Stupid doesn't count as a disability. Park somewhere else.

[firecat88]

Hey all. Long-time reader, first-time poster here. For many weeks now, I've been reading all of your trauma stories. Today, something happened that I could not resist the urge to rant about.

First off, a few things about me- I'm in a wheelchair, I am a college student, and I don't have my own car. Fortunately, my college is in the same city and I can get rides from my parents.

Today, as I was waiting for my ride, I noticed a car parked in the wheelchair-accessible spot in the parking lot. However, this car -did- have the blue-and-white placard in the window, so I wasn't going to think anything of it.

So I'm still waiting, and I have my headphones on and my music-player playing, but I hear some girl talking on her phone about to walk past. Again, I don't think anything strange of it...until she walks to the car that's parked in that space. Now, this girl could walk just fine (no limping or anything), yet she was parked in the wheelchair-access spot and, for reasons that escape me, had the placard.



(I have another story about this same subject matter, but I'll reserve that for later if anyone wants to hear it)

[One-Fang]

Careful though.

She could have just dropped off the disabled person. She could have a disability that means she can't walk more than a few hundred feet without almost collapsing (and just walked in from close).

It's a minefield to assume the apparently able-bodied person getting in or out of the car doesn't have a right to be there.

Do people abuse the cards? Sure. But previous threads on this have proved that there are even members of CS that have them and don't appear to need them to the unknowing watcher.

[Princess-Snake]

It's a minefield to assume the apparently able-bodied person getting in or out of the car doesn't have a right to be there.

Do people abuse the cards? Sure. But previous threads on this have proved that there are even members of CS that have them and don't appear to need them to the unknowing watcher.

You called?

[smileyeagle1021]

Careful though.

She could have just dropped off the disabled person. .

beat me to it... when my grandma was still alive and I was driving her somewhere I'd park in the handicap space, get her wheelchair out of the back of the car, get her into her wheelchair, push her inside, then go back out to move the car... after all, I had already used the space for it's purpose, to get people in and out who use wheelchairs, and I can walk fine, so moving to a further space won't hurt me and will leave that space open for someone else who needs it for the wheelchair, then when she was done inside do it in reverse, pick up the car from the outer space and move it into one of the handicap spaces... I say used to, because I got so sick of people giving me dirty looks, and jeering and one person even went so far as to come up, push me into the car and ask what the fuck I was doing using the space, so I just left the car there the whole time, and if someone who needed the space more than me came along... oh well, they lost it because the general public is full of douchebags.

[Hyndis]

While I appear to by physically fine, I have a severe enough mental illness that I'm considered disabled by the government. Granted I don't need those disability things for my car (I need the extra walking anyways), but I'm often times barely able to function. I have my good days and bad days, and due to how things work out I'll usually only be seen on my good days. On my bad days I don't even leave the house.

[firecat88]

It's a minefield to assume the apparently able-bodied person getting in or out of the car doesn't have a right to be there.

This is true

I guess I was kinda the stupid one this time for conclusion-jumping. I've been slightly cynical about things like this ever since an experience prior to this one.

[Rapscallion]

Oh, I don't know. Could easily have been someone using a disabled relative's car and abusing the system, though. I've known relatives who've done that for a handy parking spot. I don't see them these days.

Rapscallion

[Aethian]

Hell I've seen people abuse them badly and I've seen people who I thought were about to abuse it and then, yea they did have a valid reason for parking there.

I still remember the guy who tried to force my WWII/Korea vet Grandpa into moving out of a space NEXT to the handicap spaces cause he wanted to park his shiney new car there. Even tried to physically push him...yea that was a mistake. There is a reason WHY he survived both and poor little rich man that you don't do that.

[firecat88]

I still remember the guy who tried to force my WWII/Korea vet Grandpa into moving out of a space NEXT to the handicap spaces cause he wanted to park his shiney new car there. Even tried to physically push him...yea that was a mistake. There is a reason WHY he survived both and poor little rich man that you don't do that.

Did the guy receive a merciless whooping?

[simpleyme]

I will no longer assume you have to look disabled to be disabled ;-)

we were making jokes as my teenage son used one of those carts in the store the other day that he looked healthy and everyone probably assumed he was just playing on the cart
I assure he WAS NOT

my poor dear boy was playing at his friends house lost the grip on a rope and slid down it hooking his balls on the hook at the bottom over 100 stitches in his balls and they swelled up to grapefruit sized, luckily they gave him a morphine drip at the hospital

I have decided I will no longer take that extra look to see if the person getting out of the car with the handicap sticker or the little carts are handicapped enough for me to think they deserve to use them

[PepperElf]

Mom once saw a family use one of the sacred spots... which is fine except the son who had the wheelchair wasn't getting out. his mum was jsut taking advantage of the legal tags. And she was cattbuttface when it was pointed out to her that she should leave the spot for people who were actually getting out.

there was of course one time we saw a man without tags parking in the spot. but nothing was said to him cos he had trouble walking and obviously needed the spot.

[One-Fang]

That's a whole other argument right there. Should clearly disabled people use the spot without the tags? Those tags are paid for by the user, they're not free. So they're 'stealing' by doing it. But maybe they can't afford it, and if they genuinely need it ...

Uh. Don't wanna go there.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Oh, I don't know. Could easily have been someone using a disabled relative's car and abusing the system, though. I've known relatives who've done that for a handy parking spot. I don't see them these days.

Rapscallion

I've known people who do that too, not a member of my family though.

[depechemodefan]

Those handicap spots usually come with an area next to it (sometimes on the driver side, sometimes the passenger side) that have yellow lines. This is to keep people from parking there.

I hate it when people park on those yellow lines. Those lines mean that there isn't a space. That area is for people who need the extra room, for a wheelchair or whatever devise.

Ugh.

[crazylegs]

Those handicap spots usually come with an area next to it (sometimes on the driver side, sometimes the passenger side) that have yellow lines. This is to keep people from parking there.

It really bugs me when these spaces only have the extra space on one side, let me demonstrate below
X = extra space
[] = car bay
X[][]X[][]X[][]X[][]X[][]X

instead of this
X[]X[]X[]X[]X[]X[]X[]X[]X

Who's to say that the driver isn't the one with the wheelchair, or two people need extended access at the same time?