Parking

[+oseos]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your feedback. Since this is a concept that affects all geocachers, I am going to

suggest that you post this in the Geocaching.com Web site forum. You can reach this forum at this

link http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=8

 

Eric

Groundspeak, Inc.

 

Ticket Details

===================

Ticket ID: XWK-129416

Department: Geocaching

 

With the price of gas and the greenhouse emissions the way they are, I'd like to make a suggestion

that all placed geocaches have a "mandatory parking location". It would avoid in some cases a lot of

unnecessary driving and frustration. In addition, driving around looking for a place to park

close to the geocache can be an extreme safety hazard.

Let's keep the planet clean and safe and have fun doing it.

Thanks,

Art (oseos)

[+wesleykey]

Part of the fun of the search is deciding where to start your search. Many a cacher has bushwhacked uphill only to use the trail coming back.

[+Stunod]

Mandatory? No.

 

We already have the ability to add it if the hider wants to supply it.

[+oseos]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your feedback. Since this is a concept that affects all geocachers, I am going to

suggest that you post this in the Geocaching.com Web site forum. You can reach this forum at this

link http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=8

 

Eric

Groundspeak, Inc.

 

Ticket Details

===================

Ticket ID: XWK-129416

Department: Geocaching

 

 

With the price of gas and the greenhouse emissions the way they are, I'd like to make a suggestion

that all placed geocaches have a "mandatory parking location". It would avoid in some cases a lot of

unnecessary driving and frustration. In addition, driving around looking for a place to park

close to the geocache can be an extreme safety hazard.

Let's keep the planet clean and safe and have fun doing it.

Thanks,

Art (oseos)

[+Renegade Knight]

Thank you, but no thanks. Your optimal parking spot is entirly up to you. On the rare occasion that I want you to use a spot, I'll say so.

[+NoLemon]

Let me see if I understand your proposal. In order to make it more convenient for some people to find parking for some caches (and thereby save gas and lower pollution as a result of less driving) you want to REQUIRE that ALL caches have parking coordinates?

 

You want to put an additional requirement (some would say burden) on the hider to make your search easier and less costly. In a great majority of the cases, you could achieve the same benefit by doing a little prep work studying the maps prior to leaving for your caching adventure.

 

No thanks.

[+Prime Suspect]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your feedback. Since this is a concept that affects all geocachers, I am going to

suggest that you post this in the Geocaching.com Web site forum. You can reach this forum at this

link http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=8

 

Eric

Groundspeak, Inc.

 

Ticket Details

===================

Ticket ID: XWK-129416

Department: Geocaching

 

With the price of gas and the greenhouse emissions the way they are, I'd like to make a suggestion

that all placed geocaches have a "mandatory parking location". It would avoid in some cases a lot of

unnecessary driving and frustration. In addition, driving around looking for a place to park

close to the geocache can be an extreme safety hazard.

Let's keep the planet clean and safe and have fun doing it.

Thanks,

Art (oseos)

Manditory? Right. If there's one thing the geocaching community is clamoring for, it's more rules.

[+StarBrand]

Ok fine.

 

The MANDATORY parking spot for all caches of mine that you seek is............

 

 

 

(fill in the coordinates of your home's driveway here _____.____ ____._____)

 

Geocaching is what you make it to be. Park next to the cache or a mile a way - your choice.

[+Team_CSG]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your feedback. Since this is a concept that affects all geocachers, I am going to

suggest that you post this in the Geocaching.com Web site forum. You can reach this forum at this

link http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=8

 

Eric

Groundspeak, Inc.

 

Ticket Details

===================

Ticket ID: XWK-129416

Department: Geocaching

 

 

With the price of gas and the greenhouse emissions the way they are, I'd like to make a suggestion

that all placed geocaches have a "mandatory parking location". It would avoid in some cases a lot of

unnecessary driving and frustration. In addition, driving around looking for a place to park

close to the geocache can be an extreme safety hazard.

Let's keep the planet clean and safe and have fun doing it.

Thanks,

Art (oseos)

 

I also have a small concern about the carbon footprint that I leave. I usually plan my hunts around other activities to reduce the amount of driving I do. Pre-planning is key.

 

Sometimes the 'thrill of the hunt' involves the attempt to approach the cache. I think this idea would take the challange out of finding caches. Also, how would this work for mystery/unknown caches where you need to solve a puzzle to get final coordinates?

[+D3C1B3L]

This is a duplicate thread.

[+Kealia]

Not to dog pile on, but no thanks.

 

 

As many have said, part of the fun for some is finding out how to get there.

[+Miragee]

I agree this should not be mandatory, but understand your viewpoint. I frequently include suggested parking coordinates, and have even placed caches at trailheads to help guide cachers so they don't drive around unnecessarily . . . and they get a "smilie" when they park their car.

[+Allen_L]

Not mandatory.

 

If park coords became mandatory, I would post some coords to a parking spot about 25+ miles away. You could walk to the the geocache from there if you wanted to.

