Rent Out Your Drive

ParkatmyHouse.com helps property owners raise extra cash by renting out their empty parking spots  

An online parking marketplace matches homeowners with drivers looking for parking space

ANDREW GOMBERT/EPA

Homeowners and business owners who live near destinations like Yankee Stadium can use ParkatmyHouse.com to rent out their parking spaces.

Live near Kennedy Airport? Great. Is your property near Yankee Stadium? Even better.

You might be able to turn your empty parking space into some cold, hard cash courtesy of ParkatmyHouse, an online parking marketplace that’s rolling into the city.

Based in the U.K., the website is making a big push into the tri-state area, Boston, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. ParkatmyHouse.com matches homeowners, business owners, churches and schools who have spare parking space with drivers looking for a place to park.

Launched six years ago, ParkatmyHouse has so far taken in $5 million in fees for people, mostly in the U.K. who have listed on its site. After a recent round of financing led by German car giant BMW, it is hoping to do the same in the U.S.

“This is a great opportunity for homeowners to make some money,” the company’s founder, Anthony Eskinazi, told the Daily News.

It is free to list your space. ParkatmyHouse, which just opened an office in the West Village, takes a 15% commission from each transaction. Sometimes people who park at a home will arrange for the homeowner to drive them to their destination.

The closer you are to a hot spot, like a sports arena or train station, the more you can expect to get. So how much is that driveway near Yankee Stadium?

“On average, you could get $40 a game,” Eskinazi said. “You might be able to charge $60 or more. It depends on the proximity.”

PHYLLIS FURMAN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

pfurman@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/money/parkatmyhouse-helps-property-owners-raise-extra-cash-renting-empty-parking-spots-article-1.1000464#ixzz2nLiNIiSD

What a waste, all those empty seats

Another way to not have a garage....................................

Empty Seats in Your Car? Start Ridesharing to Stop the Waste.

Odile Beniflah is ready to rideshare and save resources caused by inefficient commutes (Image: Courtesy of Odile Beniflah)

GUEST POST FROM ODILE BENIFLAH OF CARPOOLING.COM

The next time you drive, try ridesharing as an alternative to driving alone.

Each time you drive alone, the empty seats in your car go to waste. Here’s the ‘sitch’: there are 1 billion cars on the planet and every car that’s now driving down a country road or highway has an average of 3.75 empty seats. Now multiply that by 3 trillion highway vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. each year. And factor in the $8,000 cost to own a car and the fact that the average American commuter spends 38 hours a year stuck in traffic. Come on you people: wake up and stop the waste. Try Ridesharing instead.

Solo Drivers Need to Go to Rehab!

For me, driving alone is like smoking. People get into the habit of doing it at a young age and simply can’t stop. They may suffer nasty side effects such as huge costs, sitting alone in traffic, or stress during long commutes but can’t seem to see a solution to their misery! Meanwhile, those who don’t have a car (like me) are always looking for a lift. We car-free people may love buses and trains but what’s better than ridesharing with friendly people?

Carpooling.com services 9 countries in Europe and will be available soon in the U.S. (Image: Carpooling.com)

Enter Carpooling.com for Ridesharing

When I moved to Germany in 2008, I discovered “mitfahrgelegenheit” and “mitfahrzentrale”: a service that connects drivers and passengers so they can share their rides together and share costs for gas. It was such a simple idea and it worked: the site was as big as Expedia and LastMinute! I was so excited that it was easy to land a job when the site expanded internationally as carpooling.com.

So Why Not Practice Ridesharing in America?

To those who come up with lame excuses such as lower gas prices, cultural differences, entrenched consumerism, selfishness, inconvenience, fear of strangers etc., I say Not So Fast! Americans love FUN and FREEDOM — so ridesharing via a service like carpooling.com would be perfect here as well.  And please stop saying that these green, social, smart behaviors only happen in Europe! I personally believe that America is the country that can make carpooling and ridesharing so cool that the entire world will follow. This is why I can’t wait to see the launch of carpooling.com in the U.S. Stand by…it’s coming SOON.

Ridesharing is Fun – Time to Show and Tell

Think about booking a ride in a fancy 4×4, comfortable sedan, funky pick-up truck, classy Cadillac, outrageous Jacuzzi-limo, luxury convertible, cruising Harley-Davidson, urban Zipcar, VW minibus. Imagine picking up a chef, a writer, a baseball fan, a folk singer from Tennessee, a French tourist, a student in philosophy, a developer of violent video games, a Kindergarten teacher, a BBQ master.

