I’m fascinated by the modalities of owning a car in NYC. I’ve read that most people don’t have assigned parking spaces and use garages, which often have 24-hr waits for accessing one’s vehicle since a valet needs time to get it out of a tightly packed space. This is backed up by multiple sources \[1\]\[2\].
I’m figuring, a hypothetical garage that let people self-park whenever they want would command a price premium for the convenience, and save on the staffing costs of valets. How is it that such a garage doesn’t come into existence and put the valet-only garages out of business?
\[1\] [https://jalopnik.com/owning-a-car-in-new-york-is-absolutely-worth-it-1782352176](https://jalopnik.com/owning-a-car-in-new-york-is-absolutely-worth-it-1782352176)\[2\] SpotHero’s guide to NYC parking – link omitted since it has a chance of triggering a spam filter
Edit: It looks like the point about taking 24 hrs to retrieve a car is out-of-date – it’s more like 30 mins.
In: Economics
Not NYC, but I’ve used a few in San Francisco. Those parking garages are tiny and the valet will basically cram as many cars as possible which definitely requires having to move multiple vehicles around. This is only possible if the attendant has the keys of all the vehicles. Keep in mind that parking in high density cities can cost over $30 per day, so fitting more vehicles easily justifies the wages of the valets. Also, I’ve never had to wait longer than 15 minutes. So 24 hours just sounds unreal.
Latest Answers