Pissed of handicapped parker

[drjonah]

I also dislike when people sit behind me with their blinker on waiting for me to back out. Once, at a warehouse store parking lot, a person actually honked at me for not being fast enough! My car was on, but I didn't have it in reverse yet. I promptly turned the car off and just sat there until he left.

If I see someone 'stalking' my parking spot, I will purposely load my groceries into my car veeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly and then go walk the cart back to the store instead of putting it in one of the corrals

[raudf]

What pisses me off is the disabled people who are asses to their fellow handicap spot users. I have, and will continue to, report people who park in the "don't park here" portion of the handicap van parking spots. I don't know how many times I've seen a person needing to drop their mobility scooter be unable to do so because some ass thinks that because the spots around it are taken that must mean it's open to them.

And when I worked at Hel's Mart, I heard of two disabled biddies nearly getting into a fist fight because of them got the closest disabled spot, while the other was still driving up the lane! I say nearly, because I think their purses were closer to making contact than they were, the huge monsters both were. Yes, I am stating that the biddies were amply upholstered and their purses where HUGE CAR EATING CREATIONS in and of themselves.

[Sapphire Silk]

In other words, the garage had X spaces, and sold Y monthly parking passes. Despite this, they didn't cut off "drop-ins" once (X-Y) had already arrived (i.e. enough to fill all the spaces not accounted for by monthly parking passes), so that someone could arrive and find that the space THEY PAID FOR was not available. To me, that sounds like fraud - selling more parking spaces than they have available.

It's not. You're not buying a designated parking space unless you have a very specific space reserved only for you, meaning you can't park anywhere else. Apartment complexes are sometimes like that; I lived in one for awhile.

But most places you're not buying a designated spot. You're buying a hunting permit.

My understanding is that if a placard is abused by an able-bodied person, it is confiscated EVEN IF THE PERSON TO WHOM IT IS ISSUED IS LEGITIMATELY ELIGIBLE TO HAVE A PLACARD.

Yes, that is correct.

Evil Empryss's husband (the Evil Overlord) has been cornered by people angry that he parked in a regular space next to a handicapped space; she's handicapped and her car has DV plates. One person actually told him he HAD to park in handicapped because he had handicapped plates; his explanation that he could not do that when she was not with him fell on deaf ears.

[mathnerd]

Evil Empryss's husband (the Evil Overlord) has been cornered by people angry that he parked in a regular space next to a handicapped space; she's handicapped and her car has DV plates. One person actually told him he HAD to park in handicapped because he had handicapped plates; his explanation that he could not do that when she was not with him fell on deaf ears.

I've had that issue as well, though not nearly as often as the "kids can't be disabled" rants. Sometimes you really just can't win.

[wolfie]

What pisses me off is the disabled people who are asses to their fellow handicap spot users. I have, and will continue to, report people who park in the "don't park here" portion of the handicap van parking spots. I don't know how many times I've seen a person needing to drop their mobility scooter be unable to do so because some ass thinks that because the spots around it are taken that must mean it's open to them.

Don't some of the "fold up against the side of the van" ramps have remote controls? Naturally, when you were coming back to your van, you assumed that nobody would park in the "no parking - needed for ramps" area. Oops - too bad that shiny new Mercedes (WITHOUT a handicap placard, naturally) took a whack from the ramp.

[mathnerd]

Don't some of the "fold up against the side of the van" ramps have remote controls? Naturally, when you were coming back to your van, you assumed that nobody would park in the "no parking - needed for ramps" area. Oops - too bad that shiny new Mercedes (WITHOUT a handicap placard, naturally) took a whack from the ramp.

It was a Lexus, and I didn't even need a ramp to damage it. I just needed the foot rests of the little mathnerd's wheelchair.

Oh, and the driver was right there, telling me if people like me didn't abuse the handicapped spots, he wouldn't have been forced to park in the blue hash area. Yup, loading my wheelchair using kid into a van is definitely abusing those handicapped spots. Those are only for old people, ya know!