Ridesharing with Odile Beniflah is never boring (Image: Courtesy of Odile Beniflah)

Technology has finally enabled the ridesharing revolution to take off. With smartphones, people can now offer or book seats on-the-go. With user profiles and social networks, people can get to know each other online before meeting en route.

So I am calling all the people who already carpool “21st century style” to speak up and share their stories of cheap, convenient, happy, comfortable transportation. Please show and tell the world about how great ridesharing can be.

Welcome to the Peer-to-Peer Sharing Economy and a World of Infinite Possibilities

Now you can sell empty seats and reduce your car ownership costs by 75%. You can have access to millions of individual, affordable ride options. Carpooling and ridesharing is a real opportunity to celebrate equity and diversity, and to put human relationships back at the center of our daily lives.

So What Can You Do Until Carpooling.com is Launched in the U.S.?

Here’s how you can start to get out of your solo-driving addiction and start ridesharing. Start reaching out to friends and colleagues and offer them a ride. Ask neighbors if they want to join you on a trip to IKEA. Start a carpool group on Facebook. (Offer a free lunch to anyone driving you to a beach this summer.) And if you are lucky enough to travel to Europe this summer, carpooling.com  — it’s up and running in 40 countries.

All you need is to use your imagination and watch out for that ridesharing bug: it’s contagious! 

This article is by Odile Beniflah and you can read it here:- http://www.wehatetowaste.com/rideshare/ 

What if......?

Your car doesn't fit into your garage?

Well, just get rid of it (the garage) altogether then!  Much cheaper.  AND.....You get to have an extra room in your house.

Or get rid of the car - why not?

Work out how much you could save

In the Telegraph it is reported that "The RAC is refusing to budge on the pessimistic claim in its recently published Report on Motoring that it costs "an average of £6,689" per annum – or £557 per month, if you prefer – to own and run a car in Britain today."

There is a calculator for motoring costs on the AA site. http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/running_costs/

You could use a car pool like zipcar or http://www.hourcars.co.uk/ or http://www.easycar.com.  This arrangement is generally cheaper if you only use the car for a few hours.

Picture courtesy of graur razvan ionut / freedigitalphotos.net

Or, if you don't use the car regularly you could just take a taxi and hire a car for your holidays and have the weekly shopping delivered by whoever your favourite supermarket or shop is.

Thank you eHow.

This is for all you teckkies out there.  Me, personally, I wouldn't dare!

How to Install a Honda Integrated Garage Door Opener

By Nathan McGinty, eHow Contributor

There's not much more annoying than pulling into your driveway in your car only to find that you've left your garage door opener remote control inside the house. One way to prevent this hassle is by installing an integrated garage door opener in your car. An integrated garage door is a switch affixed permanently or semipermanently inside your car that allows you to open the garage door by remote control. This handy hack will work in many car models, including Hondas.

