How Modern Technology Killed This Piece Of Minnesota Kindness

There are a lot of good things modern technology has brought us. Speed and convenience in many parts of our lives are probably the biggest overall places where that's evident.

There's one place, though, where I feel like the convenience offered also creates a little frustration for some, and also cuts into a piece of Minnesota Nice.

What's the piece of modern technology that's cutting into this area of Minnesota Nice? I'm referring to electronic parking meters.

I know, you're probably thinking that's a weird thing to come after. Hear me out, though.

The frustrations of "modern convenience" in parking meters

First off, there are some frustrations these modern parking payment options offer. So, most of my experiences with this are in Duluth, where I live. But I've run into this in the Twin Cities and a few other places around Minnesota that have adopted electronic payment for parking meters.

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I'm pretty tech-savvy, so I don't have the hurdles some people have of trying to even figure out how to pay with their phone. I usually do end up with issues where the app doesn't find my parking zone or, if I'm in a new town, I might have to download an app and set up an account for something I'll maybe use once or twice.

Yes, there are some places with a payment station to avoid an app and account (and maybe even use cash or coins), but those options aren't always available.

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While that's a minor annoyance, this gets me going a little more.

There are places where the only option to pay is with an electronic form of payment (credit/debit card). To offset the cost incurred by these services for accepting credit card payments, they pass along a convenience fee to me. So what should be a $0.50 parking charge ends up being closer to a dollar.

Is that an unbearable cost? By itself, no. But that adds up over time. And, frankly, I'd rather just pay with cash (or coins) because that's just as convenient (and less expensive), but that isn't even an option in some places.

How are modern parking meters killing off a piece of Minnesota Nice?

Do you remember showing up at a parking meter to see that there was still time left? How great of a feeling was that? Pretty awesome, right?

Those days are sadly gone in places where there are new electronic parking meters.

The idea of "paying it forward" isn't an option, as you're not just paying for the space most of the time. In most cases, you're paying for the space to be occupied by your vehicle. I get it, that is probably the more fair solution overall.

Some could argue that once you leave, the city (or parking authority) still gets the money for your unused time, plus new money from the next person. Because of that, they could collect double the money for the same parking spot as people come and go.

Even then, I'll admit that's probably a fairer solution overall. Each driver has to pay for the ability to park. But isn't it a bummer that the option to pay it forward (or benefit from someone else paying more than they needed) is now gone?

On the note of overpaying, you can pay more incrementally with a lot of these electronic options. You can add more time from your phone to extend as you need. Because of that, you might not overpay quite as much as you once used to. That's nice, right?

Am I arguing that we should do away with electronic options? Absolutely not. I don't always have change on me, and I can appreciate aspects of these newer options. I guess the whole point I'm trying to make is that despite the modern improvements to street parking, there are still some trade-offs and quirks.