Free Parking and Waiting Costs

I haven't been blogging regularly for some time and have considered stopping blogging altogether. I will delay that decision for a little while. In the meantime, I have one more post that I would like to make.

Where I live in Northern Virginia near Tysons Corner, parking is always scarce. When there are more cars than spots, cars cruise around like vultures waiting for something to eat. There might be available parking further away, but one would have to walk a ways and time is precious and exercise is unpleasant so people cruise - perhaps for 30 minutes or more - waiting for that open space.

Today I observed this behavior at a place where my son was having a summer camp. There were spaces further away but people insisted on cruising for that premium spot near the entrance. The weather was perfect - avoiding the elements was not a factor. There was plentiful parking on the street about 1000 feet away from the entrance to the building. So one would have to assume that people were trying to save time (which is doubtful because cruising consumes time) or they just didn't like to exercise.

Except the summer camp was at a health club. These people had paid money to exercise. One can only conclude that exercise outside the health club is somehow a different commodity than exercise in a health club. Does this make sense?