Handicapped Parking Abuse (to live, post office, Walmart, wife)

[JeepGirl118]

It doesn't bother me who uses a handicapped hanger and who does not. To each is own. Reasons are not always visible to the eye and it is none of my business. Sometimes I park in the expectant mother parking spots when I am not feeling so well or I am flat-out exhausted - what are they going to make me do - lay me down on my hood and give me an ultrasound?

[MonaLisaVito]

Originally Posted by JeepGirl118

It doesn't bother me who uses a handicapped hanger and who does not. To each is own. Reasons are not always visible to the eye and it is none of my business. Sometimes I park in the expectant mother parking spots when I am not feeling so well or I am flat-out exhausted - what are they going to make me do - lay me down on my hood and give me an ultrasound?

That's funny Jeepgirl, thanks for making me laugh!!!

I don't think about it too much, once in a great while I get irritated when I see some 80 year old man or woman on a walker parked far away trying to get up to the store, and here comes Joe Smoe skipping merrily to his car in the handicapped zone. But I never say anything or look funny, like Power Surge said, you can't tell what is wrong with someone - they could have some other problems you can't see.

I like to park far away anyway ~~ good exercise!!

[songinthewind7]

I don't make it a point to check out people parking in handicapped spaces. I don't do it, so I don't care.
When my dad was alive and had cancer, in the earlier stages, he looked healthy but regardless of how healthy he looked, he really wasn't; so I would say IMO, he deserved to have a sticker.

[Miss Blue]

When I take my quadraplegic grand son anywhere, I have a really hard time finding a handicap parking placeLots of the time people are parked in them using someone else tag, I know this because I hear them brag about it all the time. When I take him to college I have a hard time just finding a place to unload the wheelchair and transfer him to it. Most of the handicap spaces are occupied by healthy 18 year olds, again using one of their family members tag or none at all

[MonaLisaVito]

Originally Posted by blue62

When I take my quadraplegic grand son anywhere, I have a really hard time finding a handicap parking placeLots of the time people are parked in them using someone else tag, I know this because I hear them brag about it all the time. When I take him to college I have a hard time just finding a place to unload the wheelchair and transfer him to it. Most of the handicap spaces are occupied by healthy 18 year olds, again using one of their family members tag or none at all

now that's upsetting to me!!

Jeez, are people that darn lazy!!

[Sgt JHB]

Originally Posted by think.reciprocity

MY GOD... What a positively repulsive thing to do! ...
You have no earthly idea what that young woman's health issues were - just because you can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. In every likelihood your behaviour may have exacerbated her health issues. You have no idea what damage you could do... Shame on you!

I think you're overlooking a key part of his story:

"a young woman pulled up in an SUV with a handicap tag, parked in the handicaped parking spot, hopped out, and RAN to the front entrance"

Personally, I never thought much about disabilities and parking until 2003, when I nearly lost my left leg in Afghanistan. They managed to put me back together, but my leg is a mess of scar tissue and stainless steel hardware. I'm to the point now where I deliberately park at the far end of the lot in an effort to force myself to walk more, but for the first couple years it was wheelchair, crutches, and cane. As a result, I became acutely aware of how many people abuse the disability placard system. Ever since, I've made it one of my small missions in life to make cheaters' lives as uncomfortable as possible.

I recall one particular individual quite vividly. He was an 18-20 year old kid. He drove a convertible Mustang and parked in one of the unfortunately few handicapped spaces at the community college where I was going to school. Many times I'd be struggling to manhandle my chair out of my VW van (no lift!) and see him pull into the space next to me, hang the placard, leap from his car with books in hand, and SPRINT to class. After months of badgering and threats to bring in the state AG, the media, and whomever else I could convince to light a fire under their lazy fat asses, the campus police checked and found the placard was registered to a deceased relative of his. How they handled it after that I do not know, but good riddance; he stopped parking there, and I and the other wheelchair-bound student on campus found it that much easier to find a spot. Since then, I have concluded that there's one common factor to essentially all* people who legitimately qualify for a disabled parking placard:

They do not run

When you sit down and consider the criteria for qualifying for a placard, this makes perfect sense. Anything that qualifies you is basically a mobility issue. Impaired or missing leg(s), impaired circulatory system, impaired respiratory system; such things necessarily preclude running. People with mobility disabilities will almost never squander their energy and/or risk aggravating their condition by running the 20 feet from the car to the store. It is therefore generally a safe assumption (if not a foregone conclusion) than anyone seen running from their car to the store is not disabled!

