# "You know, that's handicapped parking spot!" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 13, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328 "2011-06-13T17:13:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328/461 "2011-06-25T17:08:36Z")
> [@stegon66](#): > > It’s disheartening to see so many educated and enlightened posters go off the rails over such a minor issue. Yeesh. It’s a minor issue, true, but that’s why we get so angry about it–most people who do this are doing it to save themselves less than two minutes of walking. I don’t think “saving two minutes of walking” justifies ANY level of dick move, regardless of how minor. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328/462 "2011-06-25T20:50:05Z")
> [@stegon66](#): > > Admittedly it’s a point of pride that I still get around as well as I do given my age and physical condition. Plus I just don’t feel that I’m at the point where I’m really disabled enough to need a placard. I don’t feel entitled to it yet. There are people much worse off than I am. You don’t feel entitled to park _legally_ in a handicapped spot, yet you come unglued when people point out you are being a self absorbed twat when you park in one illegally? Interesting. I can understand not wanting to get the placard - I waited as long as I could before I got mine, as it is the first step on a slippery slope. But to claim you should be allowed to occupy a handicapped spot for “just a minute”, and then say it’s a point of pride and you aren’t really disabled enough to need that spot? Doesn’t compute. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328/463 "2011-06-25T21:01:55Z")
> [@stegon66](#): > > Admittedly it’s a point of pride that I still get around as well as I do given my age and physical condition. Plus I just don’t feel that I’m at the point where I’m really disabled enough to need a placard. I don’t feel entitled to it yet. There are people much worse off than I am. > > That aside, you’re still not gonna convince me that what I did was oh-so awful - I took up one of four empty handicapped spaces for thirty seconds or so? Not really that big a deal. Say I’d cut off a cripple to take up the last handicapped spot, then flipped him off and went and had a lengthy dinner. THEN you’d really have something to bitch about. > > It’s disheartening to see so many educated and enlightened posters go off the rails over such a minor issue. Yeesh. Why don’t people see that it’s not “the length of time you were parked” or the “vacancy of the lot” or your “politeness” in doing what is an illegal act. The fact is that you are rationalizing an excuse to justify your behavior. And THAT is a slippery slope. “I only parked in one of four empty spots, come on!” Well then what’s so incredibly difficult to imagine you saying one day, “I only parked in one of three empty spots, come on!” And then, “I only parked in one of two empty spots, come on!” And when there are NO empty spots left, your rationalizing brain continuing with, “well I was only there a minutes or two, come on!” ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328/464 "2011-06-26T03:32:00Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > I’ve seen cars in handicap spots, with a sticker, never anyone who looked like they were having a hard time walking. There are times when I park in a handicap parking place knowing I will have a hard time walking out when I’m done. I’m sure if you watched me, my disability would be (mostly) invisible on the way in, but a very different story on the way out. ---
**Author:** ![scratch\_llll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@scratch\_llll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch_llll)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328/465 "2011-06-26T04:13:29Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Every time someone parks in front of a fire hydrant because they’re just gonna drop off a couple of Netflix DVDs, or someone parks in a loading zone while their friend runs upstairs and grabs her coat, or whatever, they’re silently calculating the odds of a fire suddenly breaking out and the fire squad arriving needing that fire hydrant, or a moving company showing up, during the 90 seconds your car is going to be there. When you unload heavy items in a parking lot using a handicapped space and dismiss the odds of five handicapped people showing up at just that moment, you’re right. There’s not going to be an amputee convention arrving during those three minutes. I used to park in the space directly in front of a coke machine, leave the engine running and the door open to run get a drink and scoot on down the road whether it was handicapped or not when there were other spaces available. No more. Not after a woman flew up behind me blowing her horn loudly as I held up my drink and climbed back in. I thought it strange so I stopped and watched as she took my space and got out to walk in at a brisk healthy pace. I then saw her mother (I guess) struggle on the side farthest away from the door (she would have been closest had the woman not insisted on the space I had taken) and hobble toward the door with a cane. The woman hadn’t even waited on her. I left my truck where it was and walked back in time to hold the door open for her. She thanked this “young man” (I’m not young) and went on through. That driver was an ass but I’ve never parked in one of those spaces since. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328/466 "2011-06-26T04:44:13Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > Why don’t people see that it’s not “the length of time you were parked” or the “vacancy of the lot” or your “politeness” in doing what is an illegal act. The fact is that you are rationalizing an excuse to justify your behavior. And THAT is a slippery slope. “I only parked in one of four empty spots, come on!” Well then what’s so incredibly difficult to imagine you saying one day, “I only parked in one of three empty spots, come on!” And then, “I only parked in one of two empty spots, come on!” And when there are NO empty spots left, your rationalizing brain continuing with, “well I was only there a minutes or two, come on!” I feel like it’s easy to stretch a slippery slope argument past the breaking point. Is it OK for me to drive 67 in a 65 mile zone in perfect visibility and weather with zero traffic and a totally straight highway with multiple lanes and huge empty space on either side (ie, I-5 between San Jose and LA)? I mean, if I let myself do that, then I’ll (insert steps here) and pretty soon I’m doing 120 in a 25-mile-an-hour school zone when there’s a lot of traffic and it’s raining… ---
**Author:** ![Thalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@Thalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thalion)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328/467 "2011-07-09T06:24:19Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Sorry, you all are wrong, wrong, wrong. > > Look, my point is that there is a tacit level of approval for bending these sorts of rules. > > Case #1: I’ve never gotten in trouble for any manner of illegal parking when I’m loading or unloading for a gig. Often this happens in plain sight of police officers. > > Case #2: Almost every morning around 6:30 when I head out to work, there are delivery vehicles parked in handicapped spots on the street near convenience stores. They _ **never** _ get ticketed. They could park a block up and not be in the handicapped spots, and just wheel their pallets of soda and beer down to the store. But they don’t. And the police don’t enforce the handicapped parking rule in those circumstances because it would be just stupid to do so. Well, I’m a cop (and not a traffic enforcement nut usually), but I’d write tickets to everyone in the situations you’ve described. I take handicapped parking enforcement very seriously. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-thats-handicapped-parking-spot/585328.md?page=23)