ages not being able to find a parking space you surely would agree that something - anything - to match up spare spaces with frustrated drivers would be useful. A pity really but you have to agree with Charles Manning that this would be a recipe for a punch-up the first time it went wrong.
"If you've ever driven round for ages not being able to find a parking space you surely would agree that something - anything - to match up spare spaces with frustrated drivers would be useful."
Last time I couldn't find an on street space (in London of course) I simply asked my satnav to navigate to a parking garage and parked. Yes it was fairly expensive (although not THAT bad) but if I had to bid for a space, pay that money, then pay again to park the car the cost would have been more! especially in a place like london where the wealthy will simply out bid people for the fun of it.
The ONLY way this can be done well is if the local council were running it and had sensors in the parking bays to show where they are and when they are free/occupied. Of course that would cost a lot of money and cause disruption as the system is put in, and wouldn't provide any additional income to the council so will never happen, at least in the UK.
Whatever Paolo Dobrowolny (the founder on MonkeyParking) says, the users of this app are breaking the law (even if the app itself isn't).
The relevant phrase is:
“. . . enter into a lease, rental agreement or contract of any kind"
The supposed loophole that users are just selling 'information' is no loophole at all. There is an offer and an acceptance and thereafter an exchange of consideration. It is a contract and thus illegal. There's just no way around it - whatever your stance on the utility or consequences of this app, the users are entering into a contract and it thus directly violate the law. No ifs or buts.
Looking at the supposed 'selling information' loophole closer, that is a deliberate misrepresentation of what is actually happening. Yes, you are selling information about which parking spot you are leaving but, more importantly, you are agreeing to leave that spot at a given time and for a given person only, and you are doing so in exchange for a monetary consideration.
If they actually wanted to attempt to use 'selling information' as a loophole then there is an important change that needs to be made - the person must sell only the information: "I will be leaving this parking spot at this time".
That means that the seller can't wait for the buyer. In other words, they cant:
"Leave [their] spot to the highest bidder by letting the driver park at [their] place".
What is happening is like match-fixing. Take cricket, with the numerous exotic bets available. By the logic of Mr. Dobrowolny and his lawyers, a bowler could apparently claim to be merely 'selling information' that he will bowl a front-foot no ball on the second ball of the fifth over.
This defence is clearly ridiculous, as is any claim from MonkeyParking that they are only selling 'information'.
The selling of the information is inextricable from the action the information is about. You are promising to leave a spot not just at a given time but for a given person. As you don't know which person will be the highest bidder for the 'information' before you start the process, you are changing the 'information' you are selling depending on the winner. And, as that information is about an action (leaving a parking spot), the action itself is determined by who wins.
The only way to claim you are 'just selling information' is if the action is not determined by the bidding process. Clearly, this is not the case here and one could argue that the app would lose most of its utility if it was altered to work that way.
" 'Our mission is to get rid of circling the block turning a random parking process into a predictable one, saving people time while also reducing traffic congestion and generated pollution,' the firm said in a statement announcing the shutdown."
Easily solved: Produce an app that allows a user to push a GPS-determined address -- and nothing else -- that gets, in turn, pushed to anyone using the app in that area.
Trust the "Sharing Economy", and all that!
Mission accomplished!
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