My Parking Structure Pet Peeve, or Not a Pedestrian Paradise

It won't happen for another 5 months, but having lived through two years of the annual Ann Arbor Street Art Fairs (held each summer in mid-July), I'm not looking forward to the 3rd.

'Why?' you ask. Well, because it wrecks havoc with the parking structure.

You see, the other 51 weeks of the year, the people who park in the same parking structure I do all have an understanding. Mostly, we all understand that, between 8 and 9 am, there's a lot of us arriving for work, and few (if any) people leaving. We drive through the structure a little faster than we probably should, don't bother looking for one open spot that doesn't exist on the lower levels, and (most importantly) once out of our cars, make sure we walk out of the way of other drivers who are no doubt rushing to park in order to get to work on time.

Not so with the Art Fair goers.

New to town, and not so much understanding that those of us who live and work in Ann Arbor still have to get to our jobs during the week of the Fairs.

They creep through the parking structure, inch-by-inch, scowering the rows of cars for one empty space.

NEWS FLASH! There were twenty cars in line to get into the structure when you arrived. Do the math. If there was one empty spot, it'd be taken already. The extra time it will take you to drive up one or two levels higher is certainly offset by the snails pace you drive at looking for the mythical open parking space.

Their worst offense, however, is the fact that they walk, five or more abreast, across the entire width of both lanes (up and down). All I'm trying to do is get to work, and they're busy meandering through the parking structure as if it, itself, is filled with great works of art. (No works of art here, people. Just cars in desperate need of a good washing.)

Aside from being inconsiderate to those of us just trying to earn an honest living, it's kind of stupid, when you think about it. Sure, these people might not realize that we normally fly through the parking structure like it's Daytona International Speedway, but it is a place where cars drive. Would you walk down the middle of a road? Or even down the middle of the lane in parking lot? I certainly wouldn't, because when it comes down to me v. a car, the car is going to win. The best I could hope for is to put a dent in the hood. The car, however, is going to do a lot worse than put a dent in me.

So why, then, would anyone treat a parking structure like a pedestrian paradise?

If you know the answer to that, you're either smarter than I am, or one of those damned Art Fair Tourists.