This weekend I was at an apartment complex and saw this car parked out front with a hand written note stuck under the wiper apparently left by the complex's security guard. The sign said 후면주차금지 ("No rear parking" or Park facing forwards). You can see the cars next to him are both facing forwards. That's pretty unusual given the "back it in" parking style that dominates and which by the way I've gotten pretty darn good at.
I asked about this and apparently the complex's rule comes from them wanting to protect the narrow sidewalk and plants there from exhaust. So it only applies to the cars parked right up against the buildings like this. If you live in this kind of complex you probably have seen posted signs about this. It makes sense. I wouldn't want to be walking by and have a car engine start up and blast me with smoke, or the little kids in strollers either. Probably not ideal for the plants either. And if somebody's just sitting there idling it would be worse.
The thing is (and I'm sure you caught on by now)... take a look at that license plate. It's blue. That means it's an electric car. Full electric in fact. I don't know cars well but it looks like a Chevy Bolt to me which is apparently pretty popular here.
So that's a mildly interesting dilemma here. Does the rule apply to him? His car doesn't make exhaust so in theory he should park however he wants. Why should he follow this rule?
It made me wonder what would've happened if the guard had slapped on one of those big parking ticket stickers on the windshield instead of this easily removable sign. I bet the driver would've had some choice words. I saw the guard sitting in his little office and wondered if this elderly old guy even knows what an electric car is.
This got me thinking about the "one day a week car free" programs. It makes sense for reducing traffic generally, but when a car is pure electric, it's hard to argue that the program cuts down on pollution/dust levels in the city. If cars don't release exhaust then there's no point to apply the program to them.
Just something to think about.
I asked about this and apparently the complex's rule comes from them wanting to protect the narrow sidewalk and plants there from exhaust. So it only applies to the cars parked right up against the buildings like this. If you live in this kind of complex you probably have seen posted signs about this. It makes sense. I wouldn't want to be walking by and have a car engine start up and blast me with smoke, or the little kids in strollers either. Probably not ideal for the plants either. And if somebody's just sitting there idling it would be worse.
The thing is (and I'm sure you caught on by now)... take a look at that license plate. It's blue. That means it's an electric car. Full electric in fact. I don't know cars well but it looks like a Chevy Bolt to me which is apparently pretty popular here.
So that's a mildly interesting dilemma here. Does the rule apply to him? His car doesn't make exhaust so in theory he should park however he wants. Why should he follow this rule?
It made me wonder what would've happened if the guard had slapped on one of those big parking ticket stickers on the windshield instead of this easily removable sign. I bet the driver would've had some choice words. I saw the guard sitting in his little office and wondered if this elderly old guy even knows what an electric car is.
This got me thinking about the "one day a week car free" programs. It makes sense for reducing traffic generally, but when a car is pure electric, it's hard to argue that the program cuts down on pollution/dust levels in the city. If cars don't release exhaust then there's no point to apply the program to them.
Just something to think about.
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