The weather has taken a lovely turn here finally, low 80's for a high and much lower humidity. Yesterday, I drove into Old Town to park and take a walk down King St. and along the river. Parking... aye, there's the rub. It was the weekend, so after a decent search I found the free 2 hour spaces were all occupied, so I resolved to spend a couple bucks and park on the Pay & Display streets. I did, and the nearest ticket machine was 3 blocks away. Not bad; I was there for a walk anyway. At the machine I happened to glance at the parking sign on the street and it indicated there was no fee on Sunday. Drat, I should have looked more closely at the sign where I'd parked--I really didn't look at it beyond noting where the nearest ticket machine was. So I hauled back to the car, whereupon I discovered that the street I'd parked on was pay after 11:00 am on Sundays. I was annoyed and decided to park elsewhere, preferably on a street parallel to the one that did not require payment on Sunday. I found a space, actually better than the previous one, and got out of the car set to go for my walk. I then noticed that that block too was pay Sundays after 11:00. So I went to the ticket machine--now only half a block away--put in my credit card only to receive the message "no payment required." Huh??? The sign said I had to pay, but the payment machine told me I didn't, and indeed couldn't if I tried. At that point, I left it in the hands of the gods and trotted off. Happily, there was no ticket on the car when I returned. My guess is they gave up enforcement on Sundays as some sort of result from the pandemic. I did email an inquiry to the city today on this. Meanwhile, I succeeded in brushing off my parallel parking skills, which is always a good thing.
My thanks to AH for suggesting this topic.
Such a pretty place
ReplyDeletecity parking is ALWAYS a problem. but alexandria is always pretty.
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful place. We used to ride our bikes there, so never dealt with parking.
ReplyDelete