Still free parking for hybrids in Los Angeles. Maybe.
I know this is not the most important issue facing the country at the moment but there seems to hybrid parking mayhem going on in Los Angeles. If you're there, driving around right now, pay attention to the road and read this later or pull over or something. Geez.
If you're a hybrid owner in LaLa land you are probably aware that for the past three years you have been allowed to park without feeding the meter and without any ticket worries. According to news articles from several different publications, this has changed. Depending on which version of the story you want to believe, the city has reversed itself on free parking because it has a huge budget shortfall of $500 million to make up and it needs every penny of the $114,000 (or one percent of total parking meter revenue) the program is estimated to cost. Or, behind door number three, we have the reasoning that, because the program has been so wildly successful, hybrids now run rampant city-wide, eating everything in their path. I feel I have to go with first excuse. Not because hybrids aren't capable of becoming crazed car killers because that could actually happen. Rather, if one percent of all potential parkers is your definition of a wild success, I'd be curious to hear what constitutes extremely mediocre.
But since L.A. is adjacent to Hollywood there may be a happy ending to this tale of parking woe. If you like to supplement your info intake by reading cool blogs then you may have read on the LAist that if you drive a Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Prius,or Ford Escape Hybrid you can still park for free, even if you don't have a Clean Air Vehicle Decal. This happy ending may not last forever so pay attention to the blogs as well as the road.
[Source: LAist]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kevin Nugent 9:14PM (4/03/2008)
ahhhhhh the government is missing out on a couple million dollars .
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Randy C. 10:08PM (4/03/2008)
Hybrids don't deserve free parking. They are only 50% green at best. Some of them don't even make it to 4% green. The current Prius goes nowhere without gas. Even with a plug-in conversion typicaly less than 10 miles all electric is achieved. And it's tricky to get that, to much accelerator and on comes the engine. Anybody dumb enough to buy a hybrid Hummer thinking they are helping the environment deserves to pay parking. Only true ZEV's deserve the encouragement because the pollution free live style needs to progress.
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thirdword 12:56AM (1/03/2009)
For the record, Hollywood is not adjacent to Los Angeles, it is in Los Angeles. It is but one of the many districts that make up the city, much like Venice, Silver Lake, San Pedro or Chatsworth.
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