Anyone who studies, works, or lives on a college campus knows that parking is a problem. I'm studying and working on a college campus, and I'm on- and off-site at least one extra time a day, sometimes more -- supervising students, working at home (instead of cramping my office mate in our [no kidding] 8 X 8 GTA office), etc. But hey -- I bought my $85 student parking pass, and it's hanging proudly from my rear view mirror. No problem! No problem, that is, as long as I arrive at campus before 7:45am or after 4:00pm. For anything in between you have to allow an extra 30 minutes to prowl the nearby lot, looking for departures, and/or walk from the far-away one where you finally find a place. That's 30 minutes lost; no homework, no reading, no paperwork. And sometimes I'm coming from a supervision to a meeting and I don't have those 30 minutes, period.
This is where the parking garage comes in. By next year, I will have moved through the waiting list and will have a pass for the garage, which is conveniently located on the side of campus where I attend classes and work. Until then, I pay. $1 an hour, or any fraction of same. Yikes. So far this year, I have easily spent double the cost of the original student parking pass.
And today? Well, I had to park in the garage. When I finally got out after my last session, I inserted the paper parking card into the reader (you pay in the lobby before you drive out) and it read $5. I had? $4.
So, I walked the 1/4 mile to the nearest ATM, withdrew some money, was charged the $2 extra because the ATM isn't from my bank, and walked back. Put the paper card into the reader and it read...$6; Yes, in the time I had taken to go get money, I'd crossed over into the next hour.
*Sigh*
