Walnut Creek CA Gives Parking Tickets To Cars For Being Too Small

[hatrack]

No, I am not making this up

"When he came out of a Contra Costa County Mayors' Conference meeting in Walnut Creek awhile back, Martinez City Councilman Bill Wainwright was surprised to see a ticket on his windshield. He was even more surprised when he saw what it was for. Wainwright had been tagged for having too small a car. Seriously. The city parking lot where he had found a spot has two rows of slots reserved for vehicles 6-foot-5 inches or taller, according to a sign posted in the garage. Wainwright, with his Acura, was too short to park there. "I'd never heard of that before,'' Wainwright says. "I've heard of cars too big for parking spots, but not too small.''

And so it is in the land of the land yacht. Out here in suburbs we like our lawns green, our shopping malls trendy, and our family transportation in two sizes: big and bigger. Despite dire predictions about drops in sales for full-size pickups and sport utility vehicles as gas climbed to more than $2 per gallon, automotive industry analysts like Haig Stoddard, of the well- regarded Wards Automotive Reports, says the oversize vehicles are as popular as ever. "Sales are only down 2 percent this year,'' Stoddard says, "that's not much at all.''

Wainwright's experience may be the perfect metaphor for the cars on steroids. Huge SUVs and trucks can be a pain to park. They are too wide to fit between the lines, too long to keep from sticking out in the lane and too tall to see over. Finding a parking place for a giant like that, especially now, during the holiday rush, could discourage an owner from driving a hulking vehicle.

EDIT

Now, this isn't a knock on Walnut Creek. As assistant city engineer for traffic, Yun Na Rhee, says the trucks were just too big for the garage. Between the low ceilings and the need to make sharp turns to maneuver the ramps to the upper floors, the big fellows needed a lot all their own."

EDIT

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/07/BAGRFA7H1I1.DTL

[tk2kewl]

1. Can you please stop this ride? I want to get off.

:puke:

[mrstick]

2. been there

having grown up near that town, I can tell you that the city is a model for upscale suburbia

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Oversized Lot at Boston's Logan Int'l

There is oversized vehical parking around lots of parking garages. 6'5" would be for conversion vans, comercial trucks, handicap vans etc. Most SUV's are not that tall, and fit just fine in the garage.