Do Me a Favor ….
Nothing chaps my butt like non-handicapped people who park in handicapped spaces, which they believe covers twits with narcissistic personalities.
If it bothers you, too, now you can do something about it.
The city of Houston offers training to discourage able bodied people from taking the parking space from handicapped people.
Take 4 hours of training and you can start issuing citations. How cool is that? I consider it my own personal war against jerks.
I did a Google on it and many other cities offer the training.
You know you’re going to see it happen and wished you had taken the training, right?
Take the training. I thank you. Momma thanks you. And thousands of people in wheelchairs and walkers thank you.
That’s what happens when you park in a handicap spot in Brazil
1This is a great idea! I would also like to issue citations to the jerks who leave their shopping carts in a parking spot!
2Just be careful that you’re not issuing a citation to someone with a real but “invisible” disability; I’ve seen people who had the proper blue badge but who appeared “healthy” be shouted at, but they had conditions that genuinely made it painful to walk.
3Just a comment that sometimes disabled people don’t look disabled to the casual observer.
4I don’t question people’s abilities when they have the proper signage/tags. But for those pigs who don’t, can I deliver my citation to their windshield tied to a brick? Just askin’.
5LynneB: I agree. I have handicap license plates and take advantage of them when my back is acting up, and mostly in places where I would have to walk a long distance. Most of the time getting there isn’t too much of a problem, but going back to the car is difficult. I don’t limp or crouch over, but it hurts just the same.
6That happened here in Austin. Some jerk parked his BMW in a handicapped space in front of the old guy writing tickets. When he came back out of the building he had a screaming hissy fit and tore up the ticket. That was when he spotted the camera from the TV news crew. So he rushes the camera man and knocks him down. He didn’t see the other camera crew across the street getting the whole thing. The cops show up and idiot ends up with an assault charge, a new issued by APD parking ticket, a Littering ticket and his car got towed by Southside Towing-the biggest jerk towing company in town. Then his boss saw it on TV at 5 PM and fired him.
7I mount and balance my own tires, so I have all the tools. Every tire has a valve stem with a Schraeder valve in it. They sell a valve core extractor tool for a couple of bucks. I’ve often been tempted to simply loosen all 4 valve cores on a non-handicapped car in a handicap slot a quarter-turn each so the air leaks out. It wouldn’t hurt the tire, but it sure would inconvenience the sumbitch not following the rules. One of these years, I’m gonna be old enough and grumpy enough to give it a try. Sorry, mama.
8My late husband had a handicap placard hung from the rear view mirror. Due to his cancer (he was still trying to work every day) he parked his car as close to our front door as possible which means on the grass. Some glass bowl reported him to the county and he got a citation in the mail from the sheriff’s office for illegal parking. Flames were shooting out my ears when I notified my county superintendent who took it from there. I’m sure when the glass bowl drove by again and noticed the car was gone, he probably was very proud of himself (I knew who he was – a bully!) but what he didn’t know was that my husband had just died.
I know there were people in shopping centers who couldn’t understand why my husband had a handicap placard at all when they saw him walking in the local drug store and so on but as luck would have it, no one got in his face. Thin as he was, he was ready for anyone who had an attitude.
Yes, I support anyone parking a car in a handicap spot as long as they have the proper ID up front. The jerks who abuse this will some day find just how bitchy karma can be!
9Thanks, JJ, for high-lighting this issue. When my dear Mother in law was not able to walk very far, I would park in the handicap space and escort her into the waiting room of where-ever we were going. Then I would return and move the car to a nearby legal parking space.
10I have (except for the scars from the joint replacements) an invisible handicap and since walking is generally good for me, I try to park as far away from the entrance as I can bear, except for groceries. They are just too heavy to carry further than my driveway to the house, so at the store I park as close as I can.
11I have been yelled at and have had that experience of having a Hummer parked crossways over 2 places (it was the owner-just running in for a minute)…I should have taken a picture–it was so classic.
Sigh.