Now, you'd think that few of these illegitimate placard users would be so crass as to run from their cars after parking in one of the "good spaces", but it actually seems to me to be quite common. I suppose it could be because the type of person who thinks their time is more important than inconveniencing a "cripple" or two is the type of person who is always in a big fat hurry everywhere, with so many important things to do and important people to see. Hard to say.

So perhaps it is you who should step back a minute and consider that there aren't really any "health issues" that are likely to allow someone to qualify for a placard and still run into a store.

Personally, I don't go much for loud public embarrassments. The most I do is what I do for all folks I meet parked in disability spaces: I stand by my car in the space next to them, disability placard visible, cane in hand, wearing my Army DCU shirt complete with rank, badges, and unit patches, and give them a good smiling. If I'm feeling particularly good, I say something like "Hi, my name is John. I'm a disabled vet. Can I give you some assistance with your bags?" Funny, but actual disabled folks usually smile back, and sometimes they even accept my offer of help! The cheaters, however, invariably put on a blank look and won't even acknowledge me. So far, I have yet to encounter a single instance of someone I'd pegged as a cheater having a "hidden disability" that I simply couldn't see. It's possible that there is a huge category of disability that entitles one to a placard and also makes one unable to respond to offers of help from friendly young former soldiers, but I can't imagine what it might be. I suspect they're probably all just cheaters. But that's the beauty of my system. It doesn't seem to offend the truly disabled, and it lays a thick guilt trip on the lazy bums using grandma's tag.

Maybe it helps that I am myself obviously disabled.

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* some states allow placards for those missing an arm. One could run with only one arm, to be sure, but then again, a missing arm is generally obvious. I can think of no non-obvious mobility disability that leaves one willing to run without obvious cause.

[Evlevo]

When I worked for the PD, every now and then I would set a personal "quota" on writing handicap violation tickets (particularly when it was the woman in a wheelchair's turn to be in charge of answering complaints). My best was 4 in one day...

I also would "go the extra mile" and do some checking on folks with 'temporary passes' which meant I'd get my butt up outta the car and look to see if it was expired (I've written numerous citations for people using grandma's old placard). I also would cite people who blatantly parked on the white cross-hatching next to a handicap spot (over the line by a few feet, not inches) since that is usually the space for a disabled person to get their wheelchair in/out of the vehicle.

I also wrote one guy two handicap tickets on the same day (him and his wife) they were $350 a piece He wasn't too happy with me!

[nightrider127]

We have a handicapped placard because of my husband. I absolutely wont park in a handicapped parking space unless he is in the car with me. I think it would be wrong of me to do something like that.

[Sampaguita]

Originally Posted by Dick D

I had to laugh when I read that "getting pregnant was by choice" perhaps the formula for "before hand stuff" was by choice but I bet If you asked the majority of people they would say that getting pregnant was a complete suprise and sometime an unforseen nightmare.

For most people, getting pregnant IS a choice. I just don't think being pregnant warrants getting an automatic placard. It's truly not the same as being disabled because multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, birth defects, other disabling injuries, etc...

[exhdo1]

Originally Posted by totally_annoyed

i am totally irritated with the amount of people i see that possess handicapped hang-tags, but aren't handicapped! they use them to park wherever they want. as a borough security worker, i just dealt with someone who parked in a handicapped spot. when i approached him and asked him to move his car because he was in a handicapped spot, he said "i'm handicapped."
"where's your tag?" i asked.
he then bent over into his car, produced a tag that looked brand new, not faded, barely used. what choice did i have? "hang it up." i said, and walked away, furious that this perfectly capable young man was getting away with this. he walked off, and later i noticed that he was walking all over our park, no limp or crutch in sight.

why is it that these people are allowed to get away with this? maybe that guy drives his crippled mother around, but to use the handicapped sticker when obviously he was not handicapped should be a crime. i would love nothing more than to see this man's car being towed.

what are your thoughts on this? how, if possible, can it be changed?

My father lost his leg (knee down) to diabetes. He became so proficient in walking with his prosthesis (or as he called it, his fake leg), that if you didn't know him you would never have guessed he had one. Now my dad was also a very proud man. He had a handicap placard but hardly ever used it. If he could get a spot close enough that was fine for him. Don't be so quick to judge a book by it's cover. Next time call a police officer if you think there's an issue!