These parking spaces are at our local Fred’s discount store.
Each spot ends with one of those curbstone barriers, and the space in between has some kind of metal thing in the middle- looks like the base to a flagpole or something. This makes the spaces shorter than usual; one is only deep enough to park a bicycle or golf cart, and the other will maybe hold a small car. Anything larger would hang out into the aisle. The middle area is several feet long.
Why?
Those aren’t legally enforceable handicap-accessible spots. I’ve never seen anything like that before. There are no signs or markers indicating what the spot is designated for. 
I notice that there aren’t any signs posted indicating what the spaces are for.
I am speculating that that metal thing used to be the base for a sign that got removed either intentionally or by accident. Maybe there used to be a sign there that said “No parking” or “Electric cart parking.”
Are those motorcycle spots or something? Very weird-looking.
OK, I’m not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but they are intended to be handicapped spots. They have the wheelchair stencil and are outlined in blue with the striped area beside them. I know that it’s only legally enforceable if there is the sign that says “permit parking only” or whatever, and it did occur to me that there used to be such a sign. Maybe someone plowed it down and they installed the curbstones afterward, but the spaces are so short that there’s no way a van could get in there. I pulled my mini-van in to see, and it hung out several feet into the traffic lane.
Ask Fred.
I wonder if those barriers are actually support fixtures for the flag pole. The way it looks, those “barriers” are set up on each side of the flag pole and I could easily see some support lines running down the flag pole into the ground fixtures (or “barriers”). When the flag is in the pole, they must use security lines to secure it in place.
I don’t know, this is just a guess. This looks illegal to me. I’ve never seen anything like this.
Oh and to AClockWorkMelon, those aren’t motorcycle spots, they are actually the cordoned-off (blue) lines indicating the extra space given around a handicap parking spot.
These are or more accurately were two handicapped spots. (no signage)
The two concrete bumpers are for to keep the two cars from mowing down the HCP sign (which was, I’m sure, double sided)
This type of space would be excellent for a van with a wheel chair ramp on either the side door or rear door.
I would note that with a side door one van would have to back in so the door faced the blue stripes.
If all else fails, ask the store manager there. I had success with this strategy once. I asked a librarian why the handicapped parking spot was rather far away from the front door to the library, and he pointed out that it was because that put it nearby the ramp from the lot up onto the sidewalk.
Be sure to post here to tell us what you find out!
There’s no way a wheelchair van could drop a lift there. Those pipes on the ground are in the way.
Van accessible handicapped spots are wider. Or a person in a van can use the very end spot and drop the lift in the driving lane.
Good friend of mine had a wheelchair and van. I’ve been with him many times as he struggled to find a parking space that accommodated his lift. I recall him backing into a lot of parking spots so that his lift could drop on the passenger side and out in the driving lane. A few assholes parked illegally beside him, blocking his lift and I had to move his van so he could get in. We often spoke about keying the offending a-holes car, but never did. We did curse out a few people though.
Why are they a-holes, that deserve keying? How are they supposed to know that your friend needs/wants to take up 2 parking spaces?
There isn’t usually much significantly different about those vans that would indicate that they need a second space alongside them.
NM, looked at all the pics. Seems like a simple set of spaces with a missing sign. Maybe the sign got knocked off before the bumpers were there.
I was referring to jerks parking illegally past the end space. That area marked with curved lines.
That’s prime real estate for a wheelchair van to drop their lift. The majority of the time there’s no danger of anyone parking on that side because there’s no legal parking space. But, you do occasionally get the asshole that will park illegally and doesn’t give a crap.
You’re right. If a van parks in a regular space they can’t depend on noone using the legal space next to them. My friend never parked like that unless it was a last resort. I often had to move his van so he could get in. In that case there’s no hard feelings.
I think you’re misinterpreting the pictures. Those are not pipes on the ground; those are the bumper things to keep a vehicle from rolling too far forward. There are two end-to-end parking stalls show in the photos separated in the middle by the bumpers and the metal disk. The blue striped area is supposed to remain open for wheelchair lifts.
Once upon a time, there were two head-to-head handicapped spots. In between them was a sign on a pole that indicated what they were.
Sadly, people pulling into the spaces sometimes misjudged and bumped into the sign, damaging it. In order to prevent this, the management installed two concrete bumpers.
However, the person installing the bumpers erred on the side of caution and placed them farther back than he needed to to protect the sign. This had the unfortunate side effect of making the spaces so short you couldn’t park in them without the back end of your car sticking out. But, the spaces were still usable, so they left it like that.
Eventually someone decided that the damaged sign looked like crap and removed it. After all, with the handicapped icon painted on the ground, they didn’t really need the sign anyway.
I’m sure you must be right, Hamster King. The parking lot of this store is never crowded so it probably doesn’t matter anyway. I just have a WTF moment every time I go there and see those spaces.
The parking blocks aren’t limiting the space that badly, really. Unless you drive something like a Smart, there’s normally a good bit of “overhang” in front of where the tire actually touches pavement.
An average bumper will probably be about as far out as the expansion joint in the concrete that’s visible in pic 004.