The sheer size of this vehicle, which I encountered while walking down Court Street in Brooklyn the other day, was what made me stop and take a picture. As you can see, the traffic enforcement officer’s head basically just reaches the hood. (Makes you wonder what the driver’s visibility is.)

Right, the traffic enforcement officer. I waited to watch her write a ticket for the vehicle, which had been left idling with no one behind the wheel, blocking a fire hydrant and parked a couple of feet out into the lane of travel (it’s a sharrow lane to boot), while its owner apparently made a stop in the bodega.

But she just kept walking.

"Aren’t you going to write him a ticket?" I asked.

"Can’t ticket a placard," she replied with a shrug.

I could barely see up onto the dashboard, but there was some kind of placard there. Then I noticed the letters "VAS" on the plates, which apparently stand for "Volunteer Ambulance Service."

You’d think a Volunteer Ambulance Service member would realize that leaving an unattended vehicle idling is unsafe. You’d think someone trained to save lives might think twice about it. You’d think.