Reading ’Tween The Lines

I’m probably going to come off sounding pretty selfish, but I need to rant. This has to do with parking stalls. In 1997 I wrote about this as I owned my beloved ’95 black Dodge Ram truck. That was about the time compact car stalls were introduced.

For lack of spaces, I tried to park my truck in a compact stall and the security guard scolded me ,saying that the stall was for compact cars and my truck was too “fat.” I look at the enforcement of compact car stalls today and want to say, “How’s that working for you?”

Now, when it comes to stalls for the disabled, I am totally for it. My late in-laws had to use them, and now my mom uses a disabled parking permit and it’s absolutely warranted. As long as someone has that placard, even though I may not be able to detect a noticeable handicap, I’m glad they can use a stall right up front. It’s the people who use those stalls as temporary parking, like to use an ATM machine, whom I have a problem with.

But I digress. My thing today is why the heck are there so many stalls reserved for electric cars? Not only that, they get to charge up their cars for free. Seriously, these electric vehicle stalls even appear to be closer than those made for the disabled.

I might not have a problem with this except that I’ll head to a shopping center and can’t find a single parking space. I’ll see a couple of prime stalls open, but when I get there, they are reserved for these “green” cars. Yet these spaces aren’t even being utilized. Besides, if you drive one of these cars, you probably do yoga and can easily walk long distances.

I have nothing against the owners of these vehicles, but why should they get special treatment over the rest of us? I think the people who made these regulations are the same ones who drive these cars. The other day I was driving my “middle-age crisis” car, a black Porsche. Frustrated because I couldn’t find parking, I pulled into one of these electric vehicle stalls.

As I walked away, a security guard called out, “Hey, you can’t park there, that’s for green cars!”

I continued walking and said, “Arrest me, you automobile racist!”