At Whole Foods in Madison, not only is there a hybrid car parking space, but it is closer to the entrance than the spaces for disabled people!
IN THE COMMENTS: Joe Veenstra said:
If I'm not mistaken, I believe these hybrid spots are done because the builder of the property can get points for LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.Joe links to this NYT article. Read it. Amazing. I'd missed that. From the article:
“Why should someone who can afford that kind of car suddenly get special treatment? I have no problem with parking spaces for the elderly or for a young parent with an infant or handicapped drivers. But this is over the top. What about somebody who can’t afford to go out and buy a fuel-efficient car or somebody with a large family that has to drive an S.U.V.? They suffer. It’s not fair.”
Dewb said:
Grrrrrr.... Now, I'm way more annoyed by the sign than I was when I took the picture.
We have about a dozen of these spaces in our shiny new LEED-certified office building. I've never seen more than three of the spaces being used at once, most of the time by decidedly non-hybrid contractor or catering trucks.
Getting the LEED Certification for your building virtually requires putting the hybrid-reserved signs up, because in the 2.0 worksheet it's worth one point in the "Sustainable Sites" category -- the same as improving your "stormwater management" by 25% or restoring 50% of the site to open space, which would be a lot more expensive.
I think they realize this is a bit silly, because the LEED 3.0 scoring system has changed to give you credit for "alternative commuting" in general, whether it's biking, public transport, or high-efficiency autos.
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67 comments:
Tack strip.
Love it! Hey, Hybrid cars get to drive in the carpool lane, so it only makes sense that they get better parking spots, too. If you don't like it, then buy yourself a Hybrid or take the bus and show that you give a damn about Mother Earth. Plus, anyone going shopping at Whole Foods should be inclined to admire this advantage for Hybrid drivers.
Clip the stems.
A hybrid driver is morally superior to a disabled person because a hybrid driver has chosen to drive a hybrid.
A disabled person is disabled through no choice of his own. Why should he get a good parking space?
At least there is some use in driving an over priced Hybrid after all. It is all a government mandated belef system with no basis in reality anyway.So the reward has to come from some identity warm feeling.How appropriate that whole foods also sells that feeling.
In my neck of the woods--Pasadena CA--that feeling sells for quite a premium.
Any dumb idea that we have here in Boulder, CO is naturally going to be found in Madison, WI as well.
Zachary Paul Sire said...
Love it! Hey, Hybrid cars get to drive in the carpool lane, so it only makes sense that they get better parking spots, too. If you don't like it, then buy yourself a Hybrid or take the bus and show that you give a damn about Mother Earth. Plus, anyone going shopping at Whole Foods should be inclined to admire this advantage for Hybrid drivers.
Mother Earth can go fuck herself. Afterall, she doesn't give 2 shits about you. She was here before you she will be here after you. Post hybrid and all. Why are you even lauding a hybrid? Have you ever seen what goes into making one? It's one of the least green/environmental things you will ever see. Producing the nickel from the nickel mines in Canada to make the hybrid battery components and seeing the damage it does to the surrounding landscape would make you think twice before you opened your pie hole to spew your obvious willful ignorance. You leftist douche bags are the epitome of hubris and arrogance in your quest for moral superiority through environmental causes that don't mean anything and only seek to spread FUD in the name of saving mommy earth from a peril worse than death. Trying to stare down your nose at the lesser polluters you have to trudge through must make you want to take a shower doesn't it? Oh wait, that means you would have to waste more precious water that we don't have to make yourself feel better. Awwww. Idiot.
Where is the 'lameness' tag?
The disabled spaces ought to be placed farthest from the buildings.
Not only then do hundreds of people not have to walk by them, saving hours of time, but the handicapped get some much needed exercise for once.
You can one up them by parking your bicycle there.
Hey, a spot I could use. If I shopped at Whole Paycheck, which I only do when I need Tonic, because they have the best tonic water.
I park in the Senior Spaces at Sentry Hilldale, too, but I'm usually there after 9 PM, at which time all the Seniors are in bed.
Would you expect anything less from Whole Foods?
Praise Gaia!
Methadras: [S]he doesn't give 2 shits about you. She was here before you she will be here after you. Post hybrid and all.
I have to agree. The Earth is a seething, volcanic planet in the harsh realm of space where asteroids and comets reign. Though I think we should protect our air, water, and soil as much as we can for our own survival, I also know the planet will kill us off long before we get a chance to destroy it.
It's pretty clear that ZPS' comment is in good humor.
Methadras' comment is the perfect humorous counterpunch.
If either of you guys was actually serious, well, uh... forget it.
That spot is begging my SUV to park in it. BEGGING. And believe me I would oblige.
OR . . .
Better yet, I would park next to that spot and idle my SUV for the hour my wife was shopping there.
Yep, good times.
Well, unless you've got the Handicapped sticker, idling for an hour in a handicapped spot is generally frowned upon.
It only makes sense since you have to be mentally handicapped to want to drive a car that requires a $5000 battery change every 5 or so years.
Can that restriction be enforced? If one parked a non-hybrid car in that spot, what would happen? Would one's arugula wilt? Or even drop off? That might be painful.
