Hacker News Reader

Comment by knob | Hacker News Reader

This is alien to me. "The average cost of a one day visit to the beach was $22, not including parking or food, according to the study." I have lived all my life in Puerto Rico, and the average visit to the beach is $0.00 Just, go. The many beaches of the island is one of the reason why we don't have that many parks - we just got to the beach instead.

View on HN

The average is a bad metric for this, if you consider how much it might cost for someone to stay in a hotel v. someone who makes a day trip.

I think the point is that in the PR community it costs nothing. So the concept of having to pay to go to the beach is foreign to a Puerto Rican.

So compare going to the beach in South Jersey, where you have to pay just to be on the beach, or the area in the article, vs PR where beach access is guaranteed in the Constitution. Very different values regarding the beach as a public place.

It costs just the same in California, the report details the $22 cost is the average it costs to travel to the beach while the beach itself is free.

>We found that the average total value of a day trip to the beach was $36.74 and that the average cost of traveling to the beach was $22.09, not including parking or other expenses, leaving a net value of $14.65 This finding gives us important information about why beachgoers are sensitive to the cost of parking. Even if parking were available for only $8.75 a day that would chip into the remaining net value of the average day trip, leaving only $5.90 net value. If parking cost $15 a day, the travel cost model would lead us to predict that the average visitor would decide to forego the trip because it would cost more than it is worth overall. https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/coastal-access/

I may be prejudiced by Northern European thinking where "freedom to roam" is common, but I don't think it's right that landowners can prevent access to non-developed areas. Nature should be accessible not only in national parks, but also next to your place of residency.

In South Jersey you have to pay to be in the beach?

Like, are there walls with bouncers in entrances? Do I get a ticket if I pay? Do I get a ticket if I don't pay? That is bananas.

Land of the free and low taxes where you have to pay to be on a beach!

Something along the lines, a group of thirty men and a beholder (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beholder_%28Dungeons_%26_Drago...) have three eyes per member on average.

They did split out costs for day trips separately from hotel stays.

See: https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/UCLA-Beach-Surv...

"We used a travel cost model to calculate the value of trips to the beach. We found the average day trip had a total value of $36.74 with travel to the coast costing $22.09, not including expenses at the beach, leaving a surplus of $14.65. We found the average overnight trip of four nights had a total value of $605.05, with travel costing $194.41, not including lodging, leaving a surplus of $410.64."

So, the day trip cost is ~$22, which I assume is just the vehicle/fuel cost. It specifically says it doesn't include parking or any expenses while there.

The article should have been clearer. The $22 is the cost of transportation to the beach.

The study is centered on how much it costs Californians to travel to the beach. Like, for example, driving from a non-coastal city to the coast. The study specifically mentions that the $22 does not include costs for parking, or expenses (food, etc) while there.

Yeah, having lived in Israel it sounded pretty alien to me too. I would just head over to the beach by bus on a Friday afternoon for no particular reason. It was fun.

Hell, the municipality had installed Wifi in case I wanted to bring a laptop to a beachside bar or cafe, though I never did.

Who the hell privatizes beaches?

Ah but you had a bus to the beach. Here in America we have often specifically engineered things so you can't get to the beach without a car!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com