Disabled Parking

[crgb14]

Why is it that people insist on parking in 'disabled' (is that P.C?) parking spaces in car parks without any disks/badges and no obvious signs of any disability???

If you are one of these people, please let everyone else know why!!!! I don't have a disability but do find it very inconsiderate.

[chimney]

I have done it before because there was no where else to park. I've given up seat on buses and trains for disabled people before.

I don't really think they mind that much, my Grandad's disabled and he say's that when you can't really do much for yourself there's not a lot of difference in walking six foot or sixty foot so where you park makes no difference at all.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

My uncle has a disabled badge and he gets very funny looks when he parks his car in a disabled bay,hes quite active and to look at him you would think he dosent need a blue badge,but he had a heart transplant 4 yrs ago.so he is fully intitled to it,just because you dont see the disability of people dosent mean they are not disabled.

[lady_p_gold]

I am normally quite mild mannered on here however chinmeys answer has my blood boiling. My mother has had polio and I can assure you there is that much difference in that her only trip out once a week in which she feels she does something independent is to go to the supermarket and if there is someone in that space she is unable to walk to the trolley which she immediately uses as a walker. One day she challenged someone about it politely and they turned and said to her 'oh get real' and I cannot tell you how she cried and was hurt by this remark as she battled her whole life not to go in a wheelchair and had a caliper on her leg as a young girl and took it off against medical advice and has tried to lead as normal a life as possible. Think about that next time chimney.

[gary baldy]

People who do this are pond life.
They are usually of a type. Here in Manchester the posh shopping street is called King Street (cant move for footballers wives) If you stand for long enough you can be sure before long a Porshe or Range Rover will pull up - some young lad will jump out- stick a blue badge in the window and do some shopping. I have even collared a traffic warden in the past and asked them to do something but there is little they can do.
Lazy, selfish vermin if you ask me.
Supermarket carparks aswell - these poor things who cant walk 25 yards as apposed to 20 yards so deprive a disabled person a space.
Its really small thing and in the bigger scheme of things quite trivial but to me it just typifies the lack of respect that seems to prevail in this country.

[Oneeyedvic]

In April of 2000 I went with my wife and mother-in-law to Milton Keynes shopping centre. All the disabled parking bays were full and we spent around 30 minutes trying to find a parking space. My mother in law died two days later.

1/2 hour wasted with only 48 to live - makes a big difference to some people.

Still chimney - seeing as your grandad said it's okay, it must be so.

[ianess]

I'm having problems finding a sign saying "Please do not park in this space without displaying the appropriate entitlement" or similar, ideally with some sort of superglue adhesive to stick it at eye level on the windscreen. Can anyone help?
I have multiple diabilities/handicaps [not all of which are obvious] and do have a blue badge, but it's not worth having another angina attack by getting involved in a fight over a parking space.
As an aside, I heard that the use of the word "handicapped" was now non-PC and had to be replaced with "disabled". Personally I prefer to say I have a handicap.....what say others?

[Consie]

ianess, I think your real handicap is the pond life to whom gary baldy refers. I too loathe people who park in disabled bays or a parent and child bay (or for that matter anywhere which inconveniences others). They are totally selfish.

[qapmoc]

Hi ianess, well I am not disabled or anything like but I had some problem with a guy parking his car blocking my road exit from a cul-de-sac, as superglue doesn't really stick to glass too well I made a polite label and stuck it in the eye view area with the equivalent of bostick, the old fashioned brown type, I did notice that it took him about 4 days to get all the last bits off.
He also stopped parking there as well.

[gary baldy]

There was a recent crackdown here in Manchester on fake blue badges - it was estimated that 10% of blue badges are used illegally. 300 offenders were caught - with some cars confiscated and big fines handed out.
The way to tell is that bona fida disabled car users pay less road tax - so check on their tax disc to see how much they qualify for a blue badge.
ianess - i suggest you print some up yourself (i'm tempted myself sometimes) and stick away with impunity.

[Oneeyedvic]

I don't know about Blue badges, but with regard the old orange badges:

The fact that someone doesn't appear to have a disability is ridiculous. My aforementioned motherinlaw was in her 70s and couldn't drive. I (and other members of the family) used the disabled badge when picking her up / dropping off etc. This means that I could park in town centre, walk to find where she and my wife was and then walk them back to my car. If someone saw me walking out of my car, they may assume (correctly) that I wasn't disabled. I was still allowed to use the badge though.

[Coobeastie]

You can't judge somebodies entitlement to a badge on whether they look healthy or not. They don't necessarily pay less road tax either.

However, and I'm probably going to get flack for saying this but from my perspective having worked in the trade (parking) a lot of disabled people seem to think they own the road and can park anywhere they want because they have a blue badge.

Being an inconsiderate driver works both ways.

[spaced]

some people think that walking a shorter distance is more important for a person with no mobility issues than people that do have mobility issues. It really riles me when people do this. Disabled parking is there for a purpose...FOR DISABLED PEOPLE!!!

[Shire]

This is something that really bugs me as well. Two of my friends are entitled to blue badges, and to them there is a BIG difference between walking 6 foot or 60 foot.

[chimney]

Sorry if i caused offence or upset to anyone with my reply, I didn't really think it through as I don't think about the issue much.

I can see now that my views were stupid and my grandad isn't the only disabled person in the world.

I will think of others now before I make a comment like that. Or better still, not make a comment like that at all

Sorry again

[lady_p_gold]

Well I have apologised to chimney elsewhere and I think this shows that we can have a heated debate (well you would with a chimney haha) , think things through and sometimes I have been made to think about my own answers at times. So thank you for taking the time to say what you have chimney, much appreciated.

[hopalong]

We use the Costco car park in Glasgow and the amount of traders loading their vans in disabled spaces is shocking.

[steevee]

Able-bodied drivers parking in "disabled only" spaces is one of the scourges of modern life. My wife has a blue badge following a hip replacement and we need to park in a reserved space not only for the convenience of a shorter walk but also the wider space for getting into/out of the car. Some of the most abused spaces are in supermarket car parks; a member of staff should be on duty to check for blue badges and turn customers away to other spaces if a valid one is not shown. Blue badge holders DO NOT enjoy lower road tax unless they can claim the higher rate of disability allowance, which most can't. Most local authorities in our area have removed the free/cheaper parking concession in off-street car parks, that's why more blue badge holders park on-street. Unfortunately in our present "look after number one" society, abuse of this facility is just one more example of selfish behaviour by some, not all.