I just get so tired of people, it’s very trying to stay in a good humor when you are in morphine level pain everyday.
I checked the link and didn’t see a program in St. Petersburg. And hey, if anyplace should have it, it’s here! We didn’t used to be called God’s Waiting Room for nothing. Now, the population is getting younger again – and yep, – people who shouldn’t are parking in the blue spots. Given our aging population, we don’t have nearly enough of those as it is.
12The mentally and emotionally handicapped will learn that these spots are for the physically handicapped only after they have been fiscally challenged. Tow the car and impound it for a couple of weeks. The storage changes should be enlightening.
13Remember, too, that the person driving the car may not be the person with the handicap. My housemate has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and arachnoiditis*. I will drop her off at the curb close to the door and park in a handicap spot. If you saw me getting out of the car you might think I was breaking the law, but it’s perfectly legal as long as I am transporting her.
*Look them up, you don’t want to have either.
14I should add that I do that only when i would be keeping her waiting. Usually I use a regular space after dropping her off.
15LynneB: Thank you!
My wife has multiple sclerosis, but is still ambulatory. To look at her you might think she’s fine, but she can’t walk more than a few yards without great difficulty. A handicap parking space is a necessity for her if we are to go anywhere.
Mike: Best bumper sticker I have ever seen read:
“Imagine that. Another a**hole in a BMW.”
16Mike, I wish I’d been around to see that crazy guy! Sometimes I write notes and leave them under windshield wipers on whatever I think the person needs to hear about, whether parking in two spots or driving like a maniac in a residential area. I figure being an old lady who can write gives me that right.
17Origuy, thanks for your courtesy in caring for your housemate; you’re doing the right thing.
I used to be frustrated by people with the tags who didn’t appear to be disabled until my sister (who has been a registered nurse for more than 50 years) was one of them. Her husband was debilitated by a number of problems, so she had a tag for hauling him around. She also sometimes used the handicapped space when he wasn’t there, especially if she was on an errand to pick up a prescription or take care of some other business and needed to get back to care for him. When I saw all she went through to put up with his multiple processes and his bad attitude during his last several months, I stopped begrudging her and others the handicapped spaces.
On the other hand, yahoos who don’t have the tags or who take up multiple spaces in crowded lots deserve fines, and I’d be pleased to have ordinary (but trained) citizens issuing those citations!
18My husband and I are in our 70’s and among the disabled who use the handicapped parking spaces. He has painful neuropathies in feet and legs and I have MS. We had a program like Houston’s here in Dallas and my husband and a friend were volunteers, but our city attorney discontinued the program, saying that the citations were too difficult to prosecute. With this information from the City of Houston, we are going to try to get Dallas to talk to Houston and then bring the program back. The ADA just about requires that something of this nature has to be done to defend those parking spaces for the people who need them.
19I lead one of the largest and most active crime watch groups in Dallas as well as head the leadership team for our Area Plan. We are very active in the community. We succeed with our goals and plans because we are calm, persistent, knowledgable, patient, did I say persistent, very rational, but adamant people. A long-time activist friend told me years ago that if I wanted to be an effective activist, I should make sure that when the people whose help or cooperation I require arrive at their offices on Monday morning, the first thing they should say is, “God, I hope I don’t have an email from that woman this morning !” Did I mention “persistent”?
While going through a divorce 20 years ago, I stayed for several weeks with a friend who used a power wheelchair, having had polio as a infant. She was fortunate to have a job (the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is very high) and I frequently drove her to work using her wheelchair lift equipped van (allowing her elderly mom and primary caregiver a chance to sleep in). On the day of a divorce related court appearance, I dropped her off at work, parked the van in a regular parking meter. Court ran long, and when I came out, every vehicle on that street had a parking ticket except my friend’s van! Assume it was because of the handicapped license plate.
20Years ago, I accosted a man sitting in his car, children in the back, during a local festival. He was in a handicap spot and I pointed that out to him; his response, “I don’t see any crips gimping around here” (nice lesson for the kids, right?) … I assured him that there was a local cop nearby and I would bring it to his attention – the car was driven away. Best part? The “Save The Whales” bumper sticker. Must have been his wife’s car.
