HANDICAP PARKING RANT

[Stevens]

I'm hoping there is a special place in hell for those "people".
Steve W

 

[snubbyfan]

Just had that happen today. My wife's a home health car aid and got her Hepatitis B shot today. While we were out we took little Natayo out to the aspca to check him for a chip.
We pulled into the clinic parking lot and I parked a couple of spaces down from the handicapped spot and stayed in the car with little Nat while My wife got her shot.
From where I was sittin', I could see the parking area on the other side of the building. There were lotsa open spaces including a handicapped space. A car pulled up, backed into the handicapped spot and stopped. There was a placard in the window. The driver got out and jogged to the building. With so many spaces available, why the handicapped spot? Was it just because she had a placard?

 

[Fishslayer]

The paper tags should be eliminated and only license plates should be issued.

The problem with that would be people who need them on a temporary basis.

 

[Xtasy]

There are way to many people with those 'disability placards' on the roads. Barely ever I see somebody who really requires to park at such a spot, yet they are always full...
I wish Florida would clean up all the fraud so that people really requiring those parking spots could actually use them. There are many healthy people just parking at those spots simply because somehow they have a placard... Like that one lady I know... She has a disability license plate but enjoys surfing , running, biking, cheerleading etc... Go figure...

 

[Smoke]

Ok my turn to rant. There was a woman at a church I used to attend that was asked time and time again not to park in the handicapped spots but there wasn't anything we could actually do because she had plates…. for her husband who never came to church.

My wife has a placard and she needs it but she doesn't always park in a handicapped spot if she can find a regular spot within walking distance for her. The place she always gets the handicapped spot is when she parks at home, that's also the only time I use a handicapped spot even if I'm alone in the vehicle because the odds are she'll be the next one using the car.

Co Springs uses volunteer handicapped parking enforcement but I absolutely refuse to allow her to get involved because she can't handle the confrontation. I sometimes want to confront people on it but I can't because I'm always armed.

As for vandalizing someone else's car because they parked in that spot, I have to ask how you can do that and claim to be any better than them?

 

[mkk41]

I see otherwise able bodies people use the handicapped spots and almost RUN into the store or whatever. I've challenged and said to many, "Is your handicap mental?"

I have a handicap parking tag and the ID card that goes with it. Somedays I use the handicap spots. Depending on the weather , walking is a chore , with this.





In addition to this mess , I broke my femur in 5 places ,shattered my hip , pelvis , shoulder blade , collar bone , 4 vertebrae , 6 ribs. Spent 4mos in traction , 6mo initial hospital stay , 13 surgeries and 2 years trying to walk again. Still have titanium rods in lower and upper leg , plate in hip & pelvis and quite a few screws.

 

[ChuckS1]

I always wonder about the motorcycles with disabled plates that are parked in the handicapped spots.

 

[mkk41]

I always wonder about the motorcycles with disabled plates that are parked in the handicapped spots.

I inquired about that , but from what I've learned , in PA . it would have to be a specially prepared "motorcycle" or trike. I have seen a local guy that has a cycle equipped with a sidecar-type attachment that let's him ride his wheelchair onto it.

Ya just can't keep some people out of the wind!

 

[Smoke]

I see otherwise able bodies people use the handicapped spots and almost RUN into the store or whatever. I've challenged and said to many, "Is your handicap mental?"

After reading this I have to ask, what are you going to do when you challenge someone and they come out of the car with a bat or a gun of their own?

 

[mkk41]

After reading this I have to ask, what are you going to do when you challenge someone and they come out of the car with a bat or a gun of their own?

Then it becomes self defense!

 

[perrazi]

I have had hcp. plates for many years now. if you ever see my in person and using a cane to walk, I am having one of my rare good days. the rest of the time is one or both crutches. I am going to the Tulsa show this week . at the spring show I was on both crutches the whole show. look forward to meeting any of the forum people that attend. 14xln table3. come by and say hello.

 

[Doug M.]

I would not do it now, but about 22 years or so ago when I was trucking, I stopped for some food etc at a service area on the Maine pike, the first one after you get through the toll booths coming south. I went to use a pay phone (now you know it was a long time ago) in the entryway as I left, and some idiot in a 'vette pulled up and parked in a clearly posted handicapped space. No plates or placard, youngish guy.

I addressed him with vigor as someone else was walking through the door, starting with "Hey OEDIPUS" (or some synonym), and followed with something to the effect of: "Unless you have a mental handicap we can't see other than your inability to read, you need to move that car." He stared for a moment, got in, and moved it. My happy go lucky demeanor combined with my graveyard knuckledragger voice seemed to have persuaded him that such was the right course.

