Social Parking

Parking Lot Parking Meter
Similar to the one I had to deal with - note the large keypad with letters and numbers.

I parked at a lot on SW 5th Avenue last night. I've parked there before so I should have been prepared and I was, sort of. I remembered that the machine wants my license number, but I forgot that there is no light by the machine which means everything except for the illuminated display is nearly invisible. Fortunately there were several other people standing around trying to figure out how to buy a coupon. When I attempted it one woman spoke up with some helpful tips, like ignore the credit card rejection notice, give it a second and it will say OK, so I did and it did. She also helped out with the matter of locating the Go button and probably a one or two more things that you had to know because the front panel may as well have been painted black for all the detail I could make out.

If you had smart-phone with a flashlight app, or a flashlight, you would have been okay, but if you need to have smart-phone to buy a coupon, why don't we just dispense with the machine? Could it be that I am not the only curmudgeon who refuses to buy a smart phone?

Several years ago, my friend Jack clued me in to a parking lot that was seldom crowded and an easy walk to Keller, but it fell victim to development. So we tried a parking garage around the corner, but you need your coupon to open the door when you want to retrieve your car, and while that door lock may be more reliable than an airliner, you don't want it to fail when it is below freezing and everyone else has gone home to bed. My next pick was a ground floor parking lot under an office building. It was pretty great except that when leaving the show, you get dumped out into the middle of the crowd exiting the auditorium. So, 5th Avenue.

SW 5th Avenue Parking Lot

The only problem here is you cannot get on Highway 26 Westbound without going through some ridiculous contortions, unless it's late at night and there aren't any coppers or trains around.