Disabled parking peeve

[Tithera]

Nothing irks me more than when someone parks in a disabled spot, who is clearly not disabled and does not have the prooper sticker for it. I don't know how many times that I've walked across the parking lot at school and several cars will be in the spots, with violation stickers on them because they did not have the right stickers. It the same cars every fricking time. I've actually witnessed someone pull into the spot in a very expensive car, with no sticker. The clearly not disabled girl steps out and I confront her, since others like her have taken all the disabled spaces. She whines and complains and says that she can't walk that far in these shoes. Then don't wear 4-inch stilettoes (sp?) when you KNOW you will have to walk a good distance. Karma was kind to me though because when I got out of class, her car was being towed.
The worst ones are the people who take those spots at shopping centers and resturants. We went to Wally World one day and we had my dad with us. In the eyes of the law, he is disabled, although he gets around pretty good. Walking a far distance is still kinda hard for him, so we have a sticker. Then, we notice that all the spots are taken up by un-stickered cars. Oh does that piss me off. Usually is some fat guy (no offense to other overweight people, I am one as well) who claims he's too fat to walk too far. Then get a sticker! There are stickers for obese people for that specific reason, though you have to be a certain weight to get them. Besides, the excerise will do you good dude.
I hate people. So much.

[chainedbarista]

what irritates me more is when the family members abuse the priviledge; teenaged kids driving the vehicle, then parking in the space, who i seriously doubt are the person it's intended for (or any other family member).

walk your lazy asses.

[LillFilly]

Honestly, sometimes real handicap people do forget to put their cards in the mirror. I check all over the car for places the card might be before I right a ticket. A good half the time, the driver finds me to void the ticket and show me their card. But it peeves me when they INSIST that "It was hanging on my mirror!" Um, if it was it was wearing the One Ring.

I don't like when people come-up to me and say "This young guy/girl parked in a handicap space and they have a card but they don't LOOK handicapped!" Well, I can't ticket them based on my opinion that they are or aren't disabled. Looks can be deceiving, and not all handicaps are obvious. You can get a handicap card for high blood pressure.

[bainsidhe]

Add the frustration of 2 cars parking in a single handicap space. My sis's mother-in-law C has a tag that allows her to park in handicapped parking. We went to the grocery store, and I quickly bought what I needed and returned to the car. C never left the vehicle, which was odd since she needed a few things. Odd until I looked beside her car, that is. Some jerkwad parked in the criss/cross NO PARKING lines next to the handicap stall. The idiot parked within inches of C's car, so C couldn't even get out. And yes, jerkwad did this while C was still in the car while C was telling the idiot not to park there! Yes the idiot had a tag as well, but....that was part of C's parking spot!

[aniwahya]

I keep telling my mom that as a non-disabled looking disabled person I need a scarlet D on my forehead to help me ward off all the "helpful" people who either glare at me or tell me off for parking in disabled parking. Out of all the times I've parked in handicap spots I think I have only forgotten the placard once. People must assume I am using a grandparents card or something though cause even when it is clearly visible I still get "samaritans".

Of course then there are the people who seem to think that someone have a certain level of disability to qualify. The levels being determined by how much time a particular disability is given media attention by people like Oprah or have movies made about them on the Hallmark channel. So, for instances someone with a stroke or paralysis qualifies as "disabled enough" but bone-killing disease (avascular necrosis) and nerve/pain disorder (CRPS) don't make the cut.

[mikoyan29]

My mom has asthma in a bad way and for the longest time she resisted getting a tag. She has one now. She gets some looks sometimes.

[infinitemonkies]

There is a guest at my hotel who has fake handicapped tags. At a glance, they look real, but on closer inspection you notice the image and the colors are both slightly different from official, legit handicapped permits.

On the other hand, I've never seen him park in a handicapped space, so I guess technically he's not doing anything wrong. It's just odd.

[TheSHAD0W]

My father had a disabled (DAV, actually) license plate on his old Bronco, and I used to drive the truck around all the time. I never abused the privilege, since getting caught doing so would have caused my father to forfeit the plate. I was asked about it by the police on one occasion.

