Large trucks have a significant environmental impact.
A Redditor reposted an image from Facebook showing a truck driver's written explanation for taking up several spaces in an IKEA parking lot.
"I park this way to keep from sticking out into traffic….This thing is 22 feet long," reads the note taped to the car's driver's side window, typed in all caps. In much smaller type, it further explains that someone put a note on their windshield once calling them an a****** for parking that way, but they're really not one.
While their parking job was an inconvenience, the pollution created by a truck that size is an actual problem. Oversized trucks — which include pickup trucks like this, tractors, garbage trucks, and delivery trucks — produce a large amount of pollution that contributes to rising global temperatures.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, "while heavy-duty vehicles make up just 10% of the vehicles now on the road, they generate more than 25% of the total global warming emissions from the transportation sector."
Many of these vehicles perform essential duties, like collecting garbage, delivering mail, and providing public transportation, so their elimination is out of the question. That said, the swap to electric versions, as well as more individuals switching to electric vehicles, will have a significant impact on the sector's pollution. UPS is already working toward carbon neutrality, as are Amazon and Walmart, among others.
Not only are big trucks like the one the original poster shared inconvenient for other drivers and bad for the environment, but they're unsafe on the road. Commenters on the post agreed with the OP that the truck driver was in the wrong, even with the note.
One user wasn't buying it. "At my nearby ikea there are spots made for trailers specifically, not single vehicles, where you can drive straight through," they said. "They're at the back edge of the parking lot usually."
"Then you need to park super far away where there's enough space," another user commented. "Just like people with trailers or big trucks."
One Redditor found the width was more of a problem: "Those trucks are so big they don't fit in ANY spots. Not because they're too long, but because they're ridiculously large."
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