Is it legal for a non-handicapped driver, travelling alone, to park a vehicle that has handicap plates in a handicap spot?
Not in Wisconsin. My guess is nowhere else either.
I believe it may be illegal in Massachusetts. I can’t cite a regulation, only this anecdote. I heard it from the parking clerk in my town, so I believe it’s true. There was an elderly couple who used to live in our town. The wife was a stroke survivor with limited mobility and the husband also had some medical problems that hindered him getting around. They had a handicapped hanger for their car.
Problem was, they also had two perfectly healthy teenaged granddaughters who used to borrow the car and park all over town in handicapped spots. Grandma and Gramps were usually not in the car at the time. A neighbor got fed up with seeing these strong-limbed, athletic girls abusing the system, so he alerted the cops and the girls came out of a restaurant one day, walked over to the car that they’d parked in a handicapped spot, and found a cop waiting for them. When the cop ascertained that neither of them was handicapped, he wrote a ticket. The stupid girls continued to flout the system and got two more tickets for the same offense. Then the grandparents went into a nursing home and presumably the handicapped hanger was returned to the state agency that issues them. At any rate, I hope those girls aren’t still driving around using it.
I believe it’s illegal here in California. It’s pretty damn unethical regardless of location (my mom is handicapped so I have strong feelings on the issue).
Well said.
I’m about 99 percent sure it’s also illegal here in Mississippi. My mother has a handicap tag because of serious knee and leg related issues that make it very diffcult for her walk long distances. I use her car on occasion to run errands for her when I’m visiting and I’d never dream of actually parking in a reserved spot just because I’ve got the tag and can get away with it. If I actually saw a teenager or other person pulling a stunt like that I’d have a very hard time not confronting them.
No.
Another “no” vote. However, this being the Dope, you just know there’s going to be an exception, and that is of course if the driver is occupying that spot in order to pick up a handicapped person.
This page cites to various provincial policies in effect, as well as the agreements that the provinces will recognize each other’s handicap placard (i.e. “Reciprocal Recognition of Parking Badges”). Interestingly, though it clearly implied that it’s the permit holder who gets the badge, and the holder must qualify by meeting some provincial definition of handicapped, not every province explicitly rules out the potential abuse described in the OP:
Manitoba: “No person shall display a permit in a motor vehicle parked in a designated parking space when the holder is not transported in the vehicle.”
New Brunswick: “This placard must be displayed only when actually in use for the specific benefit of the person having a disability.”
Nova Scotia: “The permit is only valid while the vehicle is parked for the purpose of transporting the handicapped person named on the permit”
Prince Edward Island: “Person with the disability must leave the vehicle when using the designated parking spaces.” (i.e. not only must the handicapped person be present, he or she must also leave the vehicle in order to qualify for the parking space)
Northwest Territories: “Under the law there is no time limit but the NWT Council for the Disabled has set a time limit of 2 hours and would be regulated within their membership.” (which I take to mean that leaving your car in a space all day, even if you are handicapped, is considered an abuse and may get your permit yanked, which I mention only because I find it interesting)
Yukon: “The permit must be visibly displayed and may not be transferred or assigned to any other vehicle or person.”
Other provinces vary in their regulation, but the gist is that the permit belongs with the person, not the vehicle, and thus is not usable by other, non-disabled persons. Besides, taking a handciapped spot when you don’t need one is slimy.
That’s actually quite a good point, though I can imagine parking in a regular space, assisting the handicapped person to the curb, then retreiving the car and occupying the handicapped space just long enough to embark.
The license plates indicate that the registered owner of the vehicle is disabled. To park in the handicapped parking spots, one must display the placard, which the disabled person only gets one issued to him or her.
Which they usually keep in the car for the sake of convenience, so what’s your point?
How did he reach this medical diagnosis?
My wife has a disabled placard, and I always park in the disabled parking when I pick her up.
I second that emotion.
[soap box]
In highschool, I dated a girl who was handicapped and hung a tag in her windshield when she parked. She did not use a wheelchair, and, if she was wearng long pants, would have no outward appearance of being handicapped, save perhaps a slightly unusual walk. Because of a lifelong bone disease, she has had dozens of surgeries on her legs, and it is painful for her to walk any distance, or stand for too long.
We would often park in handicapped spaces, and when we got out, some vigilante would pull up next to us and say, “that’s a handicapped spot, you idiots. You’re obviously not handicapped!”
I’m not saying anyone in this thread is doing so, but please be careful not to judge ‘handicapped’ from outward appearances.
[/soap box]
Well, how do those who don’t appear outwardly handicapped prove to the police that they’re entitled to park there? Simply having a placard and handicapped plates is apparently insufficient. Is it noted on the DL in some way?
Each placard has a unique number on it. The police can find out who that number is registered to.
I can see a police officer asking the kids “Is that your handicapped placard?” and having them get nervous and say “Um, well, no it actually belongs to my grandma…” or something.
Here in CA the placards have an ID number on them, probably a simple matter for the police to check what name goes with the placard and see if that’s who is in the car.
All that being said I’m sure that checking handicapped spots is a fairly low priority for the cops. I have never seen an officer confronting people - as some have pointed out, many legitimate handicaps are not outwardly visible (my mom pointed that out to me when I was a teenager when I made a comment about a guy who seemed to be walking just fine using a blue spot).
Anecdote:
A few months ago I saw an elderly lady with a handicapped placard blocking in a woman who used the handicapped spot “for just a minute” so that her two teenage daughters could run into the Jamba Juice for their smoothies. She was on her phone calling the cops, raising hell and every time the illegally parked lady tried to maneuver her car out, the old woman would block her in. There was quite a crowd watching this bit of vigilantiism. Lady with her smoothie-filled kids eventually made it out and fled before the police arrived.
At first I was thinking “Right on, old lady” until she began impeding traffic and creating a hazard by her actions. If she had just parked right on the offender’s bumper (leaving her not an inch to move and doing minimal blockage to the flow of traffic on the street) and then gotten out to make her call it would have been a bit more understandable.
No believe about it. It is illegal. In the city of Irvine, the chief of Police has a friend that is handicapped, who told him healthy people were abusing the system. He did not believe it, so he had a couple of officers stake out some handicapped parking spots at a local mall. They wrote about 40 tickets the first day!
It is now a regular thing in Irvine, one or two days a month a team goes out and nails healthy people abusing handicapped placards. They write tickets, and confiscate placards.
After needing one when I shattered my heel, I am all for this.
Handicap parking is gone so far past the intended people that its disgracefully. Here in Minnesota there are so many unjustified permits given that it make me sick!
One case in point is a 350=lbs’er, that parks in the handicap spot and walks around the local walmart.
And this is my real peeve;
The people that park there and let the disabled one walk to the door and back in the large mall lot. Why don’t they drop that person off at the door and pick them up! leave the designated spot for the independent disabled.
Then theirs the Dead asses at work that get to park in the front because of an Owwiee. They sweep the floor all day on “light” duty and there posted job’s are usually less manual.
Therefore i Trully believe that a very large number of disabled, is “disabled right under the hat”.
In Virginia, it’s illegal.
Virginia hang tags have the name, sex, and month and year of birth of the person for whom they were issued on them, so an officer might be able to tell that a 20-something male is unlikely to be the female born in 1926 for whom the tag is intended.
Is this in English?
If you’re trying to say that there are people who have tags that shouldn’t, it’s not that easy to get declared disabled or to get those tags.