[dawnfire]

It was a Lexus, and I didn't even need a ramp to damage it. I just needed the foot rests of the little mathnerd's wheelchair.

Oh, and the driver was right there, telling me if people like me didn't abuse the handicapped spots, he wouldn't have been forced to park in the blue hash area. Yup, loading my wheelchair using kid into a van is definitely abusing those handicapped spots. Those are only for old people, ya know!

they solved people parking in those areas here by putting in concrete bollards .

[gerund]

they solved people parking in those areas here by putting in concrete bollards .

One of the shopping centres I go to has one huge metal bollard in the cross-hatched space between the parking areas.

So cars can't park there. But there is a group of obnoxious raffle ticket sellers who are selling tickets in a very large Barbecue. It's on a box trailer and they push it into that cross-hatched area, turning the handicapped spaces into less than normal parking spaces. I have seen one man have to back his car out before his wife could get into the passenger side.

They are ignorant and I have never bought any of their tickets. I would not encourage them that way.

[wolfie]

Those raffle people need to be reported to both mall management and the police. If they're on the mall property without the consent of mall management (and the consent can be conditional on "you may occupy THIS area", so positioning themselves elsewhere would void the consent) they're trespassing. Whether or not they have consent, handicapped parking and fire lanes are the only parking offenses which are ticketable on private property.

[fireheart]

I've had that issue as well, though not nearly as often as the "kids can't be disabled" rants. Sometimes you really just can't win.

I do have to wonder about the logic behind the "kids can't be disabled" rants. Do they believe that kids in wheelchairs/needing canes/hearing aids/leashes (if they have a disability and are prone to bolting, as a few do*) grow out of these as they get older?!

Maybe parking lots need to be redone with wider spots to accommodate everyone, especially people like what's described in this thread.

I've found that the people who wind up getting the handicapped spots and don't need them are there because it's convenient. Not because of the width.

Although there have been a number of articles and complaints put forth in the local trash rag that a number of shopping centres need to widen their car spaces because of the number of idiots who back out/sideswipe other cars. I tend to every. damn. time. Why?

Because I was taught very early on by my driving instructor when I was practicing parking (and this was done in a quiet parking lot near a train station) how to best line up your wheels so you would get a smooth entrance every time. After that, I used to do the "ten-thousand point turn" if I believed I'd accidentally sideswipe someone on my way in. Peeved off those who were waiting, but at least I didn't hit anyone.

I saw her later in the same store I had gone to and commented on how considerate she was to leave the handicapped spots open for people who couldn't run that far. She told me that she was driving her grandmother's car and that if her grandmother learned that she had parked in a handicapped spot she would have been beaten to death with a walker.

Good grandmother Unless she was well-known in that area too, it's unlikely she would've been caught, so at least the girl had some sense "drilled" into her.

Personally I do not see the appeal or the point in parking so damn close to the front door (handicapped plates aside). For me, it was a great way to sneak in a few extra minutes of exercise (yes, even for short errands I would do this.)

*-I know it's not just autistic children, from personal experience here. I had a boy with Downs Syndrome in my class as a child who was a sweet kid and for the most part, we saw him as any other child. Then one day he decided to run from the school (this was prior to schools putting giant-ass fences around them to "combat vandalism"). It later turned out that he had managed to run about 3km from the school all the way to the semi-local shopping centre and was found to be lurking in the freezer department. Luckily he had an item of clothing with the school logo on it and was promptly returned to the school. After that, he had reflective strips sewn onto his hat so he could be identified in the schoolyard and the teacher gave him a reward of "bubble wrap" if he lined up with the rest of us in the schoolyard.

[Peppergirl]

I know it's a few days old, but lets not veer back into what's fraud and what's not with regard to handicapped spaces. Keep it to the actions of the SC who berated the staff.

Thanks!

[2gigch1]

Handicapped parking abusers caught - ABC 20/20.

For your amusement.