Disabled parking bays

lisyloo

I'm sick to death of people assuming that because I'm not over 60 or using a wheelchair that I can't possibly be entitled to park in disabled bays.

I agree and people really should check their facts first.
It is entirely legal for a healthy able-bodied person to use a disabled space in order to pick up a disabled person.

However I do think that in general it is a good thing that there are people out there who are prepared to take issue with the abusers.

Just a pity that they don't check their facts first.

tru

My father-in-law always complained about people who parked in disabled-designated places when they were't entitled to (my mother-in-law was blind). But then when she wasn't in the car, he would still use these spaces "because the badge is in the car". In my eyes this makes him worse than the ones he was complaining about because he knows better >:(

Galstonian

call me daft  but why on earth are there parent and child parking bays anyway??

Its so that people with nice cars (i.e. those not designed to transport children) can park in an area where they are not likely to get their car dented when a mad six year old flings open the door.

Galstonian

My father-in-law ...

I'm sure that the abbreviation for father in law (F'n'L) is not just a coincidence.

lisyloo

Its so that people with nice cars (i.e. those not designed to transport children) can park in an area where they are not likely to get their car dented when a mad six year old flings open the door.

I realise that it's not that easy a task to control children especially when you have several but I am a bit concerned that we have to measures in place to stop people causing criminal damage.

If the children are not old enough then why don't the parents have child locks and open the doors themselves.

If they can't control their children to the point that they cause criminal damage them why don't they leave them at home, or do on-line shopping if they have no other carer to look after the children.

I realise that we all have to live together and that looking after children isn't the easiest job in the world, but I am having some difficulty with the argument that criminal damage cannot be avoided.

Galstonian

It was merely an argument to satisfy the "why should they get special treatment" brigade who usually turn up. If you turn it around and say its really for their benefit and point out advantages then people tend to be more amenable to your point of view.

Once a door with a child lock has been opened a child can still push it further, I know this from experience (and a bruised face reminded me of it for some time too)
Can a child really cause criminal damage? Not being old enough for a criminal conviction might make it difficult to define any damage as criminal - surely accidental would be a better description and we are all for making accidents less likely aren't we?

cathy_3

we have a new safeway just built and the parent child spaces are dead opposite the door, the disabled spaces are at the end of the building round the corner!!

If I was disabled Im afraid Id be parking in the parent child spaces cos the disabled spaces are miles away

my friend has a blue badge and fequently when I take her out she has to walk some distance to the shop as the disabled specs are full of vans and range rovers minus badges, by the time she gets into the shop shes exhausted let alone when shes finished shopping.

people should be more considerate, after all, if we cant give the disabled a bit of leeway and help, were in a sorry state.

and remember those badges are not just issued like confetti several doctors and specialists have already deemed the person disabled. yet people think they can look at someone and say, without any prior knowledge of that person

"THEYRE NOT DISABLED"

or "theyre getting mobility and there is nothing wrong with them"

???????????????????

I for one am grateful I dont have to use the spaces and dont mind in the least leaving them for someone who does. Lifes hard enough when your not well, without thoughtless people making it harder.

IvanOpinion

However I can't help feeling that what you've done is wrong.

I'm not sure you can justiy using disabled spaces just because you think you need them.

Could you really not have carried your shopping.

Lisyloo

Without going into the minutia the car park was on a hill and there were 7 free disabled spots.  At the time I  had a sprained ankle, sprained wrist, a disc out in my back, my knee-caps were shot to hell (so much so that it took me nearly 20 minutes to be able to put weight on them when getting out of bed) and goodness only knows what I had done to my hip.  All of the above injuries were purely temporary but meant that at the time I was more disabled than many disabled people and that there was no way I could push or hold the (very heavy) trolley on the hill (in fact the only reason I was able to push it was that I was on very strong pain killers).  I reversed into the first disabled space and started loading.  A pensioner then positioned his car so as to take up the second and third spaces (and RAN into the shop) and the lady woman that gave me grief came along and parked in the 4th disabled slot - as I said, she just wanted to make a scene.

Why did I not park along the front of the shop ... for 2 reasons.  Firstly it is double yellows and secondly I had grief at the same shop the week before when I parked there to load up.  You'll love this one.... sorry but it has to be told ....

The week before I had parked my car along the fron on the double-yellows (same shop) and was loading up, next thing I heard was the screech of tyres.  I looked round to see that a kid had run out from behind my car and a driver had just missed him.  The mother came over to me and started giving me a lot of verbal about double parking and it was a stupid place to park etc. etc.  I just ignored her and carried on loading the car as if she wasn;t there but she kept pushing and pushing.  DW had decided to get off side (knowing that I was not in the best of moods), in the end I turned round to my wife and said something along the lines off 'Did you here something?  I keep hearing a voice, sounds like some old b***h who doesn't love her children enough to look after them' (there is a phrase involving red-rags and bulls coming to mind).  At this point I turned round to look at the woman who by this time had the finger out pointing and giving it loads that roughly translated to 'how dare I question her mothering capabilities' (explitives removed).  A small crowd had gathered to see what was happening and her child was now behind her playing in the middle of the road.  I then said something like 'OK mother of the year you had better check out what your child is up to' to which an elderly couple who had been watching burst out laughing - so this wonderful mother started on them (child was still in the middle of the road).  I drove off leaving her yelling at the elderly couple ...

Hence why I was in the disabled spot ... I do not normally use them... exceptional circumstances.  Would I do it again in the same situation ... probably.

Ivan

lisyloo

Ivan - You are very brave going out in that state.
I think if I had anything heavy to laod up and was in your state then I would stay in bed and get one of my family of friends to get it for me.
You are braver than I am.


By the way - would you really be in a state to make an emergency stop in your condition - or was someone else driving.

lisyloo

Can a child really cause criminal damage? Not being old enough for a criminal conviction might make it difficult to define any damage as criminal - surely accidental would be a better description and we are all for making accidents less likely aren't we?

Yes probably a bad choice of words.
I am just a bit taken aback by parents who claim they can't stop their children causing damage.

If they can't be controlled at all or are too young then perhaps they should be left at home with a capable adult.

I agree that we want to avoid accidents but there is a prevention, education, consideration side as well as just putting things out of harms way.

I agree that it's a good way to phrase it to people who think they might be missing out on something (like sleep, financial problems etc).

It's not that I don't like kids - I jsut couldn't eat a whole one