I have a friend who is disabled. She needs a wheelchair to move around.
I sometimes drive her around to places. When I do so, I park in disabled parking spaces so she will have less distance to travel in her chair.
Because it is my vehicle, I do not have a disabled placard when I do this. Is my use of these parking spaces illegal, even though I am transporting a disabled person? If I received a ticket for using the space, would I be able to present my friend’s disability as a valid defense?
She should have her placard with her. It can be used with any vehicle she’s being transported in.
It may depend on the state but it’s generally not legal to park in a disabled space without the placard.
I was recently in a similar situation as @Little_Nemo. Almost exactly the same situation. I parked in a handicapped spot for the same reason. My plan, if I were to be ticketed, was to film a video off my friend and my car while I’m parked. I felt confident that I could beat that ticket. Fortunately I didn’t get a ticket.
The next time I gave her a ride she brought her placard and I hung that on my mirror.
The law is explicit. (At least where I am)
If you want to use a handicapped spot, you must have and display the placard. The guy writing the ticket (not always a policeman) is not qualified to judge medical conditions - doesn’t know if your friend is faking it with a wheelchair, or perhaps a cane… so the simplest route is to write a ticket and let you explain it to the judge.
Same logic as TSA - the random security gate agent is not qualified as a chemist to assay what liquids are safe and which can be mixed to make explosives; nor are they experts on which masks satisfy KN requirements unless it is commercially printed on the mask. No liquids at all, no non-medical masks. So… the parking ticket writer is not qualified to say who is or is not handicapped sufficiently to use the parking spot. Tell it to the judge. You might get away with it, the ticket writer might be lenient if your friend is missing a leg or two…)
The judge technically may make you pay the ticket anyway, but perhaps once or twice he’ll let you off with the warning to bring your placard next time. Better bring a copy of the medical stuff to court (presuming you need the placard to park at the courthouse, so it stays in the vehicle. 
) If the judge is having a bad day, or you’re the 10th person to pull that excuse in his court today - be prepared to pay.
Fun fact, here if you park in handicapped but the handicapped person remains in the car, you will also get a ticket. Handicapped is to ease the distance the person has to walk. (or roll) If they stay in the car, you can just as well walk as far as any normal person.
Obviously, if you use the placard, the person to whom it was issued must be with you. It doesn’t become free parking no matter who’s in the car.
Another point I recall hearing - once a parking patrol starts to fill out a ticket, they cannot cancel it. Logically, this is so that the patrol guy cannot be handed a twenty to fuggedaboudit.
Yeah, what @running_coach said and subsequent posters agreed with.
If your friend forgot to bring her card, I would say to temporarily park in the disabled parking spot, help her as needed to get out, then MOVE THE CAR.
A non-FQ aside: my late mother had a handicapped parking placard due to a temporary wrist injury (note: WRIST; it did not impair her walking).
When she was completely healed and I was driving her around, she wanted to park in the handicapped space at McDonald’s because she still had the card and could have displayed it in my car. I refused, and offered to drop her off by the door and then go park in a non-handicapped space. She was furious with me.
I stood my ground (not an easy thing with my mother) even though she was very pissed off. F**k people who violate handicapped parking rules.
That really depends on the jurisdiction. In some, the ticket will stand regardless of the disability of the driver/passenger. The ticket is for not displaying the placard, nothing else.
Is it really worth the hassle?
Drop her off near the door, assist her if necessary, then move your car.
mmm
Yeah I hear you, both. I know it was a risk, and we didn’t have time for me to return and move the car. I was fortunate in not getting a ticket. I will continue assisting my friend and she will bring the handicapped placard.
Whether Little_Nemo can use his friend’s placard/tag also depends on the location. NYS permits can as far as I know be used in any car as long as the handicapped person is either the driver or a passenger - but NYS permits are not valid for on-street parking in NYC ( or any parking outside of NYC) and the NYC permit can only be used in a vehicle listed on the permit ( up to three, I think) although the vehicles don’t need to be owned or registered by the disabled person.