Time for me to buy that "Hybrid" sticker and afix it to my Pathfinder.
I understand that if you buy administration approved light bulbs, you can park anywhere you want.
Of course, let's all be a bunch of putzes and just assume that handicapped people are somehow excluded from driving hybrid cars.
But yeah. The order of the spaces should be reversed.
Though it's nothing to get one's outrage on over. Five extra feet?
Betcha won't see that sign at Wal Mart.
Peter
Isn't Whole Foods owner a big republican too? The nerve.
Same with Urban Outiftters owner big republican but then has these nasty anti-republican tshirts.
Traitors.
You shop at Whole Foods? Elitist.
The food is better.
Oh and I almost forgot.
I am outraged.
That spot is begging my SUV to park in it.
It'd be fun to park a GMC Yukon hybrid in that slot and leave it there for a couple of hours just for the apoplexy it'd cause.
My car is a hybrid. It goes forward and backwards.
F.Y.H.F.
Remember that post about horse legs you could wear from a while back?
It would be fun to park there and get out in those.
"Well, unless you've got the Handicapped sticker, idling for an hour in a handicapped spot is generally frowned upon."
Okay, if you insist on being a stickler, I'll just idle my SUV in that spot and annoy twice as much.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe these hybrid spots are done because the builder of the property can get points for LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/nyregion/connecticut/17hybridct.html
Err, don't you mean "Whole Fools"?
So tired of this modern spin on indulgences. I'm planning to lead the environmental reformation, as soon as I can get my 95 theses nailed to a Greenpeace boat.
I recall reading (maybe here) about when Whole Foods decided to switch to wind power (or at least, buying wind credits - again with the indulgences) and the CEO said he thought that the added cost would pan out, as people would drive further (his words) to shop a store that was more environmentally conscious.
For people that want to tell you they know exactly how the world is going to end in the next century if we don't do exactly what they say, environmentalists are unbelievably near-sighted. Has anyone done any environmental impact studies on what it takes to produce the highly toxic batteries that make the hybrids possible, and that need to be replaced not-infrequently at a cost of many thousands of dollars?
We have about a dozen of these spaces in our shiny new LEED-certified office building. I've never seen more than three of the spaces being used at once, most of the time by decidedly non-hybrid contractor or catering trucks.
Getting the LEED Certification for your building virtually requires putting the hybrid-reserved signs up, because in the 2.0 worksheet it's worth one point in the "Sustainable Sites" category -- the same as improving your "stormwater management" by 25% or restoring 50% of the site to open space, which would be a lot more expensive.
I think they realize this is a bit silly, because the LEED 3.0 scoring system has changed to give you credit for "alternative commuting" in general, whether it's biking, public transport, or high-efficiency autos.
The Earth is a seething, volcanic planet...
One of the ever-present risks we face, in spending a fortune and shackling our economy to reduce C02, is that a North American volcano will erupt and, in one episode, spew enough carbon to eradicate any benefit of decades of our paltry anti-carbon programs.
But we think we are so smart and so powerful and so able to alter the universe in which we live.
(And it burps and we all die.)
But, lets make sure and spend our last trillion on getting rid of carbon.
Has anyone done any environmental impact studies on what it takes to produce the highly toxic batteries that make the hybrids possible, and that need to be replaced not-infrequently at a cost of many thousands of dollars?
I would like to see those studies too. But for an appetizer, try googling "sudbury nickel mine" in google photos.
I'm not sure which religion is the flavor of the period, but sanctimony seems to be ever popular...
KLDAVIS,
Be sure to use really big nails, applied below the waterline.
you'll notice that the hybrid parking space sign isn't permanently anchored. a really fun prank would be to go back at night and move the sign to the far end of the parking lot.
lima oscar lima
The self righteousness is suffocating.
How do you live when you are so pure?
you'll notice that the hybrid parking space sign isn't permanently anchored. a really fun prank would be to go back at night and move the sign to the far end of the parking lot
Or just randomly during the day move the sign around from place to place and watch the lemmings follow the sign.
Put it in front of the largest non- hybrid car in the parking lot and take pictures of the faces of people ....
Send the pictures to the Green Police, and lower that silly score.
And what are they going to do?
And now we are going to kill all the trees by eliminating CO2.
Just when we've got people feeling guilty about those damn plastic bags we made them use instead of killing trees (a renewable resource) back in the 80s.
Joe Veenstra - U.S. Green Building Council? Great link to the NY Times article. The hybrid space now makes perfect sense when you understand the guy behind it is a former accountant and MBA with an air conditioning company (Carrier). S Richard Fedrizzi. Who became a pal of Algore. Who then quit carrier & peddled his "green solutions" to firms wishing government favor through "Think Green" which along with his consults, pays 8-10 million a year into the private consulting firm he owns "Natural Solutions, Inc."
Then with that money machine in place, moved into posh lobbyist HQ in DC and established the US Green Building Council that not only pays him a posh additional salary, but places him well up into the Ruling Elites, with access to the top people.
In everyone's rush to gobble on this bait of a post, you've all ignored the gold.
