August 22, 2008, - 2:05 pm
Are You Tired of Special Parking Spaces?: Hybrid Drivers the Latest So Anointed
By Debbie Schlussel
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of the gazillion special classes of people for whom parking spaces are reserved.
We began with handicapped spots. Fine. People with disabilities, I understand that. I feel bad for their physical misfortunes . . . though many of the people I see using those aren’t actually handicapped (a lot of fraud there). And it’s hard on businesses who have small lots, very few spaces, and must provide the mandated number of empty spots that rarely go used.
Then, there were the “expectant mother” and “mother to be” spots. In many cases, those are the women who probably need the most exercise of walking across the lot, as they’ve eaten more ice cream than pickles.
And don’t forget the “employee of the month” parking spot at many retail giants.
Now, the latest is hybrid-only spaces at Home Depot, Office Depot, and Ikea. Completely annoying, especially when you consider that many hybrids are neither cheaper nor do they save much gas. Why do they deserve special treatment while we search in vain for an empty parking space within a mile of the front door?
I wonder what would happen to me if I parked in a hybrid spot (I don’t drive a hybrid). Would Ikea’s green-nazis give me a ticket? Would they not let me purchase their pressed particle-board contemporary splendor? (For the record, I like modern furniture, and while I dislike Ikea’s lefty policies and gazillionaire hypocrite owner, I love the furnishings.)
What’s next–special parking spots for illegal aliens, the non-English speaking, Muslims, vegan lesbian yoga teachers who were artificially inseminated?
Don’t laugh. At least some of these are likely in our future.
A business is free to do what it wants to attract customers. But sooner or later, people will grow tired of a retailer that deals in cheap chic but engages in tactics, which repeatedly elevate certain political classes.
It’s a bad way to do business. And eventually, it backfires.
HA HA HA HA!!!!!!
This reminds me of the mother of all flame wars. You see Debbie, I’m a LEED AP; annointed by the U.S. Green Building Council as an “expert” on sustainable construction. (FYI, the word “expert” is a license to violate your common sense. Remember where you heard that first!) Anyway, you can google “LEED” for more information.
So lemme tell ya a story. About 3 years ago, I had just gotten my LEED acreditation and was designing my first LEED building. At the time, LEED gave you a point for having specially designated parking spots complete with a charging station for electric cars. There was just one little problem: there was no UL or otherwise listed WEATHERPROOF device for charging electric vehicles. All of them had to be indoors and/or sheltered.
So the USGBC has its bulletin board where all the LEED AP’s comment on the scoring system and such. Some of the sparkies asked whether putting a typical outdoor GFI duplex receptacle (the kind you typically have on the outside of your home) at a parking spot qualified for the LEED credit. The tree-huggers at the USGBC said “Nuh-uh! No way! It must be a legitimate electric vehicle recharging device.” Thus started one of the greatest flame wars I’ve ever witnessed amongst professionals.
Electrical Engineers like myself were screaming: “What part of ‘No such thing exists!’ do you not understand?” (I assure you I did not participate. I merely witnessed it.)
This did not stop some architects from taking the LEED point for electric vehicle parking spots. They would simply run a branch circuit out to a typical outdoor receptacle (like the one outside your house) and put up a sign that said: “Electric Vehicle Recharging Station”. They took the point and hoped they wouldn’t get audited.
Ultimately, the elitists at the USGBC got the message and changed their scoring system to include “alternatively powered vehicles” or something like that. In other words, hybrids were now allowed to use these spots as well as flex fueled vehicles. In fact, for the past 2 years GM has been putting a cute little Flex Fuel tag on the trunks of all their flex fueled cars in order to allow people to park in these spots unmolested.
So alls well that ends well (unless you “cheated” and get audited). All in the name of “global warming”.
Imagine if we just spent this kind of effort and human energy developing alternative fuels and propulsion systems for motor vehicles!
BTW, you gotta hook up with Dr. Robert Zubrin one of these days. Dr. Zubrin explains why a conservation-only strategy is a BIG WIN for the Saudi Jihadists.
Here’s his powerpoint presentation. Please check it out if you have time. You can skim past the Jihad slides since you already know all about that. Get to the energy slides. This guy really knows his stuff!
http://www.energyvictory.net/energy_victory_Presentation.htm
Regards,
TINSC (aka There is NO Santa Claus)
There is NO Santa Claus on August 22, 2008 at 3:23 pm