Automated Parking Garage

This is the most important sign in the new Union Station Parking Garage.

It's actually the kind of sign that I would (and did) completely ignore. My first visit to the garage this morning involved shooting a lot of video, driving up to the top of the building and admiring the view from the open top deck, using the new tunnel from the garage to the station, and finally discovering that this parking garage is automated.

I didn't discover that it was automated until I was getting close to the point of leaving, however, because I completely ignored the sign that said, "Please take your ticket with you."

I still didn't have my ticket with me when I wandered over to the station to find Jennifer Eagan taking some static shots on the train platform.

Now there is a face for TV!

If Jennifer doesn't have a gig working for a major network within five years, then there's definitely something wrong with this world.

I chatted briefly, wished her luck, and took some nice shots of the train that had magically arrived just as I got onto the platform... I mean, I do have to say that I'm pretty lucky in timing my random video shots in this city. I had shot an uninterrupted walk from the garage, through the tunnel, into the station, up to the platform, and had the train arriving just as I got up there. Who could've planned a shot like that?

After my station shots, I went back into the garage and came upon Kim, a very helpful parking garage employee, explaining how to pay for parking here in the automated garage.

These two fellas were just as unaware as I was about this whole "automated garage" thing. But Kim's concise explaination of how everything worked didn't have to be done more than once. I stood there shooting video, while the two guys in the picture (and I) slowly came to understand what this was all about.

It was at this exact point I realized I had left my ticket in the Jeep, and now I'd have to huff and puff my way back up a few flights of stairs not just once, but twice. Once to go get the ticket, come back and pay for parking, then go back up and finally drive out.

And just to show that I have no brain at all, it didn't occur to me to ask, "How come these machines aren't on every floor???"

The only question I thought to ask Kim was, "What if you drive to the gate before paying? Do you have to back up and come in here?"

The answer was, of course, yes. There's enough signage all over the place to indicate that you have to keep your ticket with you, you have to pay your parking fee before you get into your car, and so on an so forth. In fact, it's pretty obvious how everything works.

But maybe it's because I was so focused on shooting video, or maybe just because I was exploring the new-ness of everything, or maybe it was because of Kim's great smile... I was just too stupid to figure all this out before it was almost too late.

And Kim gets the Wormtowntaxi Gold Star award for putting up with my stupid question, "...well, what if you can't read?"

She fielded that one with a level of professionalism in "dealing with the public" that, I swear, no taxi driver ever could've mustered!
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