Wednesday, January 6, 2010

California Knows How to Party, Green!

When we first arrived in the desert region of Palm Springs for Christmas I was completely blown away by the number of enormous vehicles on the road. It seemed for miles the only things I saw were Hummers, Suburbans, Minivans and a slew of other SUV’s. I started to wonder how the emissions in this country were based on standards set by this state.

Where were the Smart Cars? How come there were not more Hybrid vehicles or even things like Mini Coopers all over the place? It was shocking!

Here in the northeast Smart Cars took off like wild fire because parking and accessibility is always at a premium in our very congested region of the country. Sometimes even my Corolla just can’t squeeze into the only available street space and there is an old saying in Boston “Grab the first parking spot you see because it will also be your last”. Unless you go to a garage this mantra really does ring true.

Anyway, my hope that California would blow me away with its eco consciousness was starting to diminish as we rode the freeways in our rental Hyundai Accent and all manner of (as Matt & I sometimes refer to them) Earth Stompers zoomed past us getting only 15 or so miles to the gallon.

We hit a drug store so I could pick up some body lotion (man is it ever dry in the desert! Even drinking 102 ounces of filtered tap water every day wasn’t cutting it on my sensitive skin!) and suddenly my faith in the Green efforts of my favorite state in the union were restored as there were two of these spaces right next to the handicapped spaces in the CVS parking lot in La Quinta:


Hooray!

Now I’m not at all sure if this is something all of the CVS stores out there do as this is the only one we visited but this was a great sign; both literally and figuratively of course!

Suddenly I started to notice that the sea of mountain sized vehicles parting to reveal that the lower emissions and Hybrid type vehicles were simply hidden behind them. They were there, just not in the droves I see back here. Yet.

But this sign is not at all something we have here so it was encouraging to watch innovation take shape. Way to go CVS in LaQuinta for thinking creatively and encouraging a Greener lifestyle for your patrons!

2 comments:

Judi FitzPatrick said...

Kudos to CVS! Funny about the Hummers, etc. I was thinking recently how they seem to have disappeared here (I thought maybe it was the "cash for clunkers" that made them go away.) I wonder why Cali still has so many on the road?

Unknown said...

I'm not sure if its a factor of comfort or speed or what but since everywhere out there seems to be a healthy distance away and everyone has to drive to where tehy want to go maybe people want to get there in some kind of high style or something? Perhaps because many people off road, need something tough to go up & over mountains? I truly am not sure but it was a bit of a bummer to see. Though I might be talking about a new SUV I just saw released (an American no less) that has big hauling capacity but gets 32 MPG the GMC Terrain.