22 replies to this topic

[Chaz&Nina]

Me and Nina are always moaning about the system. Why are OAP's who CAN walk, just not as far as they used to, and can easily get out of the car in a normal parking space, put in the same group as folk that cannot walk, and need a large parking spaces to get out of their vehicles?

I am not for one minute, saying OAP's should not be issued with blue badges, they have as much right to an easy parking experience as the next person, but does anyone else share our view that there should be 2 or more categories for less able people?

I would say the simplest solution, would be that the OAP's and minors, that need to park nearer shops, but can use a normal sized space, should be issued with the same blue badges, but can only park in a blue badge spot. And people that need the larger spaces, should be issued with a different type of badge, so the larger spaces aren't full up with people that don't actually need them!

What are your views? And if you are not from this beautifully run country, what is the setup like in your country/ area?

Chaz&Nina.

[Avocado Baby]

I couldn't agree more! I've experienced it so many times...having to go roooound and roooound a car park waiting for a space and sometimes being beaten to it by someone who can walk and doesn't need a wider space to be able to get out. It's especially horrible (and sometimes messy!!) when I've needed the toilet!

[ajl338]

I think OAP's (and those with flat caps) should have their own dedicated row in a carpark, that way anyone in a hurry wouldnt have to wait for ages while they shuffle in and out of a space trying to park. Stand in the road way gossiping to eachother and generally taking a huge amount of time.

Normal able people would be able to park and do their business quicker and not sit in a queue behind them. People needing wide spaces could use them (they would be down a different isle so as not to be held up) and people needing wide spaces to get kids in and out of the car could have their spots. This way everyone would be happpy.

Also i dont get why all disabled spaces have to be right outside the door. I dont really care where they are I just need them to be wide enough so i can get my car door open to get in and out, another 200m across a flat carpark makes no difference. I often end up parking in the far corrner over 2 spaces if all the disabled spaces are full.

Interesting in my area it seems you cant park in a disabled spaces if you are under 60. Twice i have been told off while getting my chair out for parking there as apparently all young people can walk! I think it more likely that old people have the inability to park car in normal size space!

[greybeard]

ajl338, You haven't completed your profile so we don't know your age. You must still be very young if you haven't yet realised that one day you will become old and infirm - unless you die, of course.

I suppose that in your ideal world, you would prefer to just kill off everyone who reaches retirement age. Would that do you?

ps - I don't (and have no desire to) own a cloth cap!

[qbounce]

I would like it if everyone who parked in a disabled spot HAD a f**kin' badge! If we could just start with that, and if it were properly monitored, then maybe it wouldn't matter as much whether the person can walk or not.

[dangerousdave]

This problem is caused by the incorrect issuing of blue badges by the councils and low percentage parking bays in car parks.
I compound the problem by stopping and leaving my car where ever it is when ever I need to
Wheelies cant sprout legs so shouldn't be expected to
Long live wheelie anarchy

[Travelling Blackbird]

Wanda Sykes had a great stand-up bit about how she didn't see why the disabled parking bays had to be closest to the doors. She said they should be scattered all over the parking lot, that would be proper equality! She really sold the idea, but of course, she was making the same mistake most people make, thinking these spaces are for wheelchair users.

The spaces are close to the doors because the same permits are issued to a huge range of people - wheelchair users, the elderly, people with heart conditions and so on. While someone in a powerchair or a fit manual chair user could roll from the back of the lot, there are many wheelchair users and many other people with the permits who couldn't.

Would it work if they restructured it to have three or four different types of bay? One type for the elderly, diabetics, people with heart conditions... one for wheelchair users... one for people with kids and strollers... I'd like to see it tried out, to see if it would help matters, but I fear that it would have a negative effect. There wouldn't be, for example, 6 spaces open to everyone with a permit, there would probably be 2 of each type, making it just as hard to find parking. And if there were 6 of each type, the amount of people parking in them without permits would probably go up. "There's plenty of spaces, they won't miss this one, I'll only be five minutes..."

[dangerousdave]

Ouch - somebodys getting serious

[Karl187]

qbounce, on Feb 28 2010, 07:27 PM, said:

I would like it if everyone who parked in a disabled spot HAD a f**kin' badge! If we could just start with that, and if it were properly monitored, then maybe it wouldn't matter as much whether the person can walk or not.

You said it bro. I'm telling you...a wheelchair mafia- thats what we need!

[JimG]

Travelling Blackbird, on Mar 1 2010, 12:25 PM, said:

....And if there were 6 of each type, the amount of people parking in them without permits would probably go up. "There's plenty of spaces, they won't miss this one, I'll only be five minutes..."

One of our favorite Mexican restaurants has a Chinese restaurant next door and they share two handicap spaces in the front.

We have asked people to move their cars off the ramp in between, shamed others who park in the handicap spot while they, or someone else from the car runs into the Chinese place to pick up their take out I'm sure with the idea that....."it's only 5 minutes".

When we do however, they look at us like we're the a-holes.

Most people are ignorant.

[Scribbler]

greybeard, on Feb 28 2010, 04:27 PM, said:

I don't (and have no desire to) own a cloth cap!

Oh Damn GB!.... I've just bought you one for your Birthday surprise....

[dangerousdave]

Somebody has ruffled greybeards beard

So lets have a poll
Should OAP be taken out and shot at 65yrs +1 second
Or be deposited in a forest in Michigan USA for hunters to stalk and kill - then have the bodies shipped out to red neck country as they seem to prefer humanoid meat to other types, thus sustataining their inbreading complex

Perhaps E-dog could figure out a way of making them all pay for the flights to Michagan

Edited by dangerousdave, 01 March 2010 - 01:52 PM.

[McTavish]

I think it is a worlwide problem, people parking in disabled spaces who have no need to do so. Here they have started to clamp cars in some shopping centres and I think it is only right.

