I headed to the city parking lot off Caroline and Margaret expecting to find the place half empty. I guess the lot has been discovered. It used to be a pain to use because there was a ticket booth and an entry gate but now it's all automated. You drive in, park, buy a ticket with metered time with a credit card or cash, leave the ticket on the car dashboard and off you go.
People lie to make a big fuss about Old Town parking and in winter or during events it can get crowded but the trick is to be a little bit flexible, allow a little time and expect to walk a few blocks. All of which is irritating fro residents but for visitors the situation really isn't bad. A scooter makes things a lot easier, but be careful about parking on sidewalks. It's not legal and is tolerated only for insiders. Or bar patrons like those at Don's Place:
Key West has tons of free scooter and motorcycle parking and bike racks everywhere. Which is just as well as scooters are the quickest way around. Not everyone has the style of a Stella geared two stroke. My heart still goes pitter patter when I see one even though mine was a dog and utterly unreliable.
Bicycles are the other mainstay and there is nothing quite like cycling round Old Town watching the world glide by.
The nice thing I find about bicycles, as with all transportation in Key West, is that it is a matter of practicality not status.
A bicycle is a bike and it's value is measured much more by it's ability to get the groceries home than by it's value or it's slick componentry. Who cares about on street parking when one's car is a bike?
People lie to make a big fuss about Old Town parking and in winter or during events it can get crowded but the trick is to be a little bit flexible, allow a little time and expect to walk a few blocks. All of which is irritating fro residents but for visitors the situation really isn't bad. A scooter makes things a lot easier, but be careful about parking on sidewalks. It's not legal and is tolerated only for insiders. Or bar patrons like those at Don's Place:
The nice thing I find about bicycles, as with all transportation in Key West, is that it is a matter of practicality not status.
A bicycle is a bike and it's value is measured much more by it's ability to get the groceries home than by it's value or it's slick componentry. Who cares about on street parking when one's car is a bike?
2 comments:
Actually, the scooter in the picture is a Vespa PX 150 (note the "Vespa" emblem on the cowl). One of my long-gone PX's cousins. I miss it at times, though I'd really rather have a Stella. They were faster...
__Orin
Scootin' Old Skool
For me - it's all about shifting gears. I have a couple of automatic scoots; they're not the same animal, IMHO.
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