 

[mkk41]

When I was rehabbing , I parked in a handicap spot at the hospital though I had no tag at the time. I was however on crutches with metal apparatuses (Hoffman Device) sticking out of my leg. Sure as shinola , I got a ticket. Found the cop writing it. She saw my condition , but said no tag = ticket.

Judge tossed it.

 

[redneckemt]

When I was in High School I was an Explorer Scout with Sheriffs Dept. Working the fair one night I encountered a big red truck parked in two Handicaped spots. Radioed it in to the Park Ranger. When he arrived on scene he thought I was crazy but he ticketed the "fire truck "anyways*. They ended up going before a disabled judge over the ticket. Heard he was the toast of the Judges convention that year, only Judge in Tn who made a Fd pay a parking fine.

*The Dept was shut down when their gear was reposed, and most of their members charged with a wide array of Criminal Charges. 911 wouldn't even give the fools a call. The Feds nailed them on FCC regulations as well.

The fire Dept was only at the fair to pick up girls. Not on official business.

 

[SgtLumpy]

I park as far away from the front door of wherever I'm going. I enjoy the walk and the look around before entering a crowded store full of smelly people determined to block my way.

I get a kick out of people at the gym who will circle around and fight over who gets to park closer to the front door so they don't have to walk too far, only to go in and use the treadmill.

You know those guys who take up 2-3 spaces, parking diagonally because they think their car is so cool that they don't want anyone to scratch it? Here's how I deal with them. Grab an empty, plastic water bottle, put it under one arm. When the guy is starting to move out of his parking space, CRUNCH up the plastic bottle. Makes a sound like he just ran over a glass bottle or his tail light broke.


Sgt Lumpy

 

[Wee Hooker]

Amen, I have a son who has been in a wheelchair his entire life. Getting him in and out of various modified handicapped accessible vehicles is always a challenge. The challenge is only made worse when all the handicapped spaces are taken by fat and lazy people who got a placard dishonestly. There is a reason those spaces are over sized people!

That said, I'm not naive enough to ever think that doctors are going to get ethical and start restricting Handicapped parking rights only to those who truly need them. I'm even less hopeful that the "entitlement cretins" get a conscience and leave that last spot open for someone truely handicapped. What I would love to see is 1/2 of all handicapped parking further reserved for those (only) who need a mobility device (chair,walker, cane) . This seems like it would be simple enough to do by color coding the signs/lines. Something needs to change. eanwhile we are all doomed to see fat familys run from their HC parked HUMVEE's into the roller rink :-(

 

[BruceHMX]

Ok my turn to rant. There was a woman at a church I used to attend that was asked time and time again not to park in the handicapped spots but there wasn't anything we could actually do because she had plates…. for her husband who never came to church.

My wife has a placard and she needs it but she doesn't always park in a handicapped spot if she can find a regular spot within walking distance for her. The place she always gets the handicapped spot is when she parks at home, that's also the only time I use a handicapped spot even if I'm alone in the vehicle because the odds are she'll be the next one using the car.

Co Springs uses volunteer handicapped parking enforcement but I absolutely refuse to allow her to get involved because she can't handle the confrontation. I sometimes want to confront people on it but I can't because I'm always armed.

As for vandalizing someone else's car because they parked in that spot, I have to ask how you can do that and claim to be any better than them?

Well Smoke maybe if you had ever met my Dad you would understand. Never claimed to be better than anyone. But I am better than the guy who parked in that spot.

 

[Xtasy]

I park as far away from the front door of wherever I'm going. I enjoy the walk and the look around before entering a crowded store full of smelly people determined to block my way.

I get a kick out of people at the gym who will circle around and fight over who gets to park closer to the front door so they don't have to walk too far, only to go in and use the treadmill.

You know those guys who take up 2-3 spaces, parking diagonally because they think their car is so cool that they don't want anyone to scratch it? Here's how I deal with them. Grab an empty, plastic water bottle, put it under one arm. When the guy is starting to move out of his parking space, CRUNCH up the plastic bottle. Makes a sound like he just ran over a glass bottle or his tail light broke.


Sgt Lumpy

I usually park so close that they have to climb through the passenger side into the car or if I got somebody else to help me the guy will need to use his trunk...

 

[ladyT]

Another sore spot is people parking in the space between handicap spots. People seem to think thats OK.

 

[Smoke]

Then it becomes self defense!

Not if you're the one who started the altercatin in the first place that's not self defense that's mutual combat