Thursday

So we have all stood in front of the gas pump at the Qwik Trip or other filling station trying to respond to the electronic inquiries from the card reader. Insert card. Remove card quickly. Debit or credit? Awaiting approval. Wash? Receipt? Lift handle to start. Push bar to start. Maybe, push button to start.

When I stop for gas at an unfamiliar station, I normally contemplate the pump's system like a new electronic gadget. I know that it requires a credit card to start things in motion, but I am immediately doubtful if I'll be able to get it right the first time through the sequence. Kind of like Gary Sinise in Apollo Thirteen when he's in the simulator late in the show trying to determine the right order for a procedure to save electricity in the re-entry vehicle.

I ran into a new one today. There were the regular queries on the screen. But above the pump on a separate small sign was a set of color-coded instructions. If to pay inside, press the yellow button. If paying by debit card, press the green button. If paying by credit card, press the blue button. Ok, but on the pump's credit card area, the yellow, green, and blue buttons said exactly the same thing. For whom were these separate sign instructions provided?

My first thought was that the color-coding was an effort to address the needs of the illiterate. But if you wanted to help out those folks, wouldn't you add little drawings to explain the colors rather than explain the colors with words?

The new HyVee in Bettendorf has made a trip to the store an adventure exercise. (I think that they hired the same traffic engineer who designed the ingress/egress patterns to the Duck Creek mall area.) It has always been a dangerous parking lot, but for now, there is no discernible main lane, and everybody is still guessing. Maybe when they get fully done with the mess it will be better outlined.

And I'm not so sure that they haven't got the store's dual "In" and "Exit" automatic doors reversed. Although I do think that either will open from either side. Talk about not knowing whether you're coming or going!

I know that somewhere, somebody, is getting paid for designing these traffic flow things. I wonder if their parents paid for their college educations? If you do a task that is so accepted by the general public as what one should expect, does it make any difference if you do it well or poorly? Is there ever any accountability?

Not that I'm complaining. Just observing.

I'm headed home to observe some Tuscan red.

BCOT