42% of Cities Ban Sleeping in Vehicles

[Zil]

Yep. Drive through customers toss stuff as they drive down mom's street. Pedestrian munchers drop what they half finish like Hansel. Credit McD for doing the only thing they could do by using biodegradable packaging. It would be better if they did a police call and clean the area. (police, military term = walk along and pick up anything that don't belong there)

 

[GrayWhale]

I agree jeanontheroad, but lets punish the lawbreakers not the innocent. When I walk around town I see trash from fast food joints everywhere all over people's lawns. Should we close down all fast food joints because some people liter or go after the people who actually do liter?

Logic would dictate that it's mostly customers of such fast food joints that are littering, so it would be considered part of the expense of doing business and being profitable. While vagrants and loiterers hanging around on foot or in vans and RV's would be a nuisance and outweigh whatever revenue they contribute to the business. Such as, they really can't buy that much in fast foods per day, but will stay way longer; occupying spaces while making other patrons feel uneasy.

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I lived and worked in Washington, DC from 2000 - 2002. Within blocks of the white house there are homeless living on park benches, in store fronts, and on the side walks. There were a lot of them. Tell me why there aren't laws against that? If there are, why aren't they enforced? Maybe because the homeless / van less don't have anything valuable for the cops to confiscate (i.e. steal)?

There are laws against the homeless living on sidewalks, parks, etc. I'm sure they do rustle away the homeless who are sleeping on benches and sidewalks. There just aren't enough cops to keep doing this as the Homeless will just come back 30 minutes later. Or a night in jail is just free room and board for them. But a van is different, you can't just run and hide in the bushes when you see a cop coming. You move your van and you won't easily get another spot. And you really can't park for free in too many places in Wash DC anyway. And how are they going to ticket the homeless who has no ID, no address and no money? They wouldn't care about the tickets. While tickets on a van with plates will end up getting it towed one day if you don't pay the tickets. And the fine doubles in around 15 days after the due date.

 

[66788]

That article has been reported on in the recent past. Yes, it's true that more cities are banning people from living in their vehicles. I'm guessing it will get worse before things get better.

From what I can tell, cities are particularly extra interested in banning "over-sized" vehicles that fit a certain height and length criteria. That pretty much means any Class A or Class C RV vehicle due to their extra size.

When I was first searching for a van, I thought maybe I made a mistake in not getting a taller hightop model. But now I'm actually glad I got a low top vehicle instead, because that means city officials don't consider my vehicle an "oversized RV", which it isn't anyway. Plus my van is standard length instead of extended, so that also is in my favor.

For those who have a Class A or Class C RV and do city dwelling, I feel bad for you. It's only going to get harder and harder to park in city streets.

I feel that with all the "bad press" from RV dwellers being in the news in a negative light, that can't help but to spill over to affect me as well. Makes my life that much harder too. So far I've been dealing with it and making it work.

I just picked up a 22' Grumman Olson step van and do not believe I will have any problems with that vehicle being obvious. Of course I won't be in residential neighborhoods, but in commercial/industrial ones it will fit right in. It BIG with great potential.