Is there any visible difference between the NYS permit and the NYC permit?
Single anecdote to the contrary: many years ago I pulled into an on-street parking place in downtown Princeton and was getting out of my car when the guy parked behind me said “Looks like he’s writing you a ticket.” and I was surprised to see a parking enforcement officer standing next to the meter writing.
I said to the officer “But I just got here”
“Should have put money in the meter”
“No, I mean I just came through that traffic light and pulled up to the curb right now. I just got here!”
The officer then looked at me in disgust and then scribbled some stuff in the ticket book and walked away.
I assume canceling tickets is possible, but it requires a good reason and too many would be frowned upon.
I do this with my mom when ever I take her anywhere. She is in a wheel chair. But she has one of those placards that I hang on my mirror. I wouldn’t do it without that placard.
If there are no disabled spots available, I usually pull up as close as I can and get the wheel chair out, get her safe and move my car.
Yes - the NYS one is a hangtag like this while the NYC one is a placard like the one pictured here.. That page also describes the differences between the two - most disabled NYC residents I know have both.
Just noticed a mistake - of course, it’s the NYC permits that are not valid outside of NYC
Well here in San Francisco it used to be (and may still be) that it only becomes an official ticket once it is written and put on the car. IOW if the meter maid has not yet put the ticket under the windshield wiper, or otherwise affixed it to the car, then even though the ticket was fully written it was not yet truly A Real Ticket.
So, true story — in San Francisco many years ago I stopped briefly in a red zone, and left my car parked there to run into a store to quickly get something. It was going to be really quick, but I certainly was in the wrong and I deserved a ticket.
This was right on Market Street in the financial district. Meter Maids patrol here frequently. Sure enough when I was returning to my car, Lovely Rita Meter Maid was at my car and writing a ticket. I told her I’m leaving right now. She said sorry dear, but it’s still a ticket. Not being very bright of me, I said yeah well it’s not really a ticket until you put it on my car. She started scribbling faster!
I quickly jumped into my car, started the engine, turned on the windshield wipers as I looked for a break in traffic, and drove away. Seeing her fuming in my rear view mirror as I got away was fun!
I watched the mail carefully for the next two weeks but I never got a ticket. But yeah I fully deserved one.
In the village where I live, in suburban Chicago, a lot of the residents park on the street, despite the fact that most homes in the village have garages (mostly opening to the alleys behind the houses) – whether it’s a matter of having more cars than spaces in the garages, or the garages being full of other stuff, I don’t know.
Anyway, if you are a disabled resident, you can apply to have the village paint the curb in front of your house with the blue paint that denotes handicapped parking, and put up a “handicapped parking only” sign next to the curb. Those signs denote that the parking is specifically reserved for a specific permit number, issued by the village. I don’t know if that permit is a placard or hangtag that can be moved from car to car, but it’s clearly restricted to that particular person and permit.
Oh, interesting that there’s one for the city and one for the state. I imagine that NYS permits are valid in NYC?
Edited — I see now that they are not!
Yes and no - the NYS permit is valid in off-street spaces (such as parking lots) designated as handicapped spaces in NYC but not for street spaces. NYS does not designate on-street parking spaces as handicapped.
My wife was chastised by a police officer when she forgot to hang her handicap placard on her mirror. She came out of the store just as the officer pulled up. He let her know her placard belongs on her mirror, not in her purse and that he has every right to cite her. She apologized profusely and he let her go with a verbal warning.
My coworker was the driver, and I was the passenger. We had to go to a meeting on base. The (very large) parking lot was full, and the only available parking spots were far away. So he pulled in to one of the (close) handicap spots and parks. He then told me, “Open the glove compartment and get the handicap placard.” I gave him the card and he hung it on the rear view mirror. My coworker is not handicap, but his wife is, hence the reason the placard was in the glove compartment.