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

VickiB

Absolutely not. To require that extra space, the wheelchair must go directly into the back of the vehicle with the person in it. The user is unable to get out of their wheelchair so THE DRIVER IS NOT THE PERSON IN THE WHEELCHAIR IN THIS CASE. He/she stays in the chair and is pushed (probably by someone not as strong as they need to be) or (if they're lucky) in a motorised wheelchair into the back of the vehicle. My mother-in-law has one leg - how exactly could she jump out of her wheelchair, drive the car into the street & block it, then pop back etc etc? Would you not appreciate a little kindness and courtesy if you were in their position? To to the person who said they can wait 5 minutes, I trust you would be equally willing to wait 5 minutes if someone blocked in your - legally parked- car?

tabaira

re Mother & Baby parking - for goodness sake - you CAN walk - how do you think people managed 20 years ago when there were no special places for Mums.

slimbird

im a carer of a disabled wheelchair user and a parent and am also human,therefore yes i would park in that space,there is no abuse of any system here,and besides these stickers can be picked up by anyone with or without disability,do they really have a wheelchair? as a carer i hate nothing more than people abusing disabled places,likewise mother and baby spaces,and often challenge people who do !
would i be a fool to pay? cause someone else will park there anyway !

irritable

Absolutely unacceptable. But then again we see so many selfish, lazy motorists who park in bus stops to nip to the shop/cashpoint/fast-food outlet. Result being that the bus has to park adjacent and blocking the road. Often the Police drive past and do nothing about what amounts to illegal parking. Perhaps tazaring them and giving them a bloody good kicking would pursuade them to park somewhere more socially acceptable in the future. Anybody who can park in a bus stop is sufficiently ignorant that they will, without hesitation park behind the hypothetical car displaying the disabled badge.

elsol

i think a lot of people have missed the point...nowhere does it say that the free space behind the disabled car is a disabled space. Therefore, you could freely park there. however, i would suggest leaving your mobile phone number so if the disabled person infornt needed access you could go back and move it. Just on another note, it could be that the disabled drived didn't need the access on that specific day...!

weiran

paullyuk wrote: »

Nothing in the original post states that you would be parking in a disabled space - therefore I presume no offence would be committed by parking close to a car with such a sticker. It would be very easy to reverse into such a space and not see the sticker anyway.

I'm not condoning being bad mannered and blocking the car's boot but there must also be some onus on the other driver to park somewhere sensible - they can't just use the sticker to "bully" other drivers into giving them 2 spaces while they only pay for 1. Generally, there are always disabled spaces nearby, or they may be able to park in an end space so as not to put anyone else out.

This is the only sensible post here, as half the other keyboard warriors here can't seem to read the original post. This is about whether an apparently disabled driver can "reserve" the space behind them as it provides them easy access.

Personally, if that was the only space around I would park in it, but I would check if other spaces are free before I park there. The disabled don't have a monopoly on the road.

yorkshire_laura

snoozum wrote: »

I agree. Most people seem to have misunderstood the dilema. The disabled person HASN'T parked in a designated disabled space, instead they have parked in a regular parking space and requested that nobody uses the free space behind them. While the request to leave a space is fine while other parking spaces are available, it's unacceptable to expect another person to pay for an NCP space so that the disabled driver can have a free (undesignated) disabled space. After all, if wheelchair access is so vital then the NCP have (for a fee) designated bays to park in.

I agree with you, it is a regular parking space and I don't think its fair to request that an empty space is left empty in a free area. Fair enough there may not be any designated disabled parks that are free but I don't think you can expect someone to not park for free so you don't have to pay at the car park where there would be disabled spaces.

shed_head_2

I have a grandma in a wheel chair who I take out all over the place. If I am in the kia sedona and someone is parked too close I cannot open the boot. I alway park in disabled bays, or to be honest park on double yellows and use her diasabled badge. I would not expect someone else to have to decide wether to use the parking bay behind me. On a side issue with the disabled parking badge most of the car parks in our area are free for disabled users.

On the parent and child parking bays. Most car park spaces are not wide enough to be able to open the passenger door wide enough. I have door protectors on my door but I would hate to damage someones car because my kids had opened the car door to quickly or I could not get the door open wide enough to check that they are safely fastened into my car. Hence the wider parking bays for parent and child.

pennystretcher

No, I wouldn't. And for those who would: :mad:

shirlls

Reverse into the spot and pretend I hadn't seen the sign