Priority Parking for Hybrids?

I like how the ignorant CNW comments are, immediately, met with info that easily disprove that piece of garbage that keeps popping up.

 

Spectra.....thanks for the link. I agree it is silly to do that. We have a Whole Foods here; I am there once a week to shop and there aren't any dedicated "hybrid spots" there. So maybe it is just selected stores. Anyway, this is a pretty conservative spot to live so that also might factor in.

Again, thanks....

 

I don't need "priority" parking. I generally park far from the entrance, to stretch my legs. However, I do advocate EV plug-in spots. I'm happy if they're at the far end of the lot. I do not need opportunity charging because I have expensive high-capacity battery packs in both my EVs. But most EV drivers cannot afford a lot of battery capacity, so plug-ins are good. But those do not need to be close to the store entrance.

 

The local Whole Foods here doesn't have hybrid priority parking, but the local Taco Bell/KFC does. Go figure.

 

Weird!

 

<<------- Hence my profile picture/avatar! First drive my dad and I made in the Prius was to Ikea to park in those smuggy hybrid spots, right near the front door, we could never park in before.
Canadian Tire on Grandview has "Fuel Efficient Parking Only" spots too but they're always filled up with minivans.

 

Even if our Whole Foods had them, I am sure they would be filled with huge SUV's. Just like the pregnant woman spots are occupied by male drivers. I saw a guy park in one once and had the store employees make him move his car.

 

Compared to a lot of the huge-nice person alternatives people often choose for carrying people, minivans are "fuel efficient"

:focus:
I try to park far from the entrance of where ever I'm going since I'd like to avoid dents in my car.

 

I'd rather see secure bike racks than hybrid parking. Most stores have no idea how unwelcome they make some of their customers feel.

 

+1 million. I ride my bike to go grocery shopping. It keeps me from buying too much.

 

They figure you're not going to buy very much because you don't have enough space to haul stuff home.

 

Some will have a bike rack, and all sorts of railings, even a shopping buggy in a pinch, can be useful locking points. But yes, lack of cycling facilities is a problem.

Bravo. That's an excellent thing to do.

You'd be surprised what can be carried on a bicycle. I used to carry close to 80 pounds on a regular basis, using full touring gear for a trip to the grocery store. A four litre jug of milk went in each front pannier, along with tetra packs of juice, bricks of cheese, ham slices, butter - all the cold and heavy stuff. The bike steers like a tank, but it's very stable. The rear panniers got filled with bread, pizza shells, pasta, cereal, coffee, bagels - lighter and more fragile stuff. On the top of the rear rack I could pile a 24 pack of toilet paper on top of a big box of cereal, and tie it all down with bungee cords. Bananas and eggs fit in the handlebar bag, and sometimes the jacket pockets got filled with little things. There's an art to taking a really big pile of stuff and making it all fit.

 

I didn't say you couldn't. I said they figure you won't. I seldom buy as much as you've described, and I drive a car (electric, of course).

OTOH, it might just be that they've never thought about it. Many of those stores might put out racks if someone approached the manager and asked for a rack.

 

I haven't seen this at my Whole Foods (yet). But there's an entire section in the front at Costco for electric vehicles (with charging stations provided). One of these days....

 

I do not know--seems to piss off more people than it pleases, overall. And it isn't enforceable, as noted by many. How often do you see big-nice person vehicles parked in spots marked "compact," let alone untagged vehicles in disabled spots. Yeah, Whole Foods and any other private companies can do what they want with their parking lots, but why apparently go out of their way to offend so many people?

Then there's the tidbit that LA recently canned its free parking @ meters for hybrids, and that was only for ones with the HOV stickers. It apparently cost the city some comparatively small amount of money, but they've apparently made up what the program cost them while it was in effect by VERY rapidly starting to ticket without a notification period they had promised. Seems to me LA could have paid for the hybrid parking program and then some by not paying 1.2 million dollars for Michael Jackson's memorial service, for example.

Can we tell I'm getting off the subject and hot under the collar?

Hyo, the amount you can pack on a bicycle is SCARY. Most people are nowhere near as dedicated!

 

I was told but...
haven't seen or tried it....
that by law, Santa Fe, New Mexico has free parking for hybids--
no feeding the meter..

Froley