Reserving Front-Row Parking Spaces for Green

Front-row parking offered to green-minded Orlando drivers

January 1, 2011 - For anyone who has ever circled a crowded parking lot, a new kind of preferred-parking space is getting between them and the front door.

As though owners of hybrid vehicles aren't imperious enough with their 50-plus miles to the gallon, green-construction proponents are now reserving front-row parking spaces for such drivers at a growing number of buildings.

The University of Central Florida's new arena added four spaces for hybrids and car poolers this month. The new Amway Center's Geico Garage has 46 spaces set aside for hybrids and 36 reserved for car poolers. Orlando Utilities Commission and Orlando City Hall have at least one prime space designated for electric cars that need charging and plan on adding 300 more charging stations and parking spaces within an hour's drive of downtown by 2012.

Prior to the emergence of preferential parking for alternative-fuel vehicles, special parking privileges had been reserved for handicapped drivers with doctor-prescribed decals on their vehicles.

But unlike the handicap spaces, spots for hybrids and car poolers generally lack any kind of enforcement, raising questions about whether they'll be taken seriously.

"Right now this is a promotional thing, so I don't think we're seeing enforcement," said Jon Ippel, the city of Orlando's sustainability manager. "It's more peer pressure. Hopefully the evil eyes violators get will force them to comply." {continued}