Legally iffy, morally fine.
From what I understand, someone who’s had this procedure done is usually better off than before, but still not as mobile as someone who’s never needed it.
As for the original topic, yeah, I’d like to see this idjit get hit with a ticket, and have her tag revoked. I’d also like to see the Secret Service person who decided to tow all those cars lose his/her position, as clearly s/he isn’t capable of thinking things through. At the VERY least, the SS should have made a note of where the cars were towed to, and offered rides to those people whose cars had been towed.
Ethically handicapped.
I’m not sure how well this is going to go over, but here it is: I don’t think it should be illegal to park in those spaces. Don’t get me wrong, I feel it is, and rightly should be, socially unacceptable. I just don’t think it is a serious enough threat to public safety to warrant the same consequences as running a stop sign or burning leaves without a permit. It’s like cutting in line: selfish, inconsiderate, rude, unethical. Not evil, not something I’d expect someone to pay a $500 fine for.
Spoken like a guy who hasn’t had 4 rounds of leg surgery over a 3-year period, including the installation and eventual of an Ilizarov apparatus to hold the shattered bones together while they heal, and then had to try to find a handicapped spot (or even a meter) every day somewhere in the Chicago Loop that wasn’t already taken by young ladies who then ran off on their spike-heeled pumps.
I have a handicapped tag that I wish I could use more often. Problem is, in St. Petersburg, every third person has a handicapped tag, or so it seems. I usually can’t find a vacant handicapped parking space and end up walking far enough for it to be painful, even though I use a cane.
My ex-mother-in-law had a severe back injury in a car accident and had handicapped plates. She legitimately had a problem with having to stand for a long period of time or walk long distances.
When the whole family went to Disney World, she had her hanging tag and we were able to park close (about a 5 minute walk to the place where we could rent her a little motorized wheelchair to ride on all day). I feel it was a legitimate use of a handicapped parking space, considering you might have to walk a mile from a regular space or have to stand around waiting for a shuttle bus.
However, one time, I went with her to a grocery store and the parking lot was pretty full. There was one handicapped spot open and the regular spot right next to it was open. She pulled into the handicapped spot. We actually got into an argument because I felt she should’ve parked in the next spot over in case someone who actually had a wheelchair or had no legs or something wanted to park. She was capable of walking into the store and shopping for 20 minutes without much trouble, so she shouldn’t have had any problem walking an extra 9 feet.
She insisted that she was entitled to park in that space and to hell with anyone else who wanted to park there, they were first come, first served.
In hindsight, I wish I would’ve realized back then that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and that I had married the wrong person.
Where I live, the police usually mark off street parking spots a few days in advance of construction or a parade or some other event that would mean that the spots would be unavailable. Don’t they do that in DC?
I’m with you. Over the past six weeks, when my mom was still using her walker, we needed the HC space with the extra space on the passenger side (if it was close enough not to have to drop her off at the door), because getting in and out was a bit of a chore, and I’m not sure it could be done if someone parked close on that side. (But if there was a regular space that was roomy enough or on the end of an aisle, we used that.)
But when she graduated to a cane, we had more leeway in using a regular space.
I have a co-worker whose wife has a disability.
She has the tags. He parks in the handicapped spot at work. Every day. For at least three years.
…and no, she doesn’t come to work with him. He doesn’t have a physical disability himself.
I won’t lie, it’s made me despise him. No, there aren’t any others at our workplace that need the spot (though a few could make a good case at times, having either been heavily pregnant or having had a broken limb). But it’s still just slimy. I won’t even look at him.
I’ve pitted him before. I suppose he doesn’t even know my name. But I still won’t even make eye contact with him.
The reason it’s illegal to park in a handicapped spot without a special license plate or hangtag is because if there wasn’t a law against it, then all the self entitled divas (of any sex) WILL make sure to park there. The hell with any inconvenience it causes to anyone else, even the legitimately handicapped, THEY want that convenience. I see agile women and girls go into the handicapped stalls in restrooms all the time. When I call them on it, they look all offended, and say that they have just as much right to use the bigger stalls as I do. The problem is that I can’t use the nonhandicapped stalls, unless they have grab bars. I can fit in them all right, and if they have the grab bars, I do use them. My problem is not my size, it’s my mobility.
I was waiting for a handicapped stall in a restaurant one time. Several people came and went, but the handicapped stall was still occupied. I finally glanced in through the space between the door and wall…and saw some bitch playing on her cell phone. Texting? Playing a game? Answering email? I don’t know which, but she felt that occupying the handicapped stall was perfectly fine. I finally asked her if she could please listen for me. I told her I was apt to fall, and without grab bars, I can’t pull myself up. Now she did say that she was sorry, and was redfaced…but either she just didn’t think about it or she felt that it was OK to use that stall, even though she didn’t really need it. This restaurant, by the way, had several chairs and benches in the lounge, if she needed to use that phone while sitting.
