Money Moral Dilemma: Would you park free if it blocked wheelchair access?

SusanC_2

nogga wrote: »

I do not drive, my wife does,we never did park in a disabled bay,until one morming after it had snowed,she inadvertantly parked in one.When we returned there was a ticket.The warden had scrubbed the snow away,showing a symbol for disabled parking.If we had known we wouldn`t of parked there.Now it`s a case of yes we would park in one.

So because a traffic warden was unreasonable, you take it out on innocent disabled people.

nathanhill69

nogga wrote: »

I do not drive, my wife does,we never did park in a disabled bay,until one morming after it had snowed,she inadvertantly parked in one.When we returned there was a ticket.The warden had scrubbed the snow away,showing a symbol for disabled parking.If we had known we wouldn`t of parked there.Now it`s a case of yes we would park in one.

Whilst I agree that you were obviously not treated fairly by the traffic warden I fail to see how this experience now justifies you parking in a disabled parking bay, the connection is lost on me.

Smuggler

Up till about 9 months ago I would not have considered it. Now after having moved to a flat which has a parking space which backs onto a street I would.
Since moving into the flat I have found my access blocked on innumerable occasions by blue badge holders. During this time I have also picked up 4 parking tickets at £30 a shot, simply because I needed to park near my home. On the last occasion, I appealed the ticket, even providing photografic evidence, that access was impossible due to inconsiderate parking by a blue badge holder, only to have the appeal turned down, by the local council. So my attitude now is that if the disabled want equal rights, then they can Bl**dy well take equal responsibility.... No more Mr nice considerate guy! Latest incident on Tuesday, I had to wait an hour and a half to be able to get out of my parking space, because I had been blocked in by a blue badge holder.

rochester_house

As a wheelchair user who drives, trust me when I say I need the gap. I have an electric hoist to lift my electric wheelchair in, then have to hold onto the van while transferring to the drivers seat. I cannot leave the chair to move the van then go back for the chair - that is called walking!

nathanhill69

Smuggler wrote: »

Up till about 9 months ago I would not have considered it. Now after having moved to a flat which has a parking space which backs onto a street I would.
Since moving into the flat I have found my access blocked on innumerable occasions by blue badge holders. During this time I have also picked up 4 parking tickets at £30 a shot, simply because I needed to park near my home. On the last occasion, I appealed the ticket, even providing photografic evidence, that access was impossible due to inconsiderate parking by a blue badge holder, only to have the appeal turned down, by the local council. So my attitude now is that if the disabled want equal rights, then they can Bl**dy well take equal responsibility.... No more Mr nice considerate guy! Latest incident on Tuesday, I had to wait an hour and a half to be able to get out of my parking space, because I had been blocked in by a blue badge holder.

I can really feel for your frustration on your personal scenario - that would drive me nuts as these drivers are blatantly being in-considerate. However don't you think allowing this negative experience to affect your overall attitude towards disabled drivers is quite sad? In all likelihood for every inconsiderate blue badge holder there are a greater number of considerate ones. When our moral code is challenged (as yours obviously is) it's how we let that experience effect the moral code we live by which is the true test of a person, or put in simpler terms, "two wrongs don't make a right".

tara747

unicornstar wrote: »

Because most of the first size car seats come out of the car and fit on the buggy frame and become the part of the buggy that the baby sits in. That's how most prams work these days. Means you can take a sleeping baby out of the car and secure it in its pram without disturbing it. (which i would have thought would be a bonus for those people who don't like hearing screaming babies in the supermarket!) Some supermarket trolleys even have a space for you to put these car seats on so you can just use the trolley instead of your buggy. As you can imagine it is not easy putting these seats back into the car given the width of them if you are parked in a normal space with a car either side of you (if you are on your own with the baby, eg if you are a single parent, it's not even really an option to reverse the car out of the space to get the baby in cos where would you leave the baby while you do this?)

Thanks for the post, I hadn't realised about these buggy-seat combos (technology eh?).

