Hacker News Reader

The thing that kills this niche is booking a sleeper car ticket on the capitol corridor. Amtrak does all this but better. Train is quieter, there's a full dining car with meals cooked in a legit kitchen, more space to walk around, fantastic view in the observation car. Only thing they don't do right is advertising. Did you know the sleeper car comes with 3 meals a day? I didn't.

On reflection the other issue is that it doesn't go direct into downtown. But you can transfer to BART at Richmond so same same.

I love taking Amtrak, but my god the food is terrible.

I found the food on the Amtrak Coastal Starlight (Seattle-LA) better than expected, and their wines were much better than I expected (comparable to Asian airlines' wines in business class). A pleasant journey all round really.

I took the California Zephyr all the way to Chicago and then continued my rail trip on to New York. While the dining experience differs depending on the route, I can tell you first hand that on my way to Chicago I was slamming back steak and clams. Couldn't believe it was included in the ticket. And also complimentary coffee. They don't tell you this, but the sleeper ticket is actually first class. I initially thought I was being gouged for the privilege of not trying to sleep in a chair.

Even the chairs in "coach class" beat Delta first class on a 737 by a few orders of magnitude.

The capitol corridor goes to Sacramento and not LA. The Amtrak from SF (well Oakland) to LA leaves at 9am and arrives at 9pm. The one coming back leaves at 10am and arrives at 10pm. Hardly convenient timing and 4 hours slower than the bus (and that's without even counting the BART time to get into SF itself).

> Which in a strange way will alleviate Bay Area housing shortage - when you’re living in an RV, do you care how far away it’s parked from work if it’s self driving?

I can't wait to park my RV 30 miles away from work, go to sleep, and be woken up at 4am due to jostling and rush-hour noise as a fleet of hundreds of RVs all try to self-drive themselves into the city.

I can't wait to use one of the least fuel-efficient vehicles possible, and make it even worse by having it drive itself around constantly to meet me at my office (since there's nowhere for it to park inside the city). It's okay, climate change will only be killing the people who can't afford their own personal RV.

That or living in a $2000/month studio apartment in the Tenderloin? I’d take the self driving RV. If it’s electric, charged by renewable energy, is it really that bad for the environment?

>>having it drive out to Tracy each evening and parking in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Do American supermarkets not have any time limits on parking? In the UK every single supermarket will have a 2-3 hour time limit on parking with anywhere between £70-100 fine for parking there for longer.

Wal-Mart has allowed for overnight parking for quite awhile.

It's even in their corporate Q&A[1] Q: Can I park my RV at a Walmart store? A: While we do not offer electrical service or accommodations typically necessary for RV customers, Walmart values RV travelers and considers them among our best customers. Consequently, we do permit RV parking on our store parking lots as we are able. Permission to park is extended by individual store managers, based on availability of parking space and local laws. Please contact management in each store to ensure accommodations before parking your RV.

[1] https://corporate.walmart.com/frequently-asked-questions

Several stores in North Dakota have banned the practice because of abuse and other problems.

Due to oil fields and lack of housing I imagine.

It's not American supermarkets in general, but specifically Wal-Mart. Most Wal-Mart stores allow RV parking overnight. I would expect that UK supermarkets have only scarce parking, but Wal-Mart away from city centers typically has so much parking space that the lot is literally never full.

For example:

https://goo.gl/maps/PqQR9BD3Kshs4vvZ9

https://goo.gl/maps/B6ai1vRxJg5B63vr7

https://goo.gl/maps/DPCpegpGedKgy9TC9

Basically, no. Unless you're in a very popular area, there will be no limits on parking. I've noticed that even out of the way english parking lots have strict limits and frequently automated camera systems for finding perpetrators. Do you know why that is? To keep out "undesirables"(gypsies, vagabonds)?

Many supermarkets in the UK outsource maintenance of their car parks to private firms, who benefit from being able to charge after a certain period has elapsed. It's the same with hospitals, train stations, council car parks. It makes me sad.

So truck drivers don't overnight at UK supermarkets? What do they do when they can't park at a truck stop and they're out of legal driving hours for the day?