21There are two things you can count on in life. People do amazingly kind and generous things. People are assholes. I could elaborate but I am sure some will agree without further explanation.
22My neighbor and his wife are grotesquely obese. I’m sure they have an as yet undiscovered eating disorder. Neither of them have handicapped hangtags or license plates. His elderly mom has handicapped plates. When their kids were young, they would take mom’s car Christmas shopping so they could use the handicapped parking in area malls. I suspect for every handicapped hangtag or license plate there is an able-bodied jerk figuring how to take advantage.
23As one of those people with a handicap placard…. unfortunately I see this scenario more than I’d like to.
Young and seemingly able…. and obviously feeling “entitled” folks, park in spaces reserved for the physically disabled.
Basically, I mentally shake my head….. and tell myself “Possibly they are mentally challenged… and may someday they will grow up and learn better”.
24I broke my leg so I got a temporary handicap sticker to hang on my window. Naturally, as time progressed, it got better and I was able to walk without a cane, but still with pain. I parked in a handicap spot and went into the store. When I came out, there was a guy standing by my car and started yelling at me for parking there. I asked him if he looked at my mirror. He then did and slunk off into the sunset. As soon as I was able to walk without a lot of pain, I turned my sticker in, early. The lady at the desk was surprised and said I could keep it until it expired. I didn’t need it, so I turned it in.
25There are a lot of illnesses that grant handicapped parking that are not obvious. It’s not all wheelchairs and walkers. Some people who seem to be walking normally need handicapped parking, and are legally granted parking stickers. Conditions such as MS, Transverse Myelitis, and internal injuries. I read a story this morning of a cop who harassed a vet who had pins in his knees and a valid mirror hanger handicapped parking sticker. My point is this: don’t assume that if a person with a handicapped parking hanger is walking from a handicapped spot that they are cheating the system.
26Somebody needs to explain to a Florida cop named G. Wilson that you don’t need to be in a wheelchair to use a handicapped placard. From Rawstory.
27I don’t look handicapped but I have tremendous pain walking and standing. My adult son is mentally challenged. It is arrogant of you or anyone to presume that I don’t need to use the handicapped parking or that I got my sticker by a ruse..
28Penelope and everybody else, I completely understand that disabled people don’t always look disabled, for goodness sake. Get a damn grip. The purpose of this is not to challenge people with a legitimate placard. The purpose is to challenge those who do not have a sticker or placard from parking in a handicapped space. Quit hollering. This is a good idea.
Let me point out something else. I went a local store today and there was no handicapped parking available. There was a car with a legitimate sticker parked in the first handicapped space. The driver was in the car, running his motor because it’s hot. I waited a few minutes thinking he would see me looking for a space. He made no attempt to move. I waited a few minutes more, thinking that maybe he needed the car to cool down before he drove away. Then a woman leaves the store, trots out to the car, gets in and they drive away. Why he couldn’t have dropped her off at the front door and then came back to the front door to pick her up is beyond me. Just be thoughtful, people. That’s all I’m asking.
And ladies, if you go to the bathroom and there are stalls available, please do not use the handicapped stall.
29Travis County’s program: http://www.constable5.com/info/parking.shtml.
Another personal peeve is people who think the handicap spot is the place to return shopping carts.
On good days, mine’s invisible, too. I can walk for short distances just fine, but after a while, the pain can be unbearable. I can’t stand for even 5 minutes without the pain beginning to ramp up. Not being able to find a handicapped carts at the grocery store with a charge because kids have been racing them annoys me, too.
30Yeah, we stayed out of state with my inlaws last week. SIL drove us everywhere, and used handicapped spaces everywhere that we parked. She doesn’t need it, but has the sticker because her husband has health problems, so they have stickers for both cars. So why is she using the handicapped spaces? Because her car is brand new, and she figures that it’s less likely to get a ding if she parks there.
Priorities, huh?
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