Saturday, February 4, 2012

Depressing use of technology

The parking lot at the Chandigarh airport is computerised!

You get a ticket on entering the airport - NOT the parking lot. If you leave within 5 minutes, you pay nothing. If you are in the airport longer than 5 minutes, you pay Rs. 25/ (50 cents) on exiting.

The problem - it is a small airport. There is only one exit from the parking lot and another exit in case you do not enter the parking lot.

It is pretty obvious that the traffic the arrival of vehicles will follow a statistical pattern but the exit is deterministic. People want to leave as soon as the plane arrives. Hence, the exiting from the parking lot is a pain! It is easier to exit if one does not enter the parking lot.

Technology has achieved the remarkable goal of making the life of people who park miserable while rewarding the folks who create chaos on the unloading/loading curb :)

Oh, well, at least the airport is using software and the two exit points and the entry point are even NETWORKED :)