So, if I spent $5,000 last year at Wal-Mart, which has eight handicap parking spaces near the front door, what would the savings on my $5,000 be if the spaces weren’t reserved?
I don’t care what “society” pays – what do I pay? Would it be OK if I paid your share? If there’s a real cost, then there must be a real calculation, and I should be able to claim some share of the real cost. Is it tax deductable?
Warning: “Handicape” does not enable user to fly.
As far as handicapped toilets go, building designers are required by building codes to have a certain number of toilets per expected building occupancy and type. The handicapped toilet counts towards the total and is fully expected to get full use. (BTW, I’m an architectural/civil engineer)
It’s like Cheesesteak says: it’s ridiculous to have a line stretching out the door and to have a toilet sitting idle on the off chance a handicapped person will just happen by at that particular moment. If a handicapped user came by, I’d be happy to let them cut line, but they’d still need to wait for the person currently in the stall to finish.
With handicapped spaces, it’s a different matter. The number of spaces per lot are specified in city building codes. The situation several users supply of a small lot with cars queued up waiting for spaces doesn’t apply to the vast majority of parking lots in the US where there is no time limit on spaces. In that situation, it might be worth trying to change the city’s enforcement laws for that specific situation. Otherwise, geez, just park farther away and walk. Like we need another reason to help Americans get less exercise.
But it’s a choice to use a minivan or a compact car. A disability is not a choice.
Is this really such a big deal for some people? Do people really wait twenty minutes for a parking space? No wonder you all are so tense. Don’t forget: you can always park in a nearby parking lot and walk over to the business. Or take public transportation. Or just walk to the business, period. Something that a person using a wheelchair or oxygen tank can’t do. Suck it up and be glad you don’t have to deal with those everyday limitations.
Now bathrooms are a little different, I think. Even if a handicapped person comes in while I’m there, they’ll have to wait a maximum of three minutes for me to get out, which does not seem unreasonable, especially when there are only two stalls in the bathroom sometimes. I think that in the case of a line they should be available to anyone, but handicapped people should be allowed to cut in line.
Personally, I am far more upset over the rising cost of public transportation, further cementing us as a car society and making it harder for nondrivers to have access to anywhere at all.
The only time it galls me for able-bodied people to use the handicapped stall is when the others are clearly open. I used to work in an office with a smallish number of people and a restroom with 4 stalls, 3 regular and 1 handicapped. Even during the lunch hour when restroom traffic picks up, it was rare for all the stalls to be occupied. Yet there were people who simply preferred the handicapped stall, and would pass empty stalls to get to it. Since I had no choice in the matter, I hated hated hated having to wait next to empty stalls for someone to leave the handicapped stall. We all worked closely together, you’d think they’d be a little more understanding, but no. Their comfort came before my necessity.
Open up handicapped parking spaces to everyone, and the same damn thing will happen.
There may be another reason for that. On the floor I used to work on, there where two stalls in the ladies’ room, one handicapped, one not. The standard one had a door the didn’t lock. And maintance never fixed anything. If I walk into an empty bathroom and there’s one stall that locks and one that doesn’t, I’m going to use the one that does. Now all the this could have been avoided if the men’s room wasn’t three times the size of the women’s room and the building was maintained, but neither of these things seemed to be changing any time soon.
Jeez louise, dude, you’re talking about a freaking convenience store. Prices are high in those places because they’re open at 3AM when they get one sale an hour, not because they are missing the occasional sale of a bag of chips to someone who decides that they don’t need to wait for a parking space.
Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these places enforce a time limit more to keep people from hanging around reading the magazines and messing up the place than they do because spaces are “premium”.
If you are really concerned about prices, go to Wally World. Shouldn’t be hard to find a spot there, and if it isn’t by the door, the exercise will do you good. And in the long run keeping yourself healthy will probably more than offset the “financial burden” on the economy of not having enough parking spots for people who want to get beer and tortilla chips before the half time is over.
Your state doesn’t have an option for the free plastic thingy to hang from your rearview mirror? I know NY does. You do have to pay if you want the license plates though.
Hmm, I guess I should be more specific. Here, we have a little blue window hanging stamped with the handicapped symbol that you hang on the mirror. It works the same way the plates do, and you can use either one.
Trust me, there was nothing wrong with the other three stalls. They just liked the roomier stall with its taller toilet. And they didn’t care how many times they came out and saw me sitting there waiting. They’d give the little “oops, you caught me!” shoulder shrug and grin, and that was that. People are just selfish, rude, and thoughtless sometimes, and it’s a pity when it takes laws to enforce consideration (leaving an accessible parking spot open for someone who needs it), but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.
No, we have to pay for the blue plastic thingy, and it expires when your drivers license (or state ID card if you don’t drive) expires.
It’s my personal theory that these people seem to feel that a handicapped parking space is somehow a “reward” of sorts, and that someone needs to earn the right to use it. Ridiculous, but there you have it.
Try telling one of the many families of 5 or 6 that.
Depends on your difference of a big deal I guess. Remember, this isn’t the pit and no one is ranting. The OP offered a thought exercise and opinions on the situation were shared. Is this the biggest issue in the world, not really, does that mean I’m happy with how things are handled now? Not really. And no, you sure as hell cannot park in an adjacent parking lot or you will be towed, post haste. Businesses who are maxed out on parking certainly aren’t legally obligated to allow people who aren’t even their customers to park there, and as such they take quite the harsh view of it.
No they can’t. It’s a federal law that they provide it, special exemptions aren’t given as far as I know. Asking for one would probably get the store boycotted.
Where exactly did I, or anyone else, say the shouldn’t exist? I’m pointing out that a better implementation should be found and applied.