Depends on… how many spots are left in the lot in general and where the reserved spaces are.
There’s are a couple of energy-efficient spaces in a large shopping center near my office, and I always take one. The parking is scattered through the shopping center, which is laid out on a bunch of “streets,” and the energy-efficient spaces are toward the far end of the complex, near the entrance I use. By parking there, I avoid having to drive up and down looking for a spot. I can get in and out quickly.
If the only energy-efficient spots are toward the front of a lot, chances are I wouldn’t see them, since I usually park farther from the building, in an uncrowded area. Or in the shade. This is south Florida, after all.
My primary vehicles are cargo vans (for work and necessity and did I mention working out of, because I have to carry ladders and materials and tools.) And vans because I have large dogs and I do working and show events and trials with them - a Prius wouldn’t work for me, no matter what and even though I would love to get 40+ MPG and be righteous and green.
My vote was for fuck that shit.
If any place around me instituted such a policy, I would immediately cease my patronage and I would tell them why in no uncertain terms.
I am pretty amazed at the hostility here. I mean, efficient vehicles aren’t currently for everyone, but they are still generally a good thing, right? Even if they don’t make sense for me, I am glad that other people are able to save energy and that there is a growing market for efficient vehicles that with any luck will spur innovation and make them more practical and affordable for the rest of us.
And, of course, at the moment these vehicles tend to be expensive, so providing incentives for them to come to your store may be a smart financial move.
Do you guys also gleefully park in the pregnant lady parking spots you see in some places?
Most (many? Nearly all?) doctors agree that walking is very good for both a pregnant woman and the unborn.
But, without a definition of “energy efficient”, I don’t see what anyone could object to. I mean, even the biggest, high HP sports car is more energy efficient than, say, an Abrams M1 tank, so why can’t I park my Ford F350 Diesel in that spot?
Handicapped/ pregnant spaces are a whole different animal.
We’re not talking about taking a space from a person who NEEDS to park closer for obvious physical reasons.
Yea green cars are expensive, so is everything else.
The green cars should be the last to get reserved spaces since they have lower emissions they can drive around longer looking for a space with less damage to the environment.
Stores don’t have expecting mother spaces because of any requirement. They have them because it helps attract the family-friendly crowd. If stores were actually that deeply concerned with the wellbeing of mothers, they would probably be better off offering spaces for parents of small children so they are less likely to face parking lot accidents. But a bunch of snot nosed brats doesn’t paint as pretty a picture as an expecting mom.
Similarly, green spaces attract a green crowd. It’s all marketing.
It would make more sense to have reserved parking for gas-guzzlers, rather than forcing them to circle the parking lot looking for an open space wasting even more precious resources.
I voted “depends on…”. I was going to say that it depends on the definition of efficient. I now realize I would park my normal 2005 Chevy Cobalt in the spot. It isn’t a hybrid or an electric, but it gets 29 mpg on my daily drive. Most of the drive is on city streets, but it is advertized at 25 city/34 hwy(9.41-6.92 L/100km). That is far enough above the average American gas guzzler that I deserve that space, and since they can’t enforce it, I’m parking there.
This, and the fact that I have seen parking spaces in cramped parking garages labeled “compact only” with giant pickup trucks parked in them…
One of the two major grocery stores in St Paul, MN does it. We’re not talking a high end store in a fashionable part of town. We’re talking the proletariat store in the poorish part of town.
I car share, and all the cars I drive are high efficiency or hybrids. I shop at Whole Foods and park in the reserved space. I also smell my own farts, and they smell like raspberries. Kinda sound like raspberries, too. Nyah.
I do like to respect the intent of the owner, so do honor those signs even though there are no consequences, except karmic, for not doing so.
Here it is more common for the sign to be ‘low emissions vehicle’ which is confusing because I drive a vehicle that has a ‘partial zero emissions’, but gets 27 mpg. So I guess I could qualify, and I do have the bills for replacement parts of the exhaust that shows that this does involve additional cost for supposedly the betterment of all mankind then the standard exhaust. But I have not use those spaces. There are usually plenty more in almost as good as of location, sometimes better.
