Ha — That parking isn’t free — its the government subsidizing the Japanese Auto Industry, and in particular Toyota. Read about it here.
The spot the Prius took cost just as much as the one next to it taken by the Lexus. Sorry, I don’t buy it. The Prius driver is saving a bunch of money on gas, although he is paying about that much more for his Prius so maybe he isn’t that far ahead anyway.
But I digress — he wants a Prius — let him buy a Prius. The problem is, I don’t want to pay for his parking. And that’s what happens when you give someone, anyone, free parking. The rest of us have to pay for it.
Sorry Jim (inside joke) but even in Hartford or Fresno, or Albuquerque, or Baltimore, or wherever the costs for building, maintaining, lighting, staffing and securing garages are the same and when the government starts discriminating against one set of cars over another, then I get my dander up.
Ok, if you want to charge big cars more — that’s fine, they take up more space — or if you want to charge little cars less, same reason, but if you say that electric cars are free and gas driven cars pay, that simply destroys the free market.
Toyota is selling all the Priuses it can build, as is Honda with its hybrids. They don’t need any help. The oil speculators and those opposed to exploring for oil and gas in the US have done a good job of ensuring that high mileage vehicles will sell out overnight.
The free market works. Just let it.
JVH
PS If we did let the free market work, we would have $1.00 a gallon gasoline, beautiful clear skies, full employment, and little concern about the oil of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Venezuela…
