Editor’s Note: Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.
Early last month, after enjoying a show at Paper Tiger, I returned to the spot where I parked, only to find no car.
I misread the details of a parking sign, and had been duly towed. After ride-sharing home, attempting to pick up the vehicle at midnight, only to discover the motionless line at the impound lot would have taken hours, then finally retrieving the car in the morning, my bill came to $245.
What a racket. But, hey, at least it wasn’t stolen — merely held hostage.
Which begs a question: why do we allow private companies to conduct non-consensual towing in the first place? Seems like parking illegally should be a city matter, and we the public should get to deliberate and decide on what remedies are appropriate and at what cost.
However, the more I thought about it, the more I sympathized with people who have it worse.
Some 4.6 million Americans drive an hour and a half to work and an hour and a half back, according to Census data. That’s three hours trapped in a car every workday, uncompensated. From 2010 to 2019, the number of these so-called “super commuters” increased 68% in the Houston area alone.