Pet peeve (handicap parking)

boatman37

boatman37

Well-Known Member
Jun 6, 2015
4,241
pittsburgh
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2006 Crownline 250CR. 5.7 Merc BIII
Previous: 1986 Sea Ray 250 Sundancer. 260 Merc Alpha 1 Gen 1
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5.7 Merc BIII
So went to the grocery store this morning. Small town where everyone knows everyone (about 8000 pop). Local mom and pop grocery store. There were tons of empty parking spots. I was at the checkout and saw the mayors daughter whose mother I used to work with. Everyone knows both the mother and father. The daughter is about 25-28 or so and was a cheerleader and played other sports and is in very good shape. So I walk out to my truck and notice she is right behind me and gets in a car parked in a handicap spot. No handicap plate and no handicap placard hanging from the mirror. That really bothers me. She could have parked a few spots away and walked an extra 30'. But her dad is mayor so she knows she can get away with it. It's not just her. I have seen it quite a few times. For perspective, I could easily get a handicap placard but I have no problem walking a little further and would rather save that spot for somebody that really needs it. And you have a young girl with nothing wrong with her taking that spot. And I understand there may be issues that can't be seen but I have knows this girl and her family since she was born.

Feel free to post your pet peeve!

Rant over!
 
I have the same one. My wife actually has a handicap placard and needs it.

Insufficient handicap or poorly placed ones also annoy me.
 
Yeah I can't stand to see people use the spots that don't need them. I also have a problem with the aggressive parking enforcement folks that ticket some one for parking in the adjacent spot with a tire on the blue line. I got a $180 ticket for leaving my truck parked across a HC spot at our private yacht club on a Sunday morning when we were closed. I was part of a work party. The HC spot is in front of the dumpster enclosure and I parked my truck there to unload trash from the club. We went in to the club for a quick refreshment and came back to find a ticket on the windshield. These days the parking enforcement collection is farmed out to private companies that are virtually impossible to dispute with.
The police department is next door and I was able to get the chief of police to get the fine reduced to $50 but still, Kind of ridiculous to ticket someone in an otherwise empty lot!
 
Carpediem44DB said:
Yeah I can't stand to see people use the spots that don't need them. I also have a problem with the aggressive parking enforcement folks that ticket some one for parking in the adjacent spot with a tire on the blue line. I got a $180 ticket for leaving my truck parked across a HC spot at our private yacht club on a Sunday morning when we were closed. I was part of a work party. The HC spot is in front of the dumpster enclosure and I parked my truck there to unload trash from the club. We went in to the club for a quick refreshment and came back to find a ticket on the windshield. These days the parking enforcement collection is farmed out to private companies that are virtually impossible to dispute with.
The police department is next door and I was able to get the chief of police to get the fine reduced to $50 but still, Kind of ridiculous to ticket someone in an otherwise empty lot!
Click to expand...

I'm betting one of your fellow club members dropped a dime
 
I have a handicap placard from a motorcycle accident three years ago. I don’t use the handicap spots if there are other available spaces.

I park for work in a very congested deck. If you don’t park straight within the lines the parking company issues $30 to tickets. The deck was built 30 years ago before SUVs and pickups became the norm. Put two SUVs side by side in the little spaces it’s very difficult to get out out with hitting the other vehicle.
 
Boat Guy said:
Why are you surprised? Clearly the mindset is elected officials rule, right? I would have taken a picture of her getting into the car in the handicapped spot and either mentioned it to her father or sent it to the local newspaper. A lot of people are getting fed up with the entitled gov't employees...
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She was in the very last handicap spot next to the regular spots. I didn't realize it was handicap until she backed out and I saw the handicap paint in that spot
 
Doctors pass out handicap placards like candy nowadays. Pisses me off. 30 years olds in lifted trucks with handicap placards. Welcome to the land of the lazy and entitled. If you or a loved one have a legit need, I am not talking about you.
 
Sometimes it's hard to see a legit need. The adimral has a condition that she looks "normal" on the outside. But walking extra distances no longer works. She doesn't advertise it so unless you're "in the know" you would have no idea. She also refuses to get a placard. I do a lot of door to door drop offs. :)
 
Golfman25 said:
Sometimes it's hard to see a legit need. The adimral has a condition that she looks "normal" on the outside. But walking extra distances no longer works. She doesn't advertise it so unless you're "in the know" you would have no idea. She also refuses to get a placard. I do a lot of door to door drop offs. :)
Click to expand...
Same story here with my wife. She has the placard but won't park in that spot because she feels other need it more than her.
 
I had my right knee replaced three years ago and during the normal prep paperwork I was given a letter to take to DMV for a temporary placard to use until I was back to "normal". I ripped it up and threw it away. It was three weeks until I could drive and by then I was walking with a cane. I just limited my need to be out and about. I was not about to use a spot that a truly disabled person could make use of.
 
Boat Guy said:
Then, perhaps she didn't know either....
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Not likely. The sign is painted (recently so not like it's faded). It's about 4'x6' so hard to miss it. I didn't see it because her car was over top of it but you can definitely see it with no car there.
 
Same lazy types of individuals then come to the local Piggly Wiggly or Wally World and ride around in the electric carts. Leaving none for the elderly/disabled/handicapped people who really need them.
 
In Toronto there is rampant abuse of the Handicap Parking system. Virtually anyone can get a official handicap sign so downtown Toronto is full of cars illegally parked with Handicap signs on the dash. Not in designated spots, just pulled over at the side of streets where there is no parking signage. All the time I see perfectly healthy people pull over, put the sign on their dash and jump out to run into a store or business for 10 minutes and then come back out and climb into their car as fast as anyone. I guess the police have better things to do, but it is really pathetic to see.
 
I agree with everyones post. It's ridiculous, besides a lot of folks can use the cardio of walking an extra 50'. I tend to park in the back because I don't want my vehicle dinged.

Let me throw this out there. Anyone notice that at some locations there's an 'over abundance' of handicap parking spaces? I've been to stores where there are multiple rows and they'll be 4-5 deep in each row.
 
[QUOTE="OllieC, post: 1104759, member: 30334"
Let me throw this out there. Anyone notice that at some locations there's an 'over abundance' of handicap parking spaces? I've been to stores where there are multiple rows and they'll be 4-5 deep in each row.[/QUOTE]

Yes. That goes to my earlier point of "poorly placed" spaces. Some planners just want to hit the number of required stalls instead of a rational location and distribution of the stalls that meets the needs of disabled and abled (is that a term?) people alike.

Similarly, a TJ Max recently opened near me after the building and parking lot was extensively renovated. They put the 2 handicapped spots around the corner at a curb, instead of at the front where the ramp is located. Stupid. My wife won't go because of it.
 
To the OP: If you know the family, or the mayor, why not say something?

It's a bad look for the mayor (who is an elected official).

If she has not been issued a placard for a condition, she's indisputably in the wrong, here. (Even if she *does* have a placard for a condition, she needs to display it, so she's still not following the rules.)

Or better yet, she's 28. You have every right to ask her about it.

I haven't found many great things about aging, but one of them has been not caring about the perception of warranted confrontations when done tactfully.
 
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