Windsor Parking Advisory- aka When Windsorites Snap

[Lowell]

During my visit to the Keg in Windsor we parked in a City of Windsor parking structure that is beside and above the Keg.

When we left my son and I climbed the steps and retrieved the car and found ourselves in a gridlock.

For those not familiar, Windsor City lots have a system where you pick up a ticket as you enter. When you leave you are supposed to know to go to a payment machine, put in the ticket, put in your credit card, the bar code gets read, your card is dinged, the system now knows you paid when you place the ticket in the machine at the exit, little barrier gate board pops up and out you go. No need for any costly human attendant to do this robotic work.

The problem is that system assumes that you know how this works, that you need to go to the machine and pay and that there is no outlet anywhere with a human. So it takes only one newbie driver to not realize this, get to the gate and block everybody else in. Add to this, machines that aren't working properly and the standstill is complete. Also you must exit within a set time after you pay or your ticket expires. This is to keep you from paying as soon as you get there and avoiding paying for the full time you park. All this, we learned later, as witnessed by mum-in-law and Mrs. Lowell who were waiting by the gate for us to pick them up.

My son and I had already figured out the situation and guffawed how the Canadians would be doing the polite Canadian thing while an American would just drive through and bust the barrier.

After a 20 minute crawl we turned a corner where we could see the exit. Several people were getting out their cars trying tickets, banging the machines, trying new tickets that had been obtained from the Keg.

Suddenly a big well-dressed guy gets out of his car, walks over, grabs and snaps off the gate board and tosses it in the street. I swear I could hear cheering although all the car windows were closed. And so much for my Canadian stereotype as we all streamed out. A very gratifying end to a satisfying visit.

Since this isn't the first time I have had this happen, Windsor needs to do something about this. Perhaps a big unavoidable warning sign saying NO HUMAN PRESENT - IF ONE OF YOU DOESN'T PAY YOU ALL STAY.

[DetroitDad]

That is a classic story Lowell.

Have you seen the new gates that the DMC has been putting up all over Midtown? These formally free lots now have gates, they only open by remote pass card. The problem is that they tend to get stuck for extended periods in the open position, allowing unsuspecting drivers to think they are free lots for nearby businesses. Later, the lot gates tend to randomly close, trapping the non-pass card vehicles inside. On my walks to work in Midtown, I have been asked countless times from people wondering around outside these lots, how they open the gates to get their cars out. Of course, most of the time, they are simply out of luck.

Several of these gates appear to have been rammed in recent months. Great planning DMC!

[Gistok]

Lowell... I have a similar situation that happened in Kulmbach Germany.... except it was a hot June day, and the ticket I had obtained from the vending machine was in my pocket... getting slightly moist from the heat of the day.

After a few hours of browsing Kulmbach [[considered one of Germany's Beer Capitals)... I got back to the parking garage, and inserted my now "sweaty" time validated parking coupon so that I could pay whatever it said I owed....

Only thing was... my perspiration caused the ticket to jam in the machine... and since it was the ONLY validation machine in the parking structure... no one else could validate their parking coupon to leave the structure.

Needless to say I caused quite an exit traffic jam that day at rush hour at 5PM... and finally the parking police just opened the gates to let everyone leave, without any validations...

[Magnatomicflux]

LOL! There's Canadian politeness........and there's Windsor politeness. That dude ripping the gate off was just being a good citizen.

And, you're not suppooooosed to know about your ticket. There are giant signs asking if you remembered your ticket, and I think they remind you to pay before you leave ....just sayin'


Did you enjoy the Keg? I like it but feel bad sitting in a place that used to be beautiful old Norwich Block.

[Lowell]

Did you enjoy the Keg? I like it but feel bad sitting in a place that used to be beautiful old Norwich Block.

Yes we did, thanks to your suggestion. See my cell phone pics at http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...786#post226786. And I share our sentiments about the Norwich Block.