[+sTeamTraen]

Are cachers who take their pushbike or the bus when they place a cache - thus, some people might think, really doing something for the environment - going to be required to scout out locations for car drivers?

[+BlessedBees]

Let's keep the planet clean and safe and have fun doing it.

Making them mandatory would increase the data being transmitted and the time it takes me to have my computer powered up to scroll past them.

[vagabond]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your feedback. Since this is a concept that affects all geocachers, I am going to

suggest that you post this in the Geocaching.com Web site forum. You can reach this forum at this

link http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=8

 

Eric

Groundspeak, Inc.

 

Ticket Details

===================

Ticket ID: XWK-129416

Department: Geocaching

 

With the price of gas and the greenhouse emissions the way they are, I'd like to make a suggestion

that all placed geocaches have a "mandatory parking location". It would avoid in some cases a lot of

unnecessary driving and frustration. In addition, driving around looking for a place to park

close to the geocache can be an extreme safety hazard.

Let's keep the planet clean and safe and have fun doing it.

Thanks,

Art (oseos)

Let your fingers do the walking

[Aushiker]

You want to put an additional requirement (some would say burden) on the hider to make your search easier and less costly. In a great majority of the cases, you could achieve the same benefit by doing a little prep work studying the maps prior to leaving for your caching adventure.

I agree with this statement and the point later on about your own driveway.

 

Also there are other options beside cars to get to cachers. Those options include public transport, walking, riding a bike, teaming up with others or traveling only some of the way and then riding/walking/whatever.

 

So I am also against the idea of mandatory parking coordinates as I don't think they are needed nor will they achive what you are seeking in my view.

 

Regards

Andrew

[+Markwell]

And what happens when a mandatory parking spot is in the middle of a lake? Or advocates parking in an illegal parking spot? Or someone's private drive?

 

No thank you.

[+Land Snoopers]

Your idea has some merit but lacks some in practicability. In the fact your intentions are good calls for safety and concern the environment for many reasons it has the implications of loss of freedom, potential for abuse, and smells of Big Brother watching over us. I'm afraid if things don't change concerning methods of transportation Al Gore will be having us cache from places in which we already exist and can take public transportation, or self propel. Grounds peak has made it easy on the environment with things like paperless caching, the addition of attributes and the cache in cache out program. This I feel this should remain a courtesy which may be prompted by Groundspeak, by a second set of coords for the purpose of suggestion which could also be downloaded in GPX format. That would mean some may want to filter that out because it may spoil their game somehow, and who but Groundspeak would have to then police the abuse factor from some jerk having you park in the middle of a freeway. That could mean liability. I think about it this would be a factor in less than 5% of caches I have found because it has been pretty self explanatory or the cache owner has included by extreme courtesy some direction to this matter. I can recall leaving the cache site to find a safer, and better route to the parking space. Also you must define the space because when I travel and cache with my 5th wheel in tow and that might not be practical for the space suggested. I’m a Charter member and that only means I’ve been in this game for a while, thinking these are few thing to be considered. Appreciate the topic though!

Land Snoopers

Edited September 6, 2007 by Land Snoopers

[+BlueDeuce]

If your gps says to drive there, who am I to argue with technology?

[+baloo&bd]

If when you drive around looking for parking it poses a safety hazard, the problem is not the lack of parking coordinates.

 

Nope, not necessary.

Edited September 6, 2007 by baloo&bd

[Keystone]

I merged together two similar threads started by the same OP.

[GPS-Hermit]

There are many caches where the search for a proper starting place is very much part of the search. Some owners tell you nothing at all. Other keep you out of trouble. Something you all ready know can change your mind about a starting point. Lets don't hamper the interesting and fun part of the game. Some mandatory parking is necessary to avoid trouble in the neighborhood. Owners should be aware of this and advise/demand accordingly.

[+oseos]

Thank you very much for all your replies. Apparently I am in the minority on this one. Guess “mandatory” was too strong a word. Although some of you believed that it is appropriate in some situations.

Have fun geocaching.

Art (oseos)

[+Renegade Knight]

Minority, yes, Alone no. You are not the only person who likes the idea. I like the idea of being able to provide one because every now and then I really do want someone to park in one exact spot. That's the exception but the need does some up. Now if I could only get people to use that spot when I post the coordinate!

[+baloo&bd]

Thank you very much for all your replies. Apparently I am in the minority on this one. Guess “mandatory” was too strong a word. Although some of you believed that it is appropriate in some situations.

Have fun geocaching.

Art (oseos)

 

You do realize your first thread is still open, right?

[+oseos]

Thank you very much for all your replies. Apparently I am in the minority on this one. Guess “mandatory” was too strong a word. Although some of you believed that it is appropriate in some situations.

Have fun geocaching.

Art (oseos)

 

You do realize your first thread is still open, right? No, and if it is, I don't know what to do about it.

Please let me know.