Are the parent and child spaces wider where you live then? Here, they're all the same width as normal space, just closer to the store. So you would probably find it difficult to manoeuvre the car seat anyway.

If I had a child and a car seat and needed space either side of the car, I'd probably park further away as it's unlikely that there'd be anyone beside me! :rotfl:

scrobble

puddings wrote: »

Ridiculous sexist behaviour by asda there!
Im permanently bigger than most women are for the few months when they get preggers, but I'd get a fine and they wouldn't.

It's not just about having the space to get your bump out of the car; I need more space because my hips and pelvis aren't right and I need to open the door wide and swivel in my seat to get out. I've only started needing wider spaces in the last few weeks, certainly not for a 'few months.' And, while I feel a little bad for saying this, if you are permanently bigger than most pregnant women, perhaps you have the choice to take action against that and make it easier for yourself to get in and out of the car.

blue_angel wrote: »

Can anyone here ecplain to me why it is unsafe for able bodied drivers to park on double yellow lines but safe for disabled drivers to do so?

I thought it was only legal to park on double yellows as a disabled driver if you are not blocking access or in a dangerous place (i.e. just round a corner, on a blind bend etc)...there are lots of double yellows that can be parked on without doing either.

helen1991 wrote: »

Disabled drivers can park just about anywhere anyway and there are never enough normal spaces but loads of empty disabled spaces.

Not where I live; there are never enough of either type of space in my nearest town.

Money_saving_Martyn wrote: »

The blue badge holder could probably park in the NCP car park (or a similar council run one) for free anyway - so while hog 2 "normal" free spaces?

Not always the case; in my nearest city (Carlisle) the multi-storey in the shopping centre has recently introduced parking charges for all. Even allowing for people in electric wheelchairs, those using Shopmobility, etc. disabled people often take longer to shop, and therefore incur higher parking charges for the same amount of shopping as able-bodied people.

spaggit wrote: »

i am usually quite reserved bout these kind of issue's however disabled people do get right up my nose,how many times do you drive around car parks to find loads of empty spaces all with disabled badges and a lovely colourful sign saying if you park there without a disabled badge on show then you will be fined for your actions, so no it wouldn't bother me seeing a sign saying please keep clear as these days it seems as it's every man and woman for there selves and selfishness takes prefferance i'm affraid.:cool:

Is there a 'troll' icon on these forums?

stevie_boy_4

yes i would have you seen all the disabled badges where they can run a marathon when they get out of the car

nathanhill69

stevie_boy wrote: »

yes i would have you seen all the disabled badges where they can run a marathon when they get out of the car

Maybe the fact that this particular scenario states that they requested the extra space for their wheel chair kind of indicates that they won't be hot footing it anywhere.

I agree that there are those who hold Blue Badges who seem not to have any perceivable mobility issues, however you cannot assume this to always be the case and therefore one has to apply a certain amount of good faith that this request is genuine.

unicornstar

tara747 wrote: »

Thanks for the post, I hadn't realised about these buggy-seat combos (technology eh?).

Are the parent and child spaces wider where you live then? Here, they're all the same width as normal space, just closer to the store. So you would probably find it difficult to manoeuvre the car seat anyway.

If I had a child and a car seat and needed space either side of the car, I'd probably park further away as it's unlikely that there'd be anyone beside me! :rotfl:

I'm pretty sure in all the supermarkets near me (i'm in watford) all the spaces for parent and children are wider than normal spaces, some only slightly, but others are huge.
To be honest at our local tesco the original parent and child spaces (they've just added more further away from the store) were a nightmare, people behave like vultures trying to get them (people with children and without!) so I would rather park further away from the store and walk! It's a disgrace how people behave sometimes, i remember once going round the area to see if there was a space, it's a one way circuit and having seen there were no spaces I carried on round the circuit to go back to the main part of the car park and a man in a huge car came towards me the wrong way round the circuit to try and get a space. i was fuming and had a huge row with him, I find it hard to believe people who cannot read the arrows on the road actually manage to pass their driving tests. What a moron putting peoples safety at risk driving the wrong way round the car park!