Let’s get rid of these lines at Pullen Park
On the beautiful, fall-like morning that was Sunday morning, the family joined Kelly’s parents for a visit to Raleigh’s Pullen Park. Pullen Park went through a recent renovation and is now more popular than ever. So popular, in fact, that there are now long lines queuing up for its attractions.
I got to Pullen before anyone else, so I bided my time by waiting in line for tickets to the attractions.
“This is unproductive,” I thought to myself.
The woman in front of me gave me a tip to buy a bunch of tickets at once so I wouldn’t have to wait again. That seemed like a good idea, until I saw she was purchasing 60 tickets. The ticket machine spit out 60 tickets, one at a time. It took a while and the pile of tickets she was handed was a bit unwieldy.
“Wait a minute,” I thought to myself. Why make people wait in line at all? Why not give people the opportunity to buy tickets all at once, and do it in a convenient way?
My kids are certified pool rats and we spend a lot of time at city pools. Rather than hand money to the staff at the door, we use the aquatics program’s punch passes. One visit equals one punch of the card. It’s fast and easy. Why not apply the pool punch pass idea to Pullen Park?
Thus, the idea of Pullen Park punch passes (PPPP) was born. Using the PPPP, parkgoers could buy a multi-ticket pass at once and simply have the pass punched at every attraction. No longer would parkgoers have to wait as the ticket machine churns out a single-strip of tickets. Plus, there’s no ticket waste to be disposed of or recycled. The Parks department could even sell the punch passes online and mail them to parkgoers in advance if they chose to do so. Lastly, the Parks department already has the tools to make punch passes as they do this for pools. Creating Pullen Park punch passes should be a simple matter of putting the park’s name on a new card.
I told Parks Director Diane Sauer about my idea today and she embraced it enthusiastically. I hope these passes can be implemented soon so that Pullen Park visitors spend less time in lines and more time having fun!