[muse900]

Yes but not always applicable unfortunately… e.g. the other day I was in Italy, I needed to park on the publicly available parking which was paid to the municipality.

No other parking available anywhere near in 30 mins walking distance. (paid or free)

I had to download a 3rd party app that asked me to register. This app isn’t by the Italian government, it’s affiliated though.

So in that situation, I want nothing to do with your website or app, because I wouldn’t able to park.

[ivanjermakov]

Have exactly the same situation with parking in Italy. Having a private company operating all paid parking on an island is not very healthy.

[echelon]

Having a handful of companies that can contact you has created a land of monopoly hyperscalers.

It's so hard to build anything big and durable because they've created these steep gradients.

[KennyBlanken]

"They" didn't create them. They laid out the bait - free APIs to do all sorts of stuff, and lazy-ass programmers took the bait hook line and sinker without thinking through the consequences of everyone moving their sites into "the cloud." Or didn't care.

Lot of people need to look in the mirror on this one - from programmers to execs.

[iamnothere]

I wouldn’t blame programmers. Free APIs and services were a great way to get bootstrapped, and nobody really understood why they existed: an extended period of low interest rates after the 2007/2008 crisis. The bait-and-switch wasn’t a conspiracy, it was a natural consequence of the unusual financial environment (which itself was a kick-the-can “solution” to cover up the damage caused by the GFC).

Almost none of us were deeply familiar with how rates could affect the availability and pricing of services, and the implications for infrastructure. Many of us understand this now, but too late—it’s unlikely that we see rates that low again in our lifetimes.

[gedy]

It's too bad there's no one willing to be a parking lot attendant on an Italian island.

[valleyer]

You might not have used one, but there have long been parking meters / payment kiosks that take charge cards and even cash. Neither an app nor a human attendant is required. It bugs me that these are slowly being replaced by smartphone app systems.

[rapidaneurism]

I think there is plenty of people, but they have these obscene demands about getting paid a living wage.

[pjc50]

Parking is expensive enough without having to pay a human.

[drnick1]

Can you not pay with cash or card anywhere? What if you don't have a "smart" phone? I would categorically refuse to park anywhere that requires running a proprietary app on my device. Fortunately, in the States at least, I have not encountered such a place yet.

[obmelvin]

Physical machines can be confusing too :)

When I was in Italy last summer, I couldn't figure out how to pay with my card at the machine in a small town, where you'd park to walk into an ancient city on a hill*. I asked two Italian woman for help and even with being able to read the Italian + having paid with coins themselves, they struggled to help me understand the combination of steps required to pay with card.

[cassianoleal]

In the UK, I believe parking companies need to have a way to pay without the app but it's usually so bloody inconvenient that it's about the same as requiring it.

[Slash65]

In my city in Northern California our downtown uses an app for parking now. I don’t use it so it’s still an option, but you have to goto a kiosk, enter your license plate number, and pay with card. It’s made the downtown more of a ghost town (admittedly it was already dying) and the boomers with cash just don’t go. The younger 20somethings all complain “boomers are too stupid to use an app” and have no concern for privacy apparently. Welcome to the future I guess.

[mikeington]

I have more parking apps on my phone than any other type of app. I begrudgingly download them for some semblance of convenience, but get annoyed that I'm logging in each time as it may be months since I used it, and towns changing apps means I likely have some high percentage of void apps that I keep around just in case. Living in New England doesn't help with lots of small towns, but even Cambridge has multiple apps depending on if you are parking on the street vs in a garage.

[autoexec]

> The younger 20somethings all complain “boomers are too stupid to use an app” and have no concern for privacy apparently.

They were literally trained not to value their privacy. The first generation of ipad kids now have driver's licenses.

[mingus88]

I hear some take pride in being “digital native” and only knowing a world where smartphones are a ubiquitous part of your life.

I’m quite content having grown up without being always online. The childhood I had where what I did between school time and when my parents expected me home for dinner were mine alone. Every event was not recorded by 50+ cameras with bad seats and posted online for nobody to watch.

A truly excellent time to be alive that I doubt we will see again

[singleshot_]

I think we might very well see those times again except it will be very challenging to find food. Good luck.

[smugma]

My wife changed carriers and for a day had lost her phone number. She was texting our son (who is in middle school) and his response was “prove it’s you”.

