I well remember the dirty looks people gave my friend as she pulled into the disabled space without a sticker… then I gingerly got out of the car with my crutches and my leg in plaster and hopped to the wheelchair she was bringing for me. But they couldn’t tell beforehand, or while the car was left. To answer the question about fines for using disabled spaces in the UK, if you are parked in a public space, a meter say, without a sticker you can be fined but I don’t think there is any enforcement in private carparks like supermarkets’ – I’d love to see malingering bastards clamped myself – but you’d have to be really really sure they were actually fit and healthy.
[QUOTE=evilbeth]
[QUOTE=Martha]
I don’t get the pregnancy spaces either. Being pregnant does not mean you can’t walk across a car park. It’s not as if you’re having to carry anything heavy. Pregnancy is not a disease or a disability. If anything the walk will do you good.
Er…should a pregnant woman who’s having preeclampsia really be at Bar Louie in the mall in the first place? I’d think maybe bed rest would be a more appropriate solution, at that point.
Don’t worry about the four pregnancy parking spots near the bar. If they weren’t so marked, they would have been taken before you got there.
And if he was like TeaElle’s father?
[quote]
How do you know you aren’t?
I could see her being at the mall, but Bar Louie’s not at the mall. It’s at the Waterfront surrounded by other bars and a few shops which are most definitely closed by 10 pm on Friday evening.
If you’ve got preeclampsia, you really shouldn’t be schlepping around from Bar Louie to the Mexican bar across the way (can’t remember the name of it) to Rock Bottom to Dave & Busters. If she’s at the movie theatre on the other side of the way, well, there are quite a few spaces in the movie theatre’s parking lot which are much closer to the doors, and they even have a drop off lane.
Bona fide pre-eclampsia should be treated with hospital admission. Potential pre-eclampsia, with hypertension without proteinuria, edema, or evidence of end-organ damage, may be managed as an outpatient but usually requires strict bedrest and monitoring by the physician every 48 hours. Driving would be strictly discouraged, other than being driven to the docs office or the L & D suite.
Otherwise, as a physician who still gets to fill out handicap forms at times, I recommend that if the car has a legitimate handicap sticker or plate, just accept the fact that there’s more than you see, and it may not be for you to understand why the person needs that, or drives what they do, or looks or acts like they do.
If it has no sticker or plate, just sic the cops on 'em. Let them decide what’s going on.
QtM, MD
My part about the old people is that as a bagger at a grocery store I saw many people who parked in the handicapped space simply because they felt that being over a certain age entitled them to. I know that many old folk are in need of the disabled spot. BUT age alone is not sufficient reason. And the “Well maybe they have a condition you don’t see” argument is only partially valid. I’ve seen middle-aged ladies (it seems to be ladies who are most guilty in this area) get out of their car in workout gear, SKIP into the store, then come back to their car in a rather sprightly manner. Hell, I remember one lady parking in the disabled spot and being spotted by a friend. The friend jokingly called out to her, “I didn’t know you were old enough to park there!” She replied about the benefits of getting old being few so she was taking all she could get. Sorry lady, but it’s becoming infirm that entitles you to the spot, not becoming old.
Hypno, don’t try. Some people fail to see what goes on and there’s no way to remove those blinders. I have seen the same kinds of abuses you’re talking about, and it’s somehow invalid just because most people have a legitimate need.
Sam
They produce a quick test stick, you must publically pee on it, and if it doesn’t change color, your car gets towed. :eek:
I agree about the age issue, but must disagree about the workout gear. How do you know she didn’t just leave her physical therapist? Oh, wait, I missed the part about “skipping.” But if she has no disability, how’d she get the HC sticker/license plate?
As was previously said, just call the cops.
Slight hijack, but at 44 I’m sort of :eek: at the idea of 50 being a “golden oldie”. I think I suddenly started to feel my age.
My ex Father in law had a terrible case of Parkinsons. He would shake and he was mostly wheelchair bound. He rarely left the house. My ex Mother in law who was in better shape than most 30 year olds would use his sticker so that she could park close to the gym (aerobics three times a week), and the mall and the grocery. She had no problem doing it and was actually proud and would brag to anyone who would listen about how she was “getting over” on people.
I still try not to judge but when I see people jump out of their car and make a dash for the store I think of her every time.
Toxemia. Gestational diabetes. And several other health threatening lovelies a woman can get during pregnancy. Toxemia especially is one in which you’re supposed to stay off of your feet as much as possible (I was on a three month bed rest with my daughter, but that was way back in the 70s so they had no parking for me on those rare occasions I had to go out).