I do see some hybrids and some cars also with the partial zero, and some other vehicles that would be lucky getting into the double digits of fuel economy and leave a black trail of smoke behind them parked there in what I take it is mocking protest of the signs.
The local Home Depot has some spots that say something like “Parking for Professionals Only”, that they put in in the section where I had already always been parking. That’s reasonably similar to the situation in the OP. I park in them.
At Home Depot I’ll usually park in the “Contractor Spot” (if it’s the closest open spot). There’s another store that has a sign that says "Reserved for Manager Of The Month that I’ll park in if the lot is full. The Chipoltle by my house has a lot with about 12 spots, usually all of them full at lunch except for a spot that says it’s reserved for parking for people that faxed their order in ahead. People will circle the lot, pull back out on to a very, very busy road to pull back in…I’ll park in that spot.
As for Chipotle, sorry, I just don’t care. When that’s literally the only spot open in their entire lot, it’s either where I’m going to park, or I’m going to get lunch somewhere else
The Manager Of The Month spots I’ll avoid unless it means having to park waaay at the back of the lot. We discussed in another thread why employees need to park at the back of the lot and I get that this why this employee gets to park in the front, but if they want my money, I’m sure they’d rather I parked here then just went to the other big box store a few blocks away.
About the only spot I won’t park in is “Parking for expectant mothers only”.
Basically, these signs are a nice convenience for the customers they’re aimed at, but they’re a big (okay, slight) inconvenience to the rest of us. A get that Home Depot wants the guy whose going to drop $2000 dollars to park close, but why should I have to park 200 feet away from the door when I’m going to buy a 10 pieces of drywall?
I get that Chipotle wants to save a spot for people that fax their order in…and not just that but encourage people to fax orders in (look, we even saved you a spot), but it’s at the cost of turning away other customers.
I get the stores want to treat their managers to a good spot, but it means another customer parking 40 car lengths (widths?) back.
I don’t have a problem with the signs, but I also don’t have problem with them A)not being strictly enforced and B)someone walking out if they get called on it, because that’s what I would do.
I guess I could see these types of spots making more sense if they were used all day long. Pulling into Chipotle, the fax spot is nearly always empty. The Pick Up spot at Best Buy always empty as well (though I rarely go there anymore). I could see them enforcing these types of spots if people were using them throughout the day, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the case.
Red light 3 am, no traffic seen for blocks. No cop around. Do you go throught the light?
Do you ride on the shoulder around other cars to get to the exit faster?
The space is there because (some) others have followed the rules that are set by the person(s) who has/have the right to set the rules, the owner of the property. Yes, the owner may choose not to punish the cheaters but cheaters are what you are, an you believing that the rule is wrong (just like I think going through a red after full stop if there is no traffic for as far as the eye can see should be legal) does not change that.
Yes, if the owner really cared (s)he’d put up a notice that violators will be towed and follow through. But you do run the risk that someone will take justice into their own hands … just look to make sure there is no board with a nail sticking up placed under your tire when you back out is all I am sayin’ …
Yes, Chilpotle knows that encouraging one discourages another. The fax customers though are faster in and out so it makes sense to them to do that. Yes, Home Depot wants to give perks to the person routinely dropping 2K at a crack.
Taking your business elsewhere is a calculated risk they are willing to take. Don’t buy there if you feel inconvenienced too much.
Yur neighbor has a party and all the street spots are taken. One of his guests parks in your driveway. Otherwise he’d have to park two blocks away. Do you have the right to say he cannot park on your private property? These owners are saying that you, with that vehicle, or without a large account, do cannot park on that portion of their property. Really it is the same thing.
Both of these situations are not only illegal but also make driving unsafe for others so your analogy fails. What I was doing might annoy the next person who wants to park close (and don’t we all) but no one is going to t-bone me or run me off the freeway because I’m in their blindspot because of it.
I’ve had plenty of cars towed off my lot over the years, but I’m not sure that ‘hey, you parked on the spot I saved for [specific type of customer] and your not one of them’ would go over well when I call the police to have the car ticketed before I call the tow company to have it impounded.
So, if I park in a spot reserved for customers that faxed their order in or the manager or the month or the contractor spot at Home Depot, how are these business going to go about having my car towed, what am I going to be ticketed for? What law have I violated?
