FREAK Shots: Not Everyone Likes Free Parking

Blog reader Paul Gorbould emailed us this photo from a parking lot at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada:

Photo: Paul Gorbould

Gorbould understands the good intent of the spots:

The site was recently declared a Unesco World Heritage Site, and it appears to have taken the designation to heart.
I’ve never seen a parking designation like this before — and of course, the spots (there were several) were empty. In fact, I saw no “alternative fuel vehicles” for a hundred miles in any direction. … Still, no harm in being proactive I suppose, even if the spots closest to the entrance remain empty for a few years.

Many cities, like Albuquerque, offer free parking to drivers of “hybrid, alternative-fuel, or fuel-efficient” cars. Businesses have also followed suit, reports USA Today.
But drivers of gas-only cars get annoyed, reports the USA Today article, when hybrid drivers take up the best parking spots all day, for free.
In some cases, hybrid-vehicle parking and driving incentives become counterproductive, reports The Washington Post: carpool-lane privileges for hybrid drivers, for example, have helped to clog those lanes.
Los Angeles is thinking about taking back its free parking, as concerns about the city’s budget deficit mount.
At Fossil Cliffs, the most the alternative-fuel spaces are doing is taking up space, but if gas prices stay low, they may continue to do so for an annoyingly long time.
(Send your FREAK-worthy photos here.)