I'm driving a semi truck. I'm parked in a Kroger parking lot in Fort Worth TX (in an out of the way corner), having slept here overnight. Kroger is unusual, I mostly use Walmart when I can't find "legitimate" parking, because the lots are generally bigger, near interstates, and easier to navigate a truck and 53 foot trailer through.

I tried a nearby truck stop first, but there were no spaces.

Two nights before I slept on an interstate on ramp on Alabama. There were ten to fifteen other trucks on that same ramp, and when I left the next morning most of the subsequent ramps were full of trucks.

Which is to say, I'm a frequent Walmart parker, by necessity.

I've never seen a specific time limit at a Walmart lot. Sometimes I see no truck parking signs at Walmart, or no overnight signs (and sometimes i park there anyway, especially if there are other trucks there).

I have seen time limit signs at some rest areas, for six or eight hours. Yet truckers are required to stop for at least ten hours between working days. I ignore those signs.

And by the way, depending on the part of the country, those rest area off and on ramps are usually also packed with trucks.

I've only been told to move once, waking me from sleep, when I accidentally parked in a paid reserved space at a truck stop. (Yep, they have those, more and more.)

>> So truck drivers don't overnight at UK supermarkets? What do they do when they can't park at a truck stop and they're out of legal driving hours for the day?

Don't know, but certainly not that. Even the huge supermarkets with their spacious(for the UK) car parks are way too narrow for a large truck - the delivery entrance is usually elsewhere, you couldn't even make a turn with one in here - as an example, that's probably the largest supermarket with the largest amount of parking anywhere in my area - look at how small these intersections are, no way you would fit a truck here.

https://www.google.pl/maps/@55.0137268,-1.6641004,3a,75y,333...

Walmart as a company is generally friendly to both truckers and "vandwellers" who use their lot for overnight parking. The only exceptions I've seen are smaller "neighborhood Walmart" locations and the occasional small town where the cops have nothing to do all night except harass overnight truckers and mobile home/van drivers.

If this is true these fines are unenforceable. Parking tickets/fines are allowed in UK law for breaking the rules on public land. Parking on private land is governed by contract law. For a contract to be legally binding it needs to consist of the elements of a contract: offer, acceptance, and consideration, i.e. payment. Which UK supermarket charges for parking?

All of them, presumably - just not directly, as an ascribed line item on your receipt.

Literally every single one in the UK. But it's not even supermarkets, pretty much every car park in this country works like this, I've even seen ones next to pubs and cinemas have that(made for a fun viewing of Alien + Aliens in a promotional re-release few years ago, the staff at the cinema were warning everyone that if you parked outside and are here to see both movies in one go you will be charged for overstaying as the time limit is 4 hours). And those fines are very much enforceable - as long as the conditions are listed in a public view the company can charge you for parking over the allowed time(it's a charge, not a fine technically).

Clearly explained here: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/law-and-courts/pa...

From your link "A court may decide that you breached a contract with the parking operator and that you must pay the charges."

I don't understand how free parking satisfies the elements of a contract. There is no consideration. This would make sense if you paid for parking (thereby forming a contract) and overstayed (breach of contract).

Can you explain that for me?

I mean, what's difficult here? When you arrive at a car park there's a sign that says "by parking here, you agree to pay £70 per day of parking. The initial 3 hours are free. Your licence plate number has been recorded on entry and will be recorded on exit to determine the amount of time you spent here. If you do not agree to those terms you need to have to leave within 10 minutes of arrival". Basically by parking at someone's property you form a contract with them, as long as the terms of it are publicly and visibly displayed.

$0.20 a mile in an RV? Fuel alone will be more than that.

Electric is the only way to get down to those operating costs. So your electric RV would need to supercharge by itself on the trip. $0.20/mile is 2.5kwh/mi at $0.08/kWh... seems possible.

Autonomous RVs will change everything. I'll definitely be buying one when they are available. I like RVs but they are a challenge to drive. Take that downside away, and you have my ideal travel situation.