Compact?
by Chris MacDonald
This photo was taken in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. There’s little remarkable about the normative sign, here. Except that a) it is remarkably terse, and b) the driver of the mid-sized SUV parked by it apparently has no idea — or no concern — what it means.
Nor, for that matter, did the drivers of most of the cars parked in that row. All of the spaces in this row were marked “Compact,” and about 3/4 of the vehicles were — this is the USA, after all — decidedly not compact.
Normative Signs: The Poetry of "Ought" 
No, no, it’s a VERB. You are authorized to crush any SUV parked there into a more modest size.
Two other things worth noting: 1) The parking spot DOES seem to be big enough for that vehicle, sign notwithstanding. and 2) the driver seems to have been unable to centre his or her vehicle in the parking spot (a trait for which SUV drivers are anecdotally famous).