Freeman Hunt, that cracked me UP.
Need parking slot and ranking designations for:
Disabled driving hybrid
Disabled riding bicycle
Disabled riding horse
Horse driving hybrid
Greenest vehicles.
re: Al Gore,
Is Al Gore Going To Be The “Carbon Credit Lord”?
Cap-And-Trade: Al Gore's Cash Cow.
So if you got the big bucks to invest.........
How will they enforce that? Have one of those pigeon-chested clerks in the hat-full-o-brains threaten to make you use plastic bags?
I like the reserved hybrid spots. There is one at the Fresh & Easy near my home. It usually guarantees me a spot near the door.
I don't drive a hybrid. I doubt the parking lords can do much about me; they have their silly sign and I have my little protest.
It works out well all around.
Pathetic. Shameful. Stupid.
TRO, seconded, double-plus that I have a Suburban. I'll happily occupy myself whilst waiting for the wife trying to teach the engine to play the anthem ...
Next, parking spots for people who purchase carbon offsets, identified by official hang-tag or license plate, just like the (handicapped isn't really the PC term, is it? What SHOULD we be calling it?).
Finally, there will be a way for us elitists to reserve preferential parking at all commercial locations.
And feel self-righteous about it.
It is clear that everyone here thinks this is ridiculous but I have a question for you. Should we try to encourage companies to make and people to drive more fuel efficient cars? What this private business is doing here is making a small effort to encourage people to drive more fuel efficient cars. Isn’t this better than big government mandates?
I don't get it. Why can't hybrid drivers just park like the rest of us? What's the point?
Understanding favoritism for Hybrid owners comes from understanding that we have a new State Religion. Environmentalism has gone from a reasonable attempt for cleaner water and less smelly air into a Power Club to intimidate and rob all humans who are "breathers" or eat "breathers" or use our god given coal and oil energy supplies, except for the religions favored righteous few.So join up if you want favors, or hang your sinful heads in shame. They won!
Isn’t this better than big government mandates?
We've got both, plus artifically higher-priced fuel. This one is easier to bitch about.
Some hybrids only get a few more mpg than regular cars. These owners are fools, because they'll never get their extra cost back, so maybe we should give them their own space. That way they'll only run over the handicapped people.
Ralph ... I see your point. These hybrid owners may be seriously mentally handicapped. Then again ignorance is bliss.
So...a private business makes a decision to reserve a parking space on their private property for a type of vehicle they want to reward the driver for driving.
I thought the wingnut crowd was all for the right of property owners to make decisions for their businesses.
So why all the dismay?
Oh...I see...private decisions are fine unless they come across as hippy-ish.
Damn hippies.
KLDAVIS said...
Has anyone done any environmental impact studies on what it takes to produce the highly toxic batteries that make the hybrids possible, and that need to be replaced not-infrequently at a cost of many thousands of dollars?
I used to work for Sanyo Energy years ago and I used to travel to several of the nickel mines in Canada to secure inventory for the Nickel-Metal Hydride and some of the Li-Ion batteries that Sanyo used at the time. It is what I would consider to be an ecological disaster. Many of these places look like a martian or alien landscape from the extreme chemicals involved in crushing ore, processing the slurry, and refining it down to the raw nickel. The effluent alone has essentially killed the surrounding areas and nothing will love there. The oxides created by the processes in the immediate atmosphere as they trickle down onto the ground has left it looking like running rust. It's a vicious process to the ecology and immediate environment.
But hey, the leftist hippies don't give a shit about that as long as they look morally cool and smuggly superior driving around in their little hybrids without a care in the world as to what it actually takes to produce a product like that, that allows them to feel morally environmentally superior to everyone else. Essentially their phoniness is contributing to killing the mother earth they claim to care way more than others do. It's all piffle.
Ann, I don't get why you are upset about this at all. You live amongst these kinds of people, you walk and talk in the same academic circles they travel in. You get to hear their leftist political anger at all things conservative, but you see a preferential treatment to their own kinds in front a whole foods (which is a crock of shit to begin with) and you are upset? I don't get it.
I am never going to use a nickel again!
Google Sudbury Nickel Mines.
NASA can see the superstack from space.
The superstack is an effort to keep the sulfurous smelting smoke away from the people. High rates of asthma and lung disease and cancer and birth defects there.
The residents talk about sulfur days.
Lovely.
That's your hybrid battery source. It causes environmental devastation.
Plug in EV's don't run on unicorn farts. Where does the electricity come from? Coal mining.
Frakkin duhhhhhh
That sign is missing the part that says: "Self-righteous Wanker".
It probably has something to do with that electric cord on the ground in front of the space. 66 comments and nobody mentioned it?
I'm not sure how many are out now, but apparently there are a ton of them coming out this year.
http://www.pluginamerica.org/plug-in-vehicle-tracker.html
Also, there must be some demand:
"McDonalds to offer electric vehicle recharging at restaurants"
http://www.redferret.net/?p=15025
"Mother Earth can go fuck herself."
genius. As another commenter said, Earth will be around after we kill ourselves off. Real environmentalism is about making the planet the best place possible for humans to survive.
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