Since flying has been part of my life lately (as well as on my mind in the form of flight training), I read a story on WRAL‘s website about a new way of paying for parking at RDU. You can pay for your parking BEFORE you exit the parking area.
Sounds great, right? Only problem I see is what’s keeping you from parking your car, immediately paying for one day (or one hour) of parking, and then leaving your car there for weeks at a time? I can’t wait to see how the geniuses at the RDU Airport Authority have solved that little problem.
Speaking of the Airport Authority, I’ve been mulling over how I could be appointed to this board. Wake County, Durham County, the City of Durham, and the City of Raleigh each have two appointments to the board. I’d love to snag a spot there to help make airport policy. With as much time as I spend in airports, it’d be great to be able to make ours better.
One change I’d make would be to make it more laptop-friendly for business travelers. I’d blanket the terminals with free wireless access and install long power strips behind select seats at the gates. Many laptop users like myself have to huddle around whatever spare outlet might be at the gate area, plugging in laotops and mobile phone chargers. It’d be nice if there were plenty of plugs to go around.
There are other things I’d like to do there, such as make sure all the travelers passing through have a friendly, positive experience of the Triangle area. Southern hospitality should permeate.
Traveling can be a real bitch. The simplest gestures in making travel easier can go a long way for the road-weary. I’d enjoy helping make a great impression on our traveling guests.
Now, who do I talk about regarding that appointment?
Here’s the deal with the Exit Express system:
Exit Express is an automated payment program that will allow you to pay for parking quickly and easily. Exit Express automatically reads your parking ticket and allows you to pay using cash or credit card. Your ticket is validated by the machine and returned to you, allowing you to exit the parking garage by simply inserting your ticket at the exit gate.
This is just how they do it in Europe and is actually pretty cool. You won’t be able to do what you say because you will have an old validated ticket.
Peace out, yo.
Aha! Thanks for the clarification, Guy Who Must Be Scotty.
😉
Yeah, I’d imagine that when you validate the ticket, it puts a timestamp on it. If you validate at noon on Monday, and don’t actually check out until 8pm Friday, it’ll probably kick the ticket back to you.