What was really interesting was the two occasions where people yelled at me for NOT taking a handicapped parking space.

"Why are you taking up a regular space?? Go park there!"

[Tithera]

We have the removable one, which we can hang on the rearview mirror so we can put them in whatever car my dad travels in. If he's not with us, we take it off and put it away. Never have we abused the permit. NEVER! And yet, I'll still get yelled at when it's just me and my dad in my truck. Apparently, if he can walk and get up into the truck (which isn't that high of the ground btw), he's not really disabled. Even though he needs to use those little motorized scooter things if we're in there for longer than 20 minutes. It's even worse when we're getting his wheel chair out of the back and people will still say he's not disabled. No, he just wears that brace on his leg and has a limp for no reason! *sigh*

[Treasure]

My family is disabled - Mom, brother, me... all have the same degenerative bone disease (XLH) mom has handicap plates, Bro has handicap placard, as he has no car (yet)... I have one of his placards in my car at all times... and other than being 4'10" most people don't think of me as being handicapped - despite the fact that my legs are bowed - its just not that noticeable b/c of how i dress (flare legged jeans hides a curve) and I can walk in wide or wedge heels (no pencils for me thank you) and yes I use the placard to my advantage I've gotten a few looks, b/c hey I'm young I don't "look disabled" at first glance... but I have a bad knee as a result of my disability, so if I notice the looks as I'm getting out of my car, I intentionally walk with a more pronounced limp - I walk that way about 65% of the time legitimately anyway.

but even w/o the placard I can usually find prime parking spots - my friends love going shopping with me

[Erin]

I'm about to get a handicap placard. I have MS. About a month ago I had a flare bitch-slap me with numbness from the chest down and was making me walk funny. (right leg feels weak)

I did my IV steroids and things are better, but I noticed that now I cant lift my right leg as high as I could a month ago. I also keep tripping in the grocery store because my foot keeps getting caught on the floor. (I think I'm not lifting my foot up normally when I step forward.

I'm expecting that when I finally ask my doctor for the placard and use it for the first time, I'm going to get all sorts of grief from some moron who doesnt realize that there are invisible diseases out there and while I look great getting out of the car, I feel like I want to be picked up by an ambulance and driven home and tucked into bed by some cute paramedics on the way out of the store after shopping.

I'm starting physical therapy on monday to see if I can build up the strength in my right leg. Hopefully I can put off getting that placard for awhile. (tempted to get it so I'd have it for really bad days, or the next time a flare sneaks up behind me and fries another nerve)

[Jack7957]

Here, our local Sheriff dept has a volunteer program where you can be deputized to write tickets on handicap violators.

http://www.ongov.net/sheriff/shape.html

I've wanted to join, but don't think I can get the time required to do it.

[Mr. Anubite]

what irritates me more is when the family members abuse the priviledge; teenaged kids driving the vehicle, then parking in the space, who i seriously doubt are the person it's intended for (or any other family member).

walk your lazy asses.

I'm a teenaged kid that parks in the handicapped space, but I only do that when my mother (who has MS) is in the passenger seat.

I hate people that abuse the privilege too, but do keep in mind the non-disabled driver may just be the chauffeur of a disabled person.

[Magpie]

I hate people that abuse the privilege too, but do keep in mind the non-disabled driver may just be the chauffeur of a disabled person.

Just as a warning, because I know someone who got caught for this in a crackdown, you can get in trouble if you drop your mother off at the door and then park in the disabled spot because you're not going to be picking her up at the door. So if you're driving her there and then leaving, she should stay in the car with you until you park.

[LillFilly]

I REALLY hate that not all states have the same law regarding the stripes between handicap spaces; you know, the ones that give you enough space to get your wheelchair or scooter out? We get people, handicap and non, parking there all the time because it is almost the size of a parking space. We can't ticket them because, legally, they're not a handicap parking space. All we can do is page the moron to move. It drives me nuts, because they never seem to understand why doing this is wrong! 50% of the time it's motorcycles.