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Comment by secondbreakfast | Hacker News Reader

There are negative externalities to Uber too, such as Traffic and pollution.

That’s not so clear cut. The alternative to Uber is not just staying home or riding a bike, at times it’s driving your own car and circling for 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot.

Yeah, or taking a taxi or driving drunk.

I have literally never circled for 30 minutes looking for a parking spot. In every city I have been to people people use a parking garages of one type or another. Where exactly is circling like this common?

Where it's $4-6 for a few hours if you can find a spot, but a flat $20+ for a parking garage after the first half hour. So, Baltimore, DC, stuff like that.

Many NYC outer borough neighborhoods can be like that; there might not be any garages - or maybe there's only 1-2 which are always full. For example, in Queens, think of Jackson Heights, Flushing Main Street, or parts of Jamaica. I can definitely see spending 30 minutes looking for a parking spot in Jackson Heights on a busy evening if you aren't too familiar with driving in the area.

That’s quite localized in term of location and time of day.

Comparing the number of cars in NYC/DC/etc garages vs on street parking people are still mostly using company provided / reimbursed the garages down town. So, while some people in some areas may spend time circling, across all trips average circling time is minimal.

Note that I was very much not talking about downtown (Manhattan has garages). I was talking about mixed residential/commercial immigrant neighborhoods far from downtown. The places where ordinary people would go to shop for their country's authentic groceries.

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