Re: I saw the future today.

In article <8YPGj.253$xA.250@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 Jette <bosslady@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> > <rkshullat@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> Paris is the place I remember seeing the creative parking, with cars
> >> parked on sidewalks, sideways between other cars, on the grass next
> >> to trees, etc.  Except for residential streets, parking in the US
> >> seems to be quite a bit more regimented than in Europe.
> > 
> > "Except for residential streets" is right.  Here in Virginia, I can
> > seldom walk more than half a mile on a sidewalk without encountering
> > at least one car that's been parked on or across it.  Occasionally
> > a motorist even pulls in right in front of me, stops his car on the
> > sidewalk, shuts off the engine, and gets out, leaving me standing
> > there right next to the vehicle.
> 
> One advantage that the Smart really has is that you can park it "end 
> on" to the pavement (sidewalk) and get two cars parked in the same 
> space as a single larger car parked normally.
> 
> Here's an example.  Mind you, this one is actually parked in the "no 
> parking" space actually meant for the communal garbage skip!
> 
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfette/340684866/

Judging by that picture, you aren't really getting them into "the same 
space," since the Smart is longer than the regular car is wide.

A few years ago I spent some time in Paris, and took a bunch of photos 
which I was planning to put together as a documentary of the evolution 
of the automobile. You start with a motorcycle, go on to one of the 
motorcycles with semi-enclosure, go on from there to the Smart or 
something similar, then to a full sized car.

But I never got around to assembling it.

-- 
 http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
 Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
 Published by Baen, in bookstores now