Culture
Why Some Places Still Have Plenty of Pay Phones
They survive where people still use them.
Pay phones. They require an arcane thing called "change" in order to place a call. And yet, there they are: on certain corners and busy streets across the United States, pay phones not only still exist, they're available in fairly large numbers. Some of these clusters of antiquated technology are more noticeable than others: They jump out at you in immigrant-rich neighborhoods like D.C.'s Columbia Heights. They are everywhere on some Hawaiian islands.
Most might consider them a relic—from an era when people knew enough phone numbers by heart to use them, and rock bands wove them into angsty love songs.