Thanks,

Art

[+mtn-man]

Thank you very much for all your replies. Apparently I am in the minority on this one. Guess “mandatory” was too strong a word. Although some of you believed that it is appropriate in some situations.

Have fun geocaching.

Art (oseos)

 

You do realize your first thread is still open, right?

I merged the new topic into this one. Merged into a merged topic. Heh.

[+FireRef]

I feel the same way as everyone else seems to. Mandatory would be bad.

 

I don't think anyone in this particular game can be TOO concerned with their carbon footprint, unless they walk, bike, or ride public transportation to ALL of their caches (or any other non-fuel using method). Oh wait, with people concerned about methane emissions from cows, we can't do it anyway, because we are burning fuel and producing carbon residue by living.

 

I'll do my part to help the environment - I have several fluorescent lightbulbs. However, I'm not a tree-hugger.

[Aushiker]

I don't think anyone in this particular game can be TOO concerned with their carbon footprint, unless they walk, bike, or ride public transportation to ALL of their caches (or any other non-fuel using method).

Well I can't talk for others but personally I am quite (read "TOO") concerned about my carbon footprint but I also do drive to some of my caches and some of them I ride my bike to and some of them I walk to. Just as I ride my bike as much as possible to work, shopping and to my partners.

 

For example I don't see myself using my car at all in the next two weeks and haven't used it the last week at all. I did use it a weekend ago on a bushwalking/caching weekend, but we at least car pooled!

 

Oh, I also have low energy lights in my unit, I turn off lights when I am not in the room just as I turn off at the wall my TV etc and oh my electricity is green electricity (wind generated).

 

So what I am saying is I think your conclusion about others was neither fair or valid. I do make a reasonable efforts to reduce my carbon footprint and I am concerned about same. However, I don't stop caching but I do try to do it in a manner where I consider my carbon footprint.

 

Regards

Andrew

Edited September 8, 2007 by Aushiker

[+Glenn]

<snip>

With the price of gas and the greenhouse emissions the way they are, I'd like to make a suggestion

that all placed geocaches have a "mandatory parking location". It would avoid in some cases a lot of

unnecessary driving and frustration. In addition, driving around looking for a place to park

close to the geocache can be an extreme safety hazard.

Let's keep the planet clean and safe and have fun doing it.

Thanks,

Art (oseos)

 

You are assuming that because someone has a parking location loaded in to their GPSr that they know the shortest driving path from where they are to the parking. You are also assuming that the parking location will not be all parked up. You are also assuming that because someone has been told where to park that they will not try to find a closer parking place first.

 

My experiance has been that parking is fairly obvious. When it isn't obvious the cache owner usually adds a waypoint for parking and before there was a formal way to add waypoints to cache pages the owner would include the parking coordinates in the cache description.

 

If it is your personal conviction that geocachers need to reduce their carbon footprint then maybe you should see about getting the laws changed in your area where geocachers have to walk or bicycle to all caches. My favorite caches are rural caches. I couldn't drive up to most caches even if I wanted to the trail aren't wide enough and the parking is usually obvious and there is plenty of it.

 

<snip>

 

Oh, I also have low energy lights in my unit, I turn off lights when I am not in the room just as I turn off at the wall my TV etc and oh my electricity is green electricity (wind generated).

 

<snip>

Regards

Andrew

 

Isn't it illegal to sell anything except the compact florescent light bulb in your country? So you have no choice but to use the energy efficient light bulbs.

[+eagsc7]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your feedback. Since this is a concept that affects all geocachers, I am going to

suggest that you post this in the Geocaching.com Web site forum. You can reach this forum at this

link http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=8

 

Eric

Groundspeak, Inc.

 

Ticket Details

===================

Ticket ID: XWK-129416

Department: Geocaching

 

 

With the price of gas and the greenhouse emissions the way they are, I'd like to make a suggestion

that all placed geocaches have a "mandatory parking location". It would avoid in some cases a lot of

unnecessary driving and frustration. In addition, driving around looking for a place to park

close to the geocache can be an extreme safety hazard.

Let's keep the planet clean and safe and have fun doing it.

Thanks,

Art (oseos)

 

Yeah... This sounds good. NOT!!! I will say this now. If I placed a cache at N47 39.984 W117 44.343, I'd have the parking coordinates being N00 00.001 W000 00.002. That sounds good. Of course, I am really part of the crowd where having the Referance coords and Parking coords MAY be useful in certain situations. Perfect example being in a Mountainous area that it Looks like a road goes Right by it, but the road hasn't been there for a LONG time, but a trail is easially accessable from 1/4 mile away.

 

Of course, there are times in which I'll use my best judgement and go Over the mountain, just to get there'Faster' than going around...

 

On the Enviromental aspect... I would never leave the house except for Work and Food if it were not for Geocaching. Of course, then I would not know the local area near as well and know of all the other fun places to go and be in nature...

 

The Steaks

 

The Steaks

[+alexrudd]

What would you propose for this cache series?