Also, a small number of these people (I was guilty) have only recently been injured, and have not yet gotten their tags. I am surprised to have gotten very few dirty looks while I was waiting for mine. But even those few I did catch glaring at my untagged car in a spot would quickly get the snarl off of their faces when they saw me double crutching out of the store with my giant Darth Vader bootcast.
Whenever people finally wise up and put me in charge of everything, one of my first acts will be to declare that it shall be legal and even encouraged to key the living shit out of any car that is improperly parked in a handicapped space. The same goes for cars that are parked diagonally across two space and for cars parked in fire lanes. Smashing windows and slashing tires will also be acceptable.
OK, so some pregnant women are incapacitated as a result of complications. The usual recommendation is bedrest which means they are not so likely to be out and about going shopping anyway. I’d guess that the number of women who are somewhere in between - those who are bedridden and those enjoying a normal healthy and active pregnancy - is negligible.
There are other health conditions that result in limited mobility that don’t qualify a disabled sticker - maybe there should be special spaces for them too?
I’m completely sympathetic to people who have genuine mobility problems. It’s the implication that all pregnant women are fragile creatures that need to be wrapped in cotton wool that gets to me.
Another regular offender is the Bitter Veteran. I grew up in a middle-income retirement town, and we had dozens of these guys. They thought it was perfectly acceptable to cut in line, talk through movies, and park in handicapped or even fire truck zones all because they were in the military at one time.
One of these BVs parked in a Fire Lane directly in front of our grocery’s exit and caused an accident (a little girl ran out in front of a car and was hit- not fatally thank God).
When the police arrived, he actually had the stones to claim that he was owed that parking space because damnit, he fought for this country. Then he tried to blame the little girl for not looking both ways (she was five) and the driver of the car that hit her (she was hidden behind the BV’s whale of a Buick, and the car was going 10mph).
Grrr. :mad:
Well, to be fair, and I don’t know how they do it in other states, up here they only qualify for a certain portion of their pregnancy. Last month, last 2 months? Something like that, a young preggers friend of mine told me about a year ago, but I honestly don’t remember the time, but I do remember her saying she could barely wait, as she could barely move as it was.
After all, if you can’t see your feet, an icy parking lot could be pretty hazardous. And for at least this one young lady, she was pregnant in the dead of winter. Pushing a cart across a snow covered parking lot the size of a football field when you can barely reach the handlebar for your huge stomach, I can’t begrudge them a month or two of a little assistance.
I personally am more “don’t get it”, not mad, after all they exist and are obviously here to stay, but kinda “why?” at the parents and children spaces. What, did parents become less capable of getting kids from car to store than we were, our parents, our grandparents? I fail to see how this is in any way ‘disabled’ or even limited mobility tp the point of being awarded special treatment.
Susan, how DARE you?? Veterans are NOT bitter. hnmmmmmph!
I thought of one, though, the ones where the legitimate owner of the sticker or plate pulls up into a handicapped spot in order to let his passenger have a nice short walk. I don’t know about other states, but here, it states right on the paperwork that you fill out to apply for one, that this is a fineable offense.
Well, time was you could get groceries delivered. Oh yeah. Really. Time was that pregnant women didn’t go out much, either. The whole mama and the and kiddies taking the station wagon/SUV to the supermarket is only in the last 50 years or so.
My parents only had one car. We got dairy products, chicken and bread delivered. If necessary, the butcher shop would deliver, too. It was possible to walk (or send a child on a bike) to a nearby store to pick up incidentals. Shopping for other groceries was done at most once a week. My dad would drive and take care of the packages.
My grandmother would never, ever, ever have gone out in public when she was obviously “in the family way.” Such things were never even spoken of. Of course, she lived on a farm, with her parents, so the whole idea of her going to a store by herself to buy food would have been considered laughable.
I’m not sure. I suspect that spaces on the public road are covered by local by-law, but spaces allocated in a private supermarket carpark are entirely up to the supermarket to enforce.
Except they don’t. So why bother.
It’s nice to see people dreaming up lots of scenarios that could explain people’s abuse of these space, and I’m sure that sometimes there is a reasonable excuse. But let’s face it; there is simply no way that all those cars could be one of these one-off excusables. If you’re disabled you apply for a disabled permit. With your doctor’s verification you get one, they are not rationed. So if you don’t have one you have no right to be parked there.
It’s plain and simple the-rules-don’t-apply-to-me selfishness.