Eco Parking…Sigh

This blog by Doug Powers is great – but the article he references is even better.

An increasing number of Orlando buildings and venues are instituting front-row hybrid-only parking spaces in an attempt to earn “green” building status and reward car owners considered environmentally friendly. Places like the University of Central Florida, Ikea in South Orlando, and the Amway Center are just a few who are giving hybrid’s preferential treatment. For now, the hybrid-only spots aren’t policed like a handicapped parking spot. But defenders are hoping the public will shame people into compliance.

“Right now this is a promotional thing, so I don’t think we’re seeing enforcement,” Jon Ippel, the city of Orlando’s sustainability manager, told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s more peer pressure. Hopefully the evil eyes violators get will force them to comply.” He went on to call the spots “sustainable spaces.”

Power’s comments are priceless. If you are handicapped, pregnant, and driving a Volt, you can pull right in the front door. He also muses that “Sustainability manager” is the least sustainable of all government jobs.

The article went further:

A spokeswoman for the city of Orlando agreed. “There are the social-pressure aspects of it that should restrict it for those people it’s reserved for,” Cassandra Lafser told the Sentinel. She also included “green” parking in the same category as special spots for pregnant women.

WHAT!!! I pay an extra 10K for a Prius or Volt so I can promote my green bonifides and suddenly I deserve the same respect as a woman who is spending nine months carrying nascent life? Balderdash.

Is this what we have become? The propagation of the species is somehow equal to putting a windmill on your house or separating your cans and bottles from your wet garbage. From my point of view, motherhood is about as “green” as you can get. The rest is all eyewash. It won’t be long until we find that the carbon footprint of a Volt is greater than the Camaro the new Steve McGarrett drives down Waikiki every week. Then maybe the Volt drivers will have to park in the back row.

JVH

PS – Ms Lafser must be from a different planet than the one the rest of us inhabit. She honestly thinks that “social pressure” is going to keep someone from parking in a spot reserved for a Volt or Prius, but it can’t keep them from parking in a spot where a person in a wheel chair or on crutches needs to park. She needs to wake up and take a look around.