[greybeard]

McTavish, on Mar 1 2010, 04:35 PM, said:

I think it is a worlwide problem, people parking in disabled spaces who have no need to do so. Here they have started to clamp cars in some shopping centres and I think it is only right.

Doesn't that just deny your use of the disable spots for even longer?

[Tate]

greybeard, on Mar 1 2010, 05:40 PM, said:

McTavish, on Mar 1 2010, 04:35 PM, said:

I think it is a worlwide problem, people parking in disabled spaces who have no need to do so. Here they have started to clamp cars in some shopping centres and I think it is only right.

Doesn't that just deny your use of the disable spots for even longer?

I'd much rather have to find a different spot because some douche's car got booted than if they were "only gonna be five minutes" at least I could smile while flipping them the bird!

[qbounce]

Tate, on Mar 1 2010, 12:38 PM, said:

greybeard, on Mar 1 2010, 05:40 PM, said:

McTavish, on Mar 1 2010, 04:35 PM, said:

I think it is a worlwide problem, people parking in disabled spaces who have no need to do so. Here they have started to clamp cars in some shopping centres and I think it is only right.

Doesn't that just deny your use of the disable spots for even longer?

I'd much rather have to find a different spot because some douche's car got booted than if they were "only gonna be five minutes" at least I could smile while flipping them the bird!

After the car is booted it gets hauled off to the tow yard where you have to pay a fine, AND show propper ID and insurance to get your vehicle back. The boot is a guarantee that the car is the cities property until the tow and fine are paid.

Many cities patrol meters (paid parking) for this purpose, but not so much disabled parking.

[dom]

well i suppose with all these walker/disabled spots non walker disabled spots mother and toddler spots fattie spots lazy b*****ds spots etc etc they will have to build a supermarket then use up a whole town for parking outside lol

[SuzinNYC]

I think the two color system for badges is a good idea...float it with your local congressperson's office! I'll mention it to mine via email...

A funny aside to this, the first time I took Roger out in his van which is outfitted with a lift, he told me " Oh by the way before you park anywhere I don't have a handicap sticker " I started to laugh and said Really? your a blind quadraplegic, exactly how disabled do you think you need to be to qualify for one?.....his answer, was quite sweet - he told me that once he is in his chair, he is quite capable of getting around easily but that there are people who use walkers and canes, and they really need those spaces. ...so we've compromised, he's going to get a blue hanging sticker just in case we need to use it when the weather is awful.

[JimG]

SuzinNYC, on Mar 1 2010, 10:40 PM, said:

I think the two color system for badges is a good idea...float it with your local congressperson's office! I'll mention it to mine via email...

A funny aside to this, the first time I took Roger out in his van which is outfitted with a lift, he told me " Oh by the way before you park anywhere I don't have a handicap sticker " I started to laugh and said Really? your a blind quadraplegic, exactly how disabled do you think you need to be to qualify for one?.....his answer, was quite sweet - he told me that once he is in his chair, he is quite capable of getting around easily but that there are people who use walkers and canes, and they really need those spaces. ...so we've compromised, he's going to get a blue hanging sticker just in case we need to use it when the weather is awful.

Honestly....

When we go to a Mall, Costco, Home Depot, et. al.....and I need my chair....

I don't use a handicap stall unless there are LOTS of them available. I save them for others.

Roger is right.....it's much harder for me to walk in someplace with my crutches and why I need the closer space for those times more than I do in my chair.

BUT.....OTOH.....since I keep my chair in the back of my Avalanche and can walk to the back hanging onto the sides of the pickup, extra wide parking spaces aren't a big deal to me.

[Trinity]

ajl338, on Feb 28 2010, 04:12 PM, said:

Also i dont get why all disabled spaces have to be right outside the door. I dont really care where they are I just need them to be wide enough so i can get my car door open to get in and out, another 200m across a flat carpark makes no difference. I often end up parking in the far corrner over 2 spaces if all the disabled spaces are full.

Unfortunately not parking near the door of supermarkets often means running the gauntlet dodging reversing cars which can't see you as you are too low to the ground to be easily visible.

[pistol_pete]

This issue is probably my biggest peeve.
It really pisses me off when the parker who can walk fine and only needs the space for proximity reasons, takes the disabled space when there is a normal space right next to it.

I'm not having a shot at old people, I try not to judge people for their resons for having a permit, but here in Australia the statistics for the aging population are frightening. The problem is only going to get worse. The baby boomers are getting older, I wonder if town planners have foreseen the need to increase the percentage of disabled spaces.
I'm assuming this is a world wide western problem as the post war baby boom happened everywhere.

I'm getting older too because I'm getting all ranty and experiencing urges to write terse letters to my local politician.

Edited by pistol_pete, 02 March 2010 - 12:04 AM.

[Soryfam]

qbounce, on Feb 28 2010, 12:27 PM, said:

I would like it if everyone who parked in a disabled spot HAD a f**kin' badge! If we could just start with that, and if it were properly monitored, then maybe it wouldn't matter as much whether the person can walk or not.

Exactly! Sometimes I use a chair, and other times I use a cane. I can't get my chair out on my own, so when alone I have to walk, with the cane, whixh means my shopping trip will be much shorter. I think the issue is having enough spaces and only having people who are disabled use them is the answer. Why should we be fighting with each other?

Sandy

[wheeliebear75]

qbounce, on Feb 28 2010, 07:27 PM, said:

I would like it if everyone who parked in a disabled spot HAD a f**kin' badge! If we could just start with that, and if it were properly monitored, then maybe it wouldn't matter as much whether the person can walk or not.

Amen to THAT!

Edited by wheeliebear75, 02 March 2010 - 02:48 AM.