The J.C. Penney's in Fairview, Texas has instituted a new parking program that might soon be catching on with other stores and malls: special parking for hybrid vehicles. Here's what Channel 5 reported:
A poster on Craig's List who has been to the mall said there were about 100 of these special parking spaces. I cannot vouch for the accuracy and would hope that she was exaggerating.
One commenter to the post brought up a good point for debate: what would be considered "fuel efficient?" My small SUV gets about 25 mpg highway/city driving combined and it has super low emissions. Does it qualify? What if you have a hybrid driver who hauls just himself or herself to the mall, but someone with a mini-van brings 4 people? Which consumer is actually using gas more efficiently? Maybe instead stores and malls should offer preferential parking for people who transported 4 or more people to the location and put the single occupant cars way in the back. What about preferential parking for people over 65?
It sounds like some customers are so annoyed by the preferential treatment, they go ahead and park their cars there. They want to make the point that such parking is discriminatory. I imagine, too, that they cannot be ticketed for this "violation", since it probably is not something mandated by the state like handicapped parking.
If I owned a Hummer and saw one of the parking spaces, I would park that monster sucker there -- sideways and hog up 3 parking spots. I would also boycott the store. In fact, if I see any retailers in my area start offering this "green" parking, I'll complain and, following no retraction, I'll boycott.
How about you?
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