So digital native kids have learned to not trust people on the internet, don’t use your real name in an alias, etc.

“They were trained not to value privacy” is not what they are being taught in school.

[qalmakka]

You need to find a working parking metre which may or may not work, accept cards or give back change. Also most if not all of parking apps allow you to pay by the exact minute and extended your stay dynamically from the go, while with a paper ticket you need to go back to the car and get another one before it expires

[userbinator]

I do wonder if the "illegal not to accept cash" laws in some states have been applied to this situation.

Note that sometimes the risk is low, and changing your plate is cheaper if you do get a fine...

[devilbunny]

Park City, Utah - although there were meters that could accept card or cash available, none worked. App was the only functional way to pay. This was 3-4 years ago, not during ski season but getting close to it (October or November).

[calvinmorrison]

Essentially too bad. Look at the parkmobile disaster.

[HeatrayEnjoyer]

The what?

[calvinmorrison]

basically you have to use parkmobile in many places unless you carry literally rolls full of quarters due to the depreciation of the USD, some places dont even have machines anymore. ParkMobile is a moneygrabbing operation that municipalities use to run their parking stuff - yay saas. They got hacked and leaked everyones phone numbers, license plates, history, and more.

The settlement in court was - you got I believe a $1.00 coupon to use parkmobile again - but you could only use .50 towards each transaction

[ElFitz]

That, especially the conclusion, is hilariously bad.

[calvinmorrison]

It's worse I just checked

"

You are eligible for up to a $1.00 credit to be applied to ParkMobile’s service fees. The code provides a $0.25 discount on ParkMobile’s service fees and may be used up to four times for a total discount of $1.00. The code will expire on October 8, 2026. For residents of California, the code will not expire. The code will only work for accounts associated with email addresses that are in the class."

[anakaine]

Australia: some companies are app only

[onel]

You can't, no. It's the same story in Sicily. You can only pay for parking using an app, if you don't have a smartphone you just can't park. Luckily the parking app they have is pretty nice, but the requirement is infuriating

[abustamam]

Sometime ago I had to pay for parking to get access to a hiking trail (in US). The way to pay for parking was shady as hell. Just a random QR code sticker on the wall that said "pay here" that navigated to a payment portal that asked for your CC, address, license plate. I mentioned to my friend who was with me, "anyone could really just put any sort of QR code here and navigate you to a fake payment portal and steal your CC"

But like you said, what are you supposed to do otherwise?

[Operyl]

That's actually a common scam that happens, too. It's a constant problem in my city, and while I already have the app downloaded on my phone others do not and find themselves getting nasty bills in the mail months later.

[singleshot_]

Roll the dice; pay the ticket if cited. The cost of parking.

[inigyou]

I think in most countries the only way to challenge this kind of thing is to park illegally and then go to court and claim it was impossible for you to park legally. Which is a hard process, on purpose.

[stasomatic]

In the States, they tow your car to a yard and hold it ransom until you fork out a $1K or so (depends on the state/municipality), with accrued daily surcharges. And, good luck finding the yard. They also only take cash or debit so that you cannot run a chargeback later on. I'd rather just pay a $300 ticket, don't tow my car.

[inigyou]

Can you sue them for not telling you where your car is and then to recover all fees resulting from you not knowing where your car is?

I suspect you could but you'd be risking a car - better try it with the clunkiest clunker you can find.

[AngryData]

You can try, but you won't be the first and they are going to have lawyers for this exact scenario with decades of legal rulings and legislation often in their favor already. It's not usually worth the time unless you are willing to risk losing many thousands in lawyer costs if you don't win.

[rTX5CMRXIfFG]

tutanota.com protonmail.com

create a burner for when ‘not always applicable unfortunately’

[anakaine]

Ive bumped into these been banned too. Apples temp addresses worked well where these didnt.

[pbgcp2026]

Proton does require phone number now. It's not anaonymous email provider anymore.

[rTX5CMRXIfFG]

didn't know that, but the point of the burner is to trap junk email in an account you don't care to read

[akimbostrawman]

They do have sign up with only a captcha but it seems to be ip reputation depended if you get them.

https://proton.me/support/human-verification

[ABS]

you can pay at the parking meters directly, no need for a 3rd party app

[qalmakka]

Yes, but

- the apps almost always allow you to remotely increase your stay - the apps almost always allow you to pay by the exact minute instead of by the quarter/half an hour