Things You'll Need

• Extra garage door opener
• Screwdriver
• Multimeter

Soldering iron

Solder

Insulated wire

Integrated switch

Wire cutters

Quick-fit wire connectors

1. • 1
     Obtain an extra garage door opener remote control for your door, if you have only one remote control. You will be cutting apart this unit, so make sure it's not the only garage door opener remote control you have. Purchase additional remote control units from your garage door opener manufacturer.
   • 2
     Loosen the screws on the opener remote control and pull the housing apart.
   • 3
     Examine the surface of the circuit board of the garage door opener, looking for the soldered connections directly beneath the push button. There may be four or eight soldered connections, depending on your remote control model.
   • 4
     Press down on the garage door button and keep it affixed in place with a piece of duct tape. This will hold the circuit closed for testing. Take one end of the multimeter probe and touch one of the soldered connections. Touch the other end of the probe to an adjacent connection. Watch the needle on the multimeter. If it falls to zero, you have found the connections that you need to solder together. If not, try a different connection with the second multimeter probe. You're looking for the pairs of nodes that have zero resistance across each other for soldering together. Once you've found the first pair, continue working until you've identified all the nodes and their zero-resistance partners.
   • 5
     Heat up the solder on the first connection with the tip of a soldering iron to soften it. Insert the end of the first bit of insulated wire. Apply solder to the top of the wire and melt it with the tip of the soldering iron. Repeat this process for the free end of the insulated wire, soldering it to the first connection's zero-resistance partner. Repeat the procedure of wiring the zero-resistance pairs together with the soldering iron and wire.
   • 6
     Remove the 9V battery cap connection wires from the battery terminals on the circuit board by cutting it with wire cutters. Solder two more connections from the positive and negative battery terminals on the garage door opener.
   • 7
     Connect the wire connected to the negative battery terminal on the opener to the negative wire of a 9-volt battery cap that you cut off the circuit board earlier. Connect the positive terminal from the 9-volt cap to a wire with a Quick-fit connector switch at the end.
   • 8
     Connect the positive battery terminal on the opener to a wire with a quick-fit connector.
   • 9
     Look for a location on your Honda dashboard that can hold the body of the garage door switch comfortably. For example, in 2003 to 2007 Honda Accords, remove the fuse panel cover, and then the fuse panel collar, to reach an open area behind the dashboard. Also note that you'll need enough wiring to run from the switch in the dash to the garage door opener remote control location.
   • 10
     Locate a connector switch that fits into one of the free sockets of your Honda dashboard. Find them cheap at online or physical retailers. You may need to test several until you find one that fits. Fasten a quick connector switch to the positive and negative terminals on the switch. Remove any unused switch panels on the dash, such as where optional accessories such as defroster switches might me mounted, and mount the new switch. How you'll mount the new switch depends on the type of kit that you purchased. Most will come with screws that can you can drive through the switch and into the dashboard.
   • 11
     Connect the 9-volt battery to the battery cap. Trim out any parts of the garage door opener as needed so the wires running out don't get bent, and fasten the garage door remote housing back together.
   • 12
     Mount the door opener remote control in a hidden part of your dashboard or glove box. Don't make the mounting permanent, as you will eventually have to change the battery.
   • 13
     Connect one wire from the switch to the battery assembly cap and the other to the garage door opener remote control by pressing the quick-fit connections together.

http://www.ehow.com/how_12228227_install-honda-integrated-garage-door-opener.html

States of jersey Police say.......

Drink Driving

On average, 3,000 people are killed or injured in drink-drive collisions each year in the UK.If you're convicted of drink driving, your life will change. You will:

• have a criminal record
• be disqualified from driving - for at least a year
• have to pay more for your vehicle insurance, as your premium will increase
• have difficulty hiring a car for the next 10 years
• need to re-sit your driving test once your disqualification period is over

These things will happen if you're simply caught and convicted for drink driving. If you kill or injure someone while drink driving, the consequences for you will be much worse.

The legal limit

The legal limit is 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, or 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. But any amount of alcohol can affect your ability to drive safely, and alcohol affects people differently. So the only way to make sure that you're under the limit is to not drink any alcohol if you're going to drive.

What is a unit of alcohol?

One unit usually means:

• a small glass of wine
• a measure of spirit
• half a pint of normal strength beer

However, the strength of alcohol in various drinks differs hugely - and the measure you pour yourself at home is likely to be very different from the measure you receive in a pub. This all means that it's very difficult to determine how many units you've had - the only way to tell for sure is to take a breath test.

Again, the only way to make sure you're under the limit is to not drink any alcohol if you're going to drive.

How long after drinking is it safe to drive?

Are you legally safe to drive the morning after drinking? Take a Saturday night's drinking:

• at midnight you may have 200mg in the blood (2 and 1/2 times the legal driving limit)
• at 7.30 the next morning, you still have 90mg - so you're still over the limit
• by lunchtime, you'll have about 20mg - under the legal limit, but this is still enough to affect your ability to drive

It's impossible to get alcohol out of your system quickly; neither coffee nor a shower will help speed up the process. It just takes time.

Breath tests

You can be breath tested at any time of day or night, on any day of the year. For example:

• if you're involved in a collision - whether it is your fault or not - you will be required to provide a breath sample
• if you're attempting to drive a vehicle - this might mean you're trying to start a car, for example
• if you're in charge of a vehicle - this means that the driver is in the vehicle even if it's not moving
• if you commit a moving traffic offence - such as speeding, failing to stop for a red light or not wearing a seat belt
• if you fail to stop after a collision -we can trace your vehicle and request a breath sample, even if you had left the vehicle

You can read this article at www.jersey.police.uk/crime/roadsafety/Pages/DrinkDriving.aspx