Thoughts on three holidays, two of them in February
Posted on February 15th, 2008 – 6:05 AMBy Roadguy
The first holiday we’re going to discuss today is New Year’s. Roadguy outlined his resolutions for 2008 here, and he is proud to report that he has unequivocally achieved Resolution No. 3:
Yes, he bought a city of Minneapolis parking meter card, and he even loaded it with five bucks. He has yet to use it and still keeps quarters on hand for whenever he’s in St. Paul. (The card can be used in St. Paul, but one has to put money on it in St. Paul first.) Roadguy has been hearing that the cards, which cost $5, don’t work as flawlessly as one might hope — if you’ve got a story to tell, please do so below.
The second holiday worthy of mention today is Valentine’s Day, which Roadguy remembers like it was only yesterday. Alert reader Casey had Cupid on his mind this week when he sent along this unintentionally romantic sign, photographed Sunday in Roseville:
Casey knows that the preferred pluralization of “bus” is “buses,” whereas “busses” is the plural of “buss,” which means “kiss.” Having specific, twice-a-day times for smooching sure sounds like a way of promoting community spirit.
The last holiday we’ll mention, and mention only briefly, is Presidents’ Day, which is Monday. That means Roadguy’s card will go unused another day: city parking meters in Minneapolis and St. Paul will be free (the University of Minnesota, however, appears to be another story; click here).
13 Responses to "Thoughts on three holidays, two of them in February"
There’s another ‘busses’ sign I found years ago by the Walker… but dictionary.com does say that ‘busses’ is a plural of bus. Just looks really weird… 
Merriam-Webster seems to think that “Busses” is an acceptable spelling for the plural of “Bus”:
When Southwest Metro opened their Eden Prairie transit center, they had a similar “Busses Only” sign. It has since been replaced.
I have had the Mpls parking meter card for about 4 years and have not had a problem. I have used 4-5 times a month over that time so I have a decent sample size.
I didn’t get a parking card, but I did get a Metro Transit Go-To card which I really like. You don’t even have to fish it out of your wallet, just hold your wallet up to the reader and it beeps you in. I think I’ve ridden the bus a couple extra times just for that.
DW has one of those, (Go-To card) and uses it every day, and reports it works well.
I got a Go-To card and a Minneapolis parking card this fall. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I haven’t used the Go-To card yet, but I have used the parking card, and I think it worked. If anyone wants to post detailed instructions on how to use it, though, I would appreciate knowing that I’m not messing it up.
I got a St. Paul parking card some years ago when they first came out, which I’ve loaded so I can also use it in Mpls. (It looks the same as the Mpls one except it has the St. Paul logo.)
As I understand it, the chip can support up to four agencies but I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for the Mpls Parks & Rec Board and the U (both of which have their own meters) to replace their meters with ones that take the cards.
I’ve had my meter card for 2 years and only 1 meter would not accept it, when I use 6-10 meters a week. Love it.. worth every dollar. Even has reduced a few parking tickets, since I’ve had a little leverage when explaining that I did pay the meter with the card.
Both my GoTo card and parking card work great. I don’t use the parking card that often. I only had a $20 when I bought it in October, and I still have $9 on it. I usually only use one or two quarters at a time, but I haven’t found a meter yet that wouldn’t take it.
For Mary, you put the card in chip side first/up. When it first goes in, that tells you your balance. After about 5-10 seconds, it starts adding a quarter at a time to the meter. Once you reach the amount of time you want, pull it out.
The goto card also works great. The only problems have been when the reader on the bus doesn’t work, but the driver usually just waves you on if he/she knows it’s down and you go to put the card next to the reader. Since more people have started using it, it seems to speed up the whole process.
I looooove my Go-To Card, but one problem in speeding up the whole process is that you have to hustle more to get to the bus and not bank on that long line of people buying you some jogging time. That’s the only drawback I’ve seen.
The GoTo is great, but it would be much better if they got rid of the other pass options, particularly the magnetic stripe cards.
I still think that 10% of the riders cause 95% of the boarding delay. Come on, you’ve been waiting for the bus for ten minutes… did it not occur to you that you should get your dollar/pass/etc. out?
I am a crazed acolyte of the parking card. I’ve had mine for about two years; I use it at least once a week, and I have basically never had a problem with it. The oohs and ahhs of fascinated friends alone are worth the price of admission.
