Handicapped parking pwnage

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Back when I worked at a movie theatre, I had a co-irker who seemed to think that one of the handicapped spots was her personal parking space. She was an older lady with a slew of health problems and considered herself handicapped.

About once every two weeks, she'd get a ticket for parking in the handicapped space. After a couple months of this, the police towed and impounded her car for unpaid parking tickets. She finally got her handicapped permit in the process of fighting the tickets, impounding, and pending license revocation.

What amused the rest of us who worked there to no end was that with the location of the time clock, offices, and the layout of the lobby, she had to walk nearly four times as far at shift beginning and close because of parking in the front vs coming in the back door like every other employee.

[greensinestro]

Doubt it, the people who generally park illegally accept it as a part of life that they get ticketed (then moan when they do, but still they park there!).

And this is probably why this couple drives the ratty vehicle they do, because they're using their extra money to pay parking tickets.

[Emrld]

I admit when I was having breathing problems I would drive for close spaces. I also knew what it was I was going to get in the store. And, with some stores I even called ahead to have the item up front.
I had friends that asked why I didn't just park in handicap - well I didn't have a tag to do so.
I had good days and bad days. I kept errands to a bare minimum on the bad days.

[smileyeagle1021]

I must admit, I have parked in the handicap space once but in that case it truly was the only space available (busy 7-11 that only had a total of 10 spaces, 5 being used for a delivery truck, 4 were filled, and even every open area you could safely fit a car were used... if I wanted to park it was handicap space there or... well there was no or because the only other things nearby were apartment complexes with gated parking and the street front was already full).

though I've had the opposite problem with handicap spaces as well (oh I hate people who park in them when they shouldn't)... but when I worked in parking enforcement the people who would try to say "you can't give me a ticket because I'm handicap"... does it say anywhere on the sign "free" no it doesn't, it says "reserved for people with disabilities"... everyone else using this lot has to pay and so do you

[Ironclad Alibi]

but when I worked in parking enforcement the people who would try to say "you can't give me a ticket because I'm handicap"... does it say anywhere on the sign "free" no it doesn't, it says "reserved for people with disabilities"... everyone else using this lot has to pay and so do you

In Arlington, VA, those with a handicap tag used to be able to park for free at metered parking spots. There was so much abuse of the priviledge that the county had to change it. Now everyone has to pay for parking, and the parking meters, including the handicap reserved spots, have stickers on the meters saying everyone must pay.

[Jack7957]

Syracuse started booting cars this year since people would ignore warnings to pay their tickets for years, expecting there would be an ammnesty program eventually. Some would be into the tens of thousands of dollars.

And in Onondaga County, you can be deputized to write handicap parking tickets.

[Seshat]

Depending on the system where you are, you can get handicap tags/carry-cards even if you have an intermittent disability.

I have such a placard, and yes, I have good days and bad days. On my good days, I'm happy to park as far out as I feel I will be able to hobble back to (on REALLY good days, walk!).

On my bad days, I have to use a scooter or be pushed in a wheelchair to go out at all. (And then there are days when I only go out if I have a medical appointment that can't be changed.)

So yes - all you vigilante handicap-space-abuser-spotters: thank you!

And those with intermittent disabilities or temporary disabilities: check whether your local system allows you have a placard/temporary placard. If it doesn't, consider lobbying for it to change to allow it.

Yes, there will be some idiots with intermittent disabilities who abuse the placard. There are some disabled who are idiots too (and I'm not meaning by the medical definition). But the benefit to people with intermittent disability (who use it properly) is great.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

More parking shenanigans yesterday?

You know how the handicapped spaces are always the first few spaces in a row of parking stalls? Yesterday I saw people making their own parking spaces in front of the handicapped spaces, just because it was busy and the lot was full and they didn't feel like parking further away.

So there will be two cars parked, then the handicapped spaces, then the rest of the spaces in a given row. Of course the first two cars are illegally parked since they are not in marked spaces.

But sadly there were no cops around to ticket these people, who should also consider themselves fortunate because some people did this in a corner, so anybody turning the corner and cutting their turn too short would run into them.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Yeah, we get people like that at our store, as well, parking in the fire lane while they do their shopping. If I spot them before they make it into the club, I tell them they can't park there, and they usually give me the usual spiel about how "I'm only getting one thing." Yeah, and that means what to me? I'm just trying to spare you possibly getting a ticket, 'cuz the police aren't going to care how many items you were buying.

What's worse sometimes is the people who will pull RIGHT UP to the vestibule to load their stuff into their car, especially when it's raining or snowing really hard. Back when we kept all the doors in the vestibule shut except for the ones on the ends, it was snowing really hard, and the automatic doors were broken and as such, locked. It was also near closing time, so I'd already locked all of the other doors -- and then I see this complete jackass had parked his minivan by the other exit to the point where NO ONE ELSE COULD GET PAST.

I was so busy checking receipts and getting the rest of the closing stuff done that I didn't find out about this until the guy was almost done, and the guy drove off before I could give him a Talking To.

Myself, I almost never park in the close parking spaces, because I can find plenty of spaces farther out, and I need the exercise. Hell, when I go to the mall, I park on the opposite end of the mall from where the stores I frequent are, plus I park on the second floor of the garage, so if I want to go inside, I have to go up or down one flight of stairs. And because I'm parking on that "no direct access to the mall" level, there's plenty of parking, too.

My mom has a handicapped tag she sometimes hangs in her car. She has arthritis in her knees and now in her hip as well, and has had a hip and a knee replaced. She keeps a cane in her car for those times she uses that tag, and does limp pretty noticeably, so she's never had too many problems with people giving her the Glare o' Doom. ("How dare you take up a handicapped space you faker!")