That woman, and people like her, are the reasons why we have to have laws with fairly stiff fines against such behavior. Look at the woman who was in the OP’s story, she felt that it was fine to use her husband’s hangtag to get a prime spot. She even called a reporter to give her story!
As much as I despise the able bodied parking in the handicapped space,what I find appalling is that the SS towed cars without knowing the medical needs of the towee.
As an example, my wife uses a walker or wheelchair and is dependent on oxygen. If the van gets towed, not only do we have no way to get home or anywhere else but her spare oxygen tank is in the van.
It **is **OK for anyone to use a handicapped toilet. It’s not the same thing as a parking spot. Those stalls are handicap accessible, not handicap reserved.
Have you ever tried to get a wheelchair into a non-accesible stall? I have, and it makes going to the bathroom discretely impossible!
That’s not the situation here. If someone parks in a handicapped spot, they are making it unavailable to the person who needs it for an indefinite, probably unacceptably long, period.
If someone uses the handicapped-accessible stall, they are NOT stopping a handicapped person from using it - just making them wait for a moment or two until it is free, which is the same thing that all the non-handicapped people have to do in a crowded bathroom.
I was taught that it was rude NOT to use the handicapped stall - it reeks of cootie-fear, and it makes the average wait time for everyone waiting in line to use the bathroom longer.
The only reason it would make sense to leave a handicapped bathroom stall unused is if you think that a handicap means you can’t wait a few minutes to use the restroom, whereas a non-handicapped person can.
I wouldn’t run into a handicapped stall if there was a handicapped person waiting to use the toilet and I was next in line; I’d graciously gesture to that person to go ahead and take the handicapped accessible stall. But if a line of people are waiting to go to the bathroom, and there are 5 stalls of which 1 is handicapped accessible, it’s ridiculous to leave the fifth stall permanently empty.
Whoever taught you that is an ASSHOLE!
Explain that to me, please. Why does only an “asshole” believe that:
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It’s okay to touch things that handicapped people touch, without acting like “eww! They might have DISEASES!”
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Handicapped people are no less mature than anyone else, and can wait for the 60 seconds or so that it will take someone to pee. (Mind you, I’m not suggesting that someone go into the handicapped stall, unfold the paper, take a dump, and monopolize it for half an hour.)
Your answers would help me to understand your position a lot more than simply insulting people.
Please let’s be clear - I am not suggesting that handicapped people should be forced into a situation where they have no option but to use a stall they cannot fit into. If you can explain to me how my 60 seconds of using a bathroom stall causes this outcome, I will never again use the handicapped stall.
I think all that’s being said is that a handicapped stall is okay to use if the other stalls aren’t available, as long as there is no handicapped person waiting for it. If they happen to come in after you’re already using it, they can wait just like everyone else. You aren’t going to be in there for an extended period of time, and it’s perfectly obvious when a person in a wheelchair or cain or whatever comes in, and you can stop early if you feel you need to.
If someone is using a stall for too long, oblivious to their surroundings, that’s a problem for everyone. A passive aggressive approach is not the best way to handle it, though. Proper etiquette is to say “Excuse me, are you almost done? I can’t use the other stall.” Using shame and guilt (or even insults) just leads the other person to think you are a bad person, and less likely to acquiesce to your demands.
A lot of people who need to use a handicap stall also have bladder and bowel problems. This could range from nerve damage (so that they can’t tell that they need to go until they really need to go) to needing extra time to navigate into and out of the stall. In my case, I have IBS, which means that the 60 seconds (or more like five or ten minutes) that you’re in that stall might mean that I have an accident. I carry supplies for these accidents, but I’d vastly prefer not to have accidents in the first place. I know that people who have to be in wheelchairs have it even worse. Not using a handicapped stall doesn’t mean that you are afraid of cripple cooties, it means that you acknowledge that someone else might NEED that stall, and not be able to use it because you’re in there. even though you’re perfectly capable of using a regular stall. As I said, I’ll use a regular stall if it has the grab bars, because I don’t actually need the extra room, I just need the grab bars.
Now, if there’s a line, then yeah, use the handicapped stall, but don’t take your time in there. And especially don’t whip out your phone and check your email.
I would vastly prefer that builders NOT put the baby-changing station in the handicapped stall, too. And while we’re at it, how about putting some purse and coat hooks or shelves in ALL stalls?
I once came across a Maserati with a handicap tag from another town on display, parked where was a fee 24/7 having put no money in the meter. When I checked it out with the vehicle register it 1) belonged to some unheard of company, not a private person, and 2) was temporarily taken off the register, meaning the owner didn’t have to pay taxes for it (also meaning that it wasn’t allowed in the streets). I so wished I had had some sharp pointy object on me.
There’s a big second hand market with stolen handicap tags among the rich and unworthy in Sweden.