When we had to put our mom into a nursing home, my sister drove my mother’s car while she was visiting in town.
I arrived at the nursing home one day in time to see my sister pull mom’s car into a handicapped space. So… I called her on it right there.
Me- “Why’d you park in that handicapped space?”
Sis- “Because I can!”
Me- "No… Mom can. That special plate is for her.
Sis- “So?”
Me- “You aren’t handicapped! Leave the spot for someone else!”
Sis- “The special plates allow me to park there, right?”
Me- <sigh> “When did you turn into an asshole?”
One of the local bylaw enforcement officers told me that they really appreciate it when people do this. It makes their job easier when drivers use the handy “Look at me! I’m illegally parked and I KNOW it!” signals .
You’ve never tried to drive down Haight or Castro or Valencia or Polk or Mission or 18th St or 24th St or Clement or Irving or Broadway or Jefferson, have you? Stopped cars fuckin’ everywhere.
I used to date a paraplegic guy. He used a handicapped parking place not because of its proximity to the building but because he needed extra space beside the driver’s door in order to get his wheelchair in and out of his car. Sometimes ignorant people will park in that marked-off area adjacent to a handicapped space, thinking that’s a lesser evil than parking in the space itself, but that can render the handicapped space useless, or worse, prevent someone from being able to get back into their car.
We were young and he drove a fairly flashy sports car. I remember a few occasions when we would pull into a handicapped place at the front of a building, a security guard would begin marching grimly in our direction, only to do an about-face when the wheelchair came out of the back seat.
Fire engines and ambulanes are allowed to park in the fire lane (but not handicapped spots). It’s so they can get out quickly if they get a call.
BiblioCat, EMT
When my MIL passed away, my FIL and SIL kept using the handicapped tag she had gotten. They had absolutely no shame in doing so. They were of the opinion that, “We have the tag, we can use it. What’s the big deal?”
It didn’t matter that neither of them actually needed it.
Well, wait. Does Terminal Laziness count as a disease?
Once upon a time I had a handicapped hanger thing. This is because I have nasty arthritis, two knees that pop out of joint for no good reason periodically and lived in a climate where major snowfall with accompanying ice wasn’t uncommon in the winter. I kept the thing stored in my glove compartment unless I absolutely needed it (for ethical reasons and because I got seriously quite tired of explaining my disability to random belligerent strangers in parking lots).
Then one day I burned it.
Because I found out my boyfriend-at-the-time had been dragging it out whenever he borrowed my car and using it indiscriminately for the “good parking spots” and then carefully stowing it again when he returned the car.
I never bothered to get another one. I doubt I ever will as long as I’m still ambulatory.
A little extra pain and risk of joint dislocation in sloppy weather is well worth not having to explain my medical needs to every self-righteous prodnose in the free world - all of whom seem to think they have the right to pry into my medical history because of my choice of parking.
It seems to me we have to have it one way or the other. Either we all pay no attention to who parks in a handicapped spot and thus every scumbag who gets his hands on a parking permit will be allowed to use it with impunity forever OR we have a sort of ‘community policing’ effect to try to keep down the number of scumbags and thus those who have ‘invisible’ handicaps must fend off nosiness at times.
On the whole (as the daughter of two people who have legitimately needed handicapped placards) I’d rather have the bulk of people helping keep the scumbags from using up all the places.
As one of the invisibly handicapped, I can see you might feel otherwise.
I have a bad knee. I’m trying to avoid knee replacement surgery, but in the meantime, if I walk too far, it gets excruciatingly painful. So I have a handicap tag – a temporary, since in this state unless I’m rendered basically incapable of movement I can’t get a permanent one. I’m okay with that. I use it on days when I’m having a bad day and my knee is really sore; if I’m not in a lot of pain, I’ll park farther out in the lot. But I’ve gotten so tired of people being annoying about the fact that I don’t look handicapped when I do use a spot that I limp rather ostentatiously just so they can see I’m legal. Either that or just wave my tag in their face if they glare at me as I’m pulling into the spot.
My tag is kept in the car, and my husband probably could use it if he was that type of scumbag (which he’s not – in fact, on really bad days, he’ll drop me at the door, park way out, and then pick me up at the door later; he doesn’t mind walking). But I’m also required to carry documentation that the tag is for ME, and if someone use the tag without that documentation, then they can get ticketed. In Louisiana, when I also had a temporary tag there after knee surgery a few years ago, I had to have a photo ID to go with my tag.
That’s a pretty easy solution to the question of whose tag it is. Have the tag or plates and not the ID? Too bad, here’s your ticket! Presumably, if you’re legal, you can prove it later in court; but otherwise, you lose the tag. That would put a quick end to people using a relative’s tag, I would think. Assuming enforcement, of course.
