My company has a parking lot that has several (3 or so) handicapped spots. The other day the president of our company noticed me walking across the parking lot into work (I am about 7 months pregnant) and told me that if I wanted to, I could park in a handicapped spot. He said pregnancy is considered a disability.
I appreciate his kindness, I know he is just trying to be nice to me, and he means that as the president of the company, he won’t call in my car if I do park there. But I think he is wrong about me being able to legally park there, isn’t he? Aren’t handicapped spots enforced by the police even if on private property? So if a police officer happened to come across my car (not likely, no one comes to our lot in passing, but still) I would get ticketed anyway, right?
So, am I legally allowed to park there? If not, am I likely to get ticketed if the top guys at my company have given me the ok? I am just curious. I don’t mind walking now, but in another month or so when it snows the lot does tend to get pretty slippery with ice. I have wiped out in past years and would rather not do that while pregnant.
(No one who works here uses the spots, and I have only ever seen one of them taken up one time. It’s not a store or anything where we get customers, just the occasional visitor.)
It may depend on your juristiction. Where I live, this is enforced by the police. You are absolutely not allowed to occupy a HC spot without the appropriate permit displayed on the vehicle, and it is not a matter for the owner of the parking lot to decide.
I know of two cases where such tickets were held up by a judge:
-Night Janitor parked in HC spot while cleaning after hours. (because spot was near door and visible from inside) Didn’t matter that buisiness was closed.
-Relative my mom (in wheelchair) shopping, but mom forgot to bring her permit. Mom went to court with my aunt, but ticket stood because permit was not displayed.
According to an official Michigan website: “It is illegal to park in a disability parking space if you do not have a valid disability license plate or parking placard, even if you have a disability.” So I’d say your boss was wrong.
The website also says that only handicapped parking spaces have legal standing. Pregnant parking spaces are just designated by businesses and have no legal protection to them.
Doesn’t matter. You may never have a disabled employee work there, nor ever have a disabled visitor. Yet, the parking spaces are permanently reserved for disabled parking permit holders.
Talk with your doctor and see if you are eligible for a temporary disabled parking permit.
There are laws the require a certain number of parking spots. Perhaps this is exceeded, and your boss could take one down, and reserve it for you. It’s only handicapped if it’s marked, right? FWIW, I don’t know the number required and all that, just offering it as a possibility.
Man! That’s some hardcore judge. My godfather who is 84yo forgot his HC permit. He parked in a HC section at a store. When he returned, he found a ticket. He was mildly po’d, but he understood. Next day. He went to the judge and basically told him “Hey. Here is my permit. I forgot. I am old as heck and needed to park there.” Judge didn’t even take a minute and said “Oh!..Ok…sorry. Next!”
Florida has a “failure to display” ticket of $25 for not hanging your handicapped sticker. Ivylad got caught once…he’d forgotton to hang it on the rear view mirror. Since it was a difference between $250 and $25 he took the trouble to prove that yes, he is legally allowed to park there.
What irks me is when people who (as far as I can tell) are not handicapped park in the spaces. Yes, I know that some ailments cannot be seen, but there was a whole big local newstory last year about people showing up for a car race and trying to park in the handicapped spaces. The police were checking each one, and lots of people had expired/invalid tags, or the handicapped person wasn’t even in the car, so it makes me wonder how many folks just borrow the handicapped person’s car when they are not transporting the handicapped person.
My own BIL tried to get away with parking in a handicapped space when he was driving Ivylad’s car but Ivylad was not with us…the rest of us raised up an indignant hue and cry and he desisted.
Thanks all. I had a feeling it was still illegal. I bet I could get away with it, but I think I would just feel weird about it. I just know the one time I do it someone’s disabled brother will come to visit and not have a place to park. Maybe I should suggest that president give up his own parking spot for me
It’s not a big enough deal for me to try to get my own temporary permit, I can walk just fine. I am only worried about when it is icy. Maybe I should just park in one of the “reserved for visitors” spots instead.
Good thought. The required number of Accessible parking spaces is dependent on the total number of spaces in the lot. Here is a link that gives more information including the required numbers.
That’s a good link. I imagine it only applies to federal buildings, though? It mentions businesses providing goods and services to the public, however, so I’m imagining that this applies beneath the federal level. ADA and other federal rules only apply to certain size companies (number of employees) or to businesses that do interstate trade. So, really, this just opened up a lot more questions, including this one, too: it mentions making spaces accessible as well as marking them as accessible. By law, is this necessarily the same as making them handicapped only? I seem to recall signs on handicapped spots requiring permits/plates, or stating handicapped only – very explicit. If a business exceeds the minimum (say, 100% of spots being accessible), then does this implicitly indicate that no one at all can park there, other than the disabled?
Just because it’s illegal doesn’t make it wrong. You have more right to the space than “someone’s disabled brother” in my book. I don’t like the idea of a pregnant woman walking across an icy parking lot because the government is concerned an officially handicapped person might, per chance, happen by.
I sleep just fine at night when I am parked in the handicapped spot outside my apartment, where no handicapped people live. (I only do this if there are no other spots in the smallish lot.)
Don’t let [URL http:// www.handicappedfraud.org//index.php?mod=reports]these stalkers catch you. They will post your license number and a picture of your vehicle on their website, and target you for harassment. If you are lucky, you will get on of their post-it warnings!
I’d beg to differ. In most jurisdictions, it’s relatively easy for a physician to certify that a temporary handicapped permit is needed, and the local issuers of such to give you a tag with an expiration date. And you do need it, for, as someone noted in another post, two months from now when you’re nine months along and the parking lot is covered with ice. Just because you have a tag doesn’t mean you have to use it – after my heart surgery, we had one which I only used when the alternative was to walk farther than I could physically stand at that point. But on the half dozen occasions where we were going somewhere highly populous and open parking was only available about 0.5 KM away, it was essential.
Get it. Use it only when you need it. You won’t regret having done it.
I think I’ll ask if I can get a different spot instead, like one of the ones right next to the handicapped spaces that are reserved for visitors. If not, then I’ll look into getting a temporary permit.
Although I think the real solution here is for the company to take better care of the parking lot in the winter!
Look, I pay rent here. My parking needs come before those of visitors, be they handicapped or able bodied. Surely you don’t think it makes much sense to park on the street (outside the security gate) on the off chance someone has a handicapped visitor? (at a complex with no elevators)
If they do, they can let the handicapped visitor out in front of the joint and then park the visitors car on the street for them.
Sorry, but a non-tenant does not have more claim to a spot than a tenant, and cetainly not because of a poorly crafted law that often isn’t applicable says so.
No, the space is free because I got home last. If I got home earlier, I would take a normal space and the last one in would take the handicapped spot, as sensibility would dictate. I have never seen an actual handicapped person park there.
It’s woefully inefficient to keep a prime spot reserved for a theoretical handicapped person that is extremely unlikely to happen by at midnight and need a place to park within the gated area of a building they don’t live in.
