Abusing disabled parking
Let me just be as blunt as possible — if you use or have ever used a handicapped parking permit that you were not legally entitled to use, then you are a pathetic piece of shit. No two-ways about it.
Few things piss me off more than people who park in Handicapped Parking spots who aren’t handicapped. If I see a car without a handicap placard or handicap license plate, I’ll often wait for the driver to come back to their car — I’m almost never nice or polite about it.
But there’s someone even more despicable than the soccer mom who thinks that her time is so important that it won’t matter if she parks in a handicapped space for “just a moment” — despite the fact that she is neither disabled nor has a valid handicapped placard — while she runs into the grocery store. And that person is the asshat who uses a fake, borrowed, or stolen handicapped placard — one for which they are not the person to whom it was issued.
You’ve seen this person more than once — a car pulls into the handicapped spot and the driver pulls a handicapped placard from the glove box and hangs it on the rearview mirror. Then the driver leaps from the car and strolls — nay, does back flips across the parking lot. They reappear a few minutes later carrying a 50 lb bag of dog food in one arm and a case of beer in the other. They hop into the drivers seat, remove the handicapped placard from the mirror, and off they go (probably late for their softball game).
I’ve always suspected that a bunch — if not a majority — of people using handicapped placards were doing so fraudulently. It’s obvious watching most people walk from their cars that they are not the one that needs that reserved spot.
The blue handicapped placard — the one I see hanging on someone’s rearview mirror the most often — is issued for people who cannot walk without an assistive device or must use a wheelchair. But the majority of people I see exiting their car not only do not have an assitive device or wheelchair. Most, in fact, seem to be walking just fine.
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The Austin American-Statesman has a story today about the abuse and crackdown on fraudulent handicapped parking permits (placards and license plates).
According to the Statesman article, nearly 65% of all handicapped placards are being used illegally:
The Travis County Precinct 5 constable’s office, whose territory includes downtown, found in six months of spot-checking disabled hangtags downtown that about 65 percent are being used illegally. And that fraud is costing the city tens of thousands of dollars in parking meter money each year, Constable Bruce Elfant said.
The Statesman article mentions several times that these asshats are costing the city money in terms of parking revenue. I could give a shit about the parking revenue. I do care about people who are so selfish, and with such a sense of self-importance, that they would use a fake handicapped permit and deprive a legitimately needy person from using the designated space.
I’m a disabled veteran myself, with a 30% handicapped rating for my two knees. But I can still walk from the back of the parking lot to the front, and as long as I’m able to I’ll never use a handicapped parking spot.
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Let’s hope that the Austin City Council will put up the money for another deputy devoted to disabled parking enforcement (as requested). If there are that many violators, then make the fine so heavy that 1) it will be a deterrent to those who would consider it, and 2) it would pay for the extra deputy.
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[IMG][IMG redrivcrop.JPG]Our favorite local posts for the week: Wednesday was Livestrong Day.UrbanGrounds takes on people who illegally use handicapped parking placards. Scott at Grits for Breakfast enjoyed hearing Suzan Lori Parks. Reading his post reminds us to move The Topdog Diaries to the top of our Netflix list.
May 16, 2006 » The Coup – Emo’s – June 22, 2006–Never heard of The Coup before, but it seems like if you like Dead Prez, you might like these cats!… via Austin Hip-Hop Scene at 09:39 PM» Handicapped Parking Abuse–I’ve always suspected that most people using handicapped placards were doing so fraudulently. via UrbanGrounds at 03:15 PM » Facts about the McMansion proposal–Background / answers about the McMansion ordinance, updated throughout the day
Its annoying for me too. I used to work at Sam’s Club, in El Paso. We would always get customers from across the border. They seem to be the ones who dont even see the sign. They come in their Pick up truck, park it in the handicapped spot and then spend hours inside.
They always have someone “waiting” in the car/truck. Sometimes, whenever i would ask them to move the car, they felt like they could complain about my service. If we could have given tickets, we would have been rich.
I totally get frustrated at the soccer moms and the like. However, two things to note: 1. It is actually illegal to drive with a placard on the rearview mirror. That may be why folks take it from the glove compartment. 2. Some people might have injuries and don’t need the devices.
Almost 2 years ago I was in a car wreck and was lucky to be alive. I ended up with a bad sprain to my PCL. First I wore a brace, then walked with a cain, and then continued with physical therapy. I received a 6 month handicapped placard. Even without my cane, my physical therapist wanted me to continue to utilize the handicapped parking as my knee was healing. Usually it was when I was a long distance that I had to walk (not normally the case), when my leg was feeling sore, or when I was on hills (I was a grad student at Texas State and student parking was a long walk uphill towards the campus, while handicapped was next to the building). I’m sure there were people who saw me walking without a cane who thought I shouldn’t be parking there.
I’m not sticking up for people who abuse the spaces, I’m just saying it might not always be obvious when someone is injured.
While I agree with the majority of what you say, sometimes there are reasons while perfectly healthy looking people may have placards.
Currently, my mother in law has a terminal brain tumor and we use her placard when we drive her around town. Some days, she’s as fine as anyone… other days, she can barely put one foot in front of the other. However, we will use the placard simply because we can never tell when she’s going to tire out and go from walking just fine to needing to use the wheelchair (which we always keep in the trunk).
Yup…the handicap parking theives really get to me also. Almost as much as the idiots that allow their kids to play and wear down the batteries on the handicap shopping carts. I don’t know what’s worse: the parent that won’t parent or the store manager that won’t enforce the rules. Before his death my dad had to use those get around in any of the “must be larger than 5 football field” sized stores that are the standard now. It’s been 1 year since my last in-store rage, but our local Wal-Mart manager still ducks when he sees me.