Not in my experience. In most areas you don’t get booked if you are not causing danger and noone calls in to complain. There are occasional stings where everyone gets ticketed if badly parked, and there are the money making schemes where ‘street cleaning’ occurs between 1.00 am and 6.00 am always on streets near the South of Mission clubs which open till 2.00am and where tickets are given out between 1.00am and 2.00am. I’m sure street cleaning happens in those hours and that simply making money isn’t the main reason for this.
Several years ago, I was a retail worker at a very large book retail outlet in Jackson, Mississippi. (BAM on I-55) Many people liked to go in there to loiter and read, and that was cool.
One evening during my dinner break, I was outside the store reading a book and/or eating my dinner when this ambulance pulled up, right on the curb and stopped with the engine on. The three or four people got out of the ambulance and went inside to shop! No emergency. There was a 500 car parking lot 4/5th empty and these people were too lazy to put the park it there (because they had the legal right to park illegally.) The exhust coming from the vehicle forced me back inside. Yuck!
I will say that I think that there are too many handicapped parking spaces. Very few handicapped people can drive (see their handicapped). What they should do is to openm these spaces up to people over 65, the pregnant, and people with illnesses like cancer that would making walking strenious. The definition of disabled is to narrow, and there are too many of these stupid parking spaces, making life for the delivery workers and such more diffcult.
If Paris Hilton is parking her shit into a handicap spot, call a cop. If UPS is, give them a break. They are in and out and it just makes life easier for everyone.
I know of someone who, when spotting what is clearly not a handicapped person parking in a handicapped space, will rush over and offer help.
“Hey, howdy mate, just thought I’d help you get out your wheelchair.”
“I don’t have a wheelchair.”
“Huh? Wazzat?” (He’s old and pretends to be hard of hearing)
“I said, I DON’T HAVE…uh…um…a wheel…chair.”
Crowd starts to gather.
“Ohhhh…uh sorry, mate, I thought, y’know…I could maybe help…y’know…just trying to help, that’s all…sorry for bothering you…” (Adopts crestfallen look, slumps shoulders and walks away)
Crowd disperses slowly, leaving one very confused, embarrassed, not-so-sure-if-he’s-been-whooshed non-handicapped dude.
I had the pleasure of watching a pair of idiots fight over a plum parking space in a nearly empty lot. What was the attraction? They had to get as close as possible to the beginning of a popular HIKING TRAIL! These bozos were going to walk for hours for fun, but they battled for a few parking lot yards.
Yep; same thing happens at the local sports centre all the time; it’s bound to be the case that some of them are going there to spend time on a treadmill.
whiterabbit, indeed, and I probably didn’t make it clear in my post. In SA you get a sticker which you stick to your windscreen. It doesn’t matter if you use a wheelchair or not, whatever your disability you get the same sticker. And so if you have no sticker, it would be reasonable to assume you do not qualify for the parking bay.
Said friend would leave with a blistered ear if he pulled that shit on me. I can’t walk far, but on good days I hardly have a limp, even though it still hurts. This bastard does this to me, I’m really tempted to hit him upside the head with my purse after giving the asshole a big earful of much-deserved shit and a paralyzing stinkeye. I have a legit tag, and my malady is none of his fucking business.
::Melli sits here and wonders how he got into this mess:: singular1, you have a “tag”, this friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of mine wouldn’t pull this stunt (which was amusing to me up until now) if you displayed a “tag”.
First of all let me point out that all my knowledge of this area comes from UK legislation as that is where i live and work in enforcing parking. YMMV
I don’t really understand the ability of relatives of deceased disabled persons to use tags. In the UK the tag is person specific and expires when they do. Additionally tags have to be renewed yearly. This involves a medical report being submitted and often an interview with the disabled person. While this is somewhat inconvenient for a long-term disabled person who has to certify their disability every year it IS good at rooting out false-claimants. I think it’s a good system and perhaps it should be adopted elsewhere.
Interesting research has been carried out showing that the types of people who steal parking bays from disabled people are often not those who are greatly inclined to listen to reason with a goodly proportion of them (or their vehicles) requiring immediate police attention. :eek:
Someone made the point that UPS etc should be allowed to whip in and whip out. I have to say that they cause just as much trouble as people who park there for longer periods. I have watched vehicles attempt to use disabled bays but prevented by just-a-minuters drive off to search for a space elsewhere. I have no idea if they ever find one. Delivery companies need to use designated loading bays and WALK if necessary. If the parcel is too heavy then they need to use a two-person team.
There has been some attempt by supermarkets to clamp down (NPI) on offenders but sadly most of the supermarkets here have backed off in favour of profits :mad: Abuse of disabled bays is a huge problem and Traffic Wardens and others (like myself) who are involved in policing them do enjoy hammering anyone as many offenders as we can
singular1 and whiterabbit, seeing that I’m logging off soon, I just wanted to say that if I’ve offended you with my anecdote, please accept my sincerest apologies. It was not intended to be offensive.
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