So now the city of San Antonio wants to give hybrids free parking at meters. Read about it here. Here’s my problem — Why? No one is going to buy a Prius or whatever because he or she gets free parking for a year. The sucker costs what 15% more than a standard car of the same size (if you can find one) which means we are talking what at last three grand. The parking savings will be what, $200.
And boy will it screw up the parking operation in San Antonio. The deal is that a hybrid will get free parking at the meters. For how long. All day, an hour, what? And how is that going to be enforced?
The article says the good politicians of San Antonio want to promote clean air. Well, if that’s the case, why not promote really clean air and give free parking to autos that really provide no pollution — Namely Alternate Fuel Vehicles like CNG.
I’m told that places with severe pollution like LA have stopped concerning themselves with anything but zero pollution vehicles. CNG and Hydrogen. Reason — they really can’t squeeze much more out of the internal combustion engines to make enough difference to make it worth while. California, for instance, is moving down the Hydrogen highway — not that I think that state hydrogen support is necessary. Lets face it when gas hits $5 a gallon, you won’t be able to give away a Navigator and there will be a Prius in every garage. Until then, fuggetaboutit.
The free market will out. In the mean time, the city of San Antonio is going to lose parking revenue, screw up their enforcement,and it will make no, zero, nada difference in the number of cars sold. But the local pols will be able to paint themselves just a little greener.
The same thing goes for car pool lanes in spades.
J