When you are driving your grandmother around…your grandmother being the person who was lawfully assigned that parking premit…then you are not the person/people with whom I have a problem.
However, if you were running an errand for your grandmother, but she was not with you…and you used her parking placard regardless…that’s what I have a problem with. That is abuse.
I don’t have a problem with any person who needs a handicapped parking permit and uses the one that was designated for them. It’s all those idiots out there using fake, expired, stolen, and borrowed placards that piss me off.
I’m a 40% disabled vet myself. I got lucky, however…depending, of course, upon your perception: My problems are in my shoulders and elbows…I can walk fine. I need a handicapped placard that entitles me to extra time to put on a pullover shirt though.
I’m not complaining, my shoulders and elbows don’t keep me from doing anything that I want to do including shooting and riding my motorcycle. Some things are a bit uncomfortable, but that’s life now isnt’ it? I’d never think of trying to claim disability that I don’t have and people who would are simply dishonorable.
I know that term doesn’t convey the disregard that it should in modern society, but in my small world, that is just about the worst thing you can say about someone.
“The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.”
–H.L. Mencken
This post was included in Austinist’s best of the local blogs for the week.
Having had a legitimate handicapped tag — a blue one, even — I know I spent most of my time legitimately using that tag looking totally mobile. But, I had had some major work done to my knee. My tag ran out 2 months ago, and I walk to work and school. Just because someone appears fine, I don’t always assume they’re abusing the tag. I was walking on my own without a brace within a few weeks of surgery, but the added steps from parking at the back of the lot at HEB or elsewhere were still more than I could handle most days, particularly when stacked up at the end of a day spent running errands.
Part of the problem, of course, is that stores and the state don’t really utilize red tags at all (I’ve never seen the differentiated parking spaces that are supposed to exist), and there really is no middle-ground placard for someone who, while generlaly quite mobile, is still recovering and rehabbing an injury that would have qualified them. It’s an all-or-nothing system.
why is it we can deploy our men and women at the drop of a hat, but to get their body back takes almost 2 weeks.
The part that gets, is people who don’t even have a tag or plate, but park in handicapped spots. I have a blue placard, which is good for 2 more years, and it has been 1.5 yrs since my injury. I just got around to driving, this week. I’m thinking of making cards to leave on windshields, of the cars who neither a placard or plate. Yes, there are perfectly appearing people who have them, sometimes it’s due to endurance, or mental instability, that changes.
I am an AK amputee and Memorial day I pulled into a handicapped space at a restaurant. Only several bicycles were chained to the ramp’s railing but they were in the HP space. Well I pulled to the left parking partly on the diagonal yellow lines between the two HP spaces, which is illegal. Not long after I noticed the cyclists leaving. One man could not wait and dragged his bike in front of my car almost scraping the finish. Then he drops his bike on the pavement between the two cars. That did it. After checking to see if he scratched my car I told the group that Handicapped Parking meant just that and not bikes or pedestrians. They did not believe I was serious. Hopefully, they got the message. Sadly, many people are just plain ignorant!
I am a 60% disabled veteran with Texas dv plates. I personally don’t use handicap parking for two reasons. First, I know that there is someone out there who is worse off than me. Even when my knees are killing me, I know that I can limp the extra distance in the parking lot to get to my car. Second, people don’t hesitate to tell dv plate owners that they can’t park in handicap spots with dv plates. I find it hilarious that veterans, not specifically me, are scrutinized while people who use another person’s documentation are given a free pass. For that reason, I carry copies of DOT code 681.008 and 502.254 in my glove box just in case I guiltily feel the need to use a handicap spot.
I’m in Orange County, CA and it is just SICK how many able bodied people park in the handicapped spots, put the placard on the mirror and run into Starbucks….I hate it and hope that CA goes to license plates only.
I have had the blue placard for several years now because of the pain of six blown disks in my back. They can’t address the disks until they address the underlying problem of scoliosis which requires an 18″ metal rod in my back. I have resisted the rod. I take pain medication in order to deal with the pain.
However, once in a great while I feel better than normal and can walk further unassisted. Most days I have a limit on how much walking I can do. I may be able to get into the store unassisted, but cannot get back the same way. If I can get a basket (preferable the shorter smaller ones) I can use it like a stroler and relieve some of the pressure on my back. To some who would look at me, they might think that I am doing OK; I wish it were so. I would gladly give up the blue placard and disability check to get my health back. I would love to be able to walk without the horrible pain that no one sees.
I also see seemingly perfectly normal people using the parking spots. I do not judge them for the most part as there could be some problem not seen. It reminds me of a handicapped girl berating a woman for parking in a spot over at a Randalls supermarket. The hapless girl had no idea the woman was a cancer patient. Pain is so subjective. But the placards are also too easy to get!
They need to put seperate spots for wheelchair users. Even though others have needs, wheelchair users have no back up. If they are blocked in, thats it, they cant get in and move their car.
most days I appear or work at appearing perfectly normal. It’s an act. I have a brain tumor in the right aspect of my pons which affect my balance among othet things but I would rather use a shopping cart for balance so as to blend in. yes I park handicap with my placard unless there is another close spot simply because I have been known to fall in the street while crossing. go ajead & judge me as shit. maybe that other normal looking person is in a similar boat. one last thing. my neurosurgeon has on document one major hemorage & several small ones & has stated that one more major one will most likely leave me a vegetable. I can make it from a close spot to a cart. I don’t choose to fall & I turned down the scooter they wanted me to get. Oh yeah, my tumor is inoperable too. see cavernous hemangioma in rt. aspect of pons for mor info.
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