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

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  • bouncydog1
    bouncydog1 Posts: 2,696
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    Absolutely not - disabled people often have a hard enough job getting around without thoughtless able bodied individuals making it more difficult for them.

    As for the parent and child spaces, most ignorant use I have witnessed was a parent with three strapping great lads parking in a parent & child space and when challenged responded "I'm a parent, they're my children"!

    Up to the supermarkets to police and fine I think!
  • weeman5
    weeman5 Posts: 10 Forumite
    Since breaking my leg a few years ago and being on crutches for a couple of months I've had experience of selfish parking behaviour. So any able bodied folk who think it may not affect them in the future - beware! An accident could put you on the receiving end!
    By the way - when you are in a wheelchair, some folk really DO think you don't exist. My wife was pushing me around B&Q in one of their (free) wheelchairs & I asked a guy a technical question about an electrical item. He gave a really helpful reply - but not once did he look or reply to me and spoke to my wife all the time!! I can laugh about it now - but it was a really telling moment.
    You cannot get a temporary disabled parking sticker if you are on crutches for a few months only and able to drive. But you still need to use the disabled bays.
  • It's good that you're highlighting the topic - but perhaps you could also get disabled contributors to make other suggestions for similar topics.....
  • i would not obstruct a wheelchair user, his parking choice is limited and mine isn't. If I am that hard up that I can't pay for my parking, I would be asking myself if I really need to be out shopping at all.
    [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Times New I2]Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale - Hans Christian Andersen[/FONT]
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  • pippilala
    pippilala Posts: 20 Forumite
    [QUOTE
    But...........in reply to all those flaming the poster who suggested the driver could reverse out, then get the wheelchair in, suggesting how could the wheelchair bound driver do this (Because they're wheelchair bound), then think just a moment. How would the wheelchair bound driver get in anyway?
    This sign is on the boot - unless it's some incredibly adapted vehicle, where the back opens right out, and a ramp comes down, and they wheel straight in and up to the wheel, then he/she has to get out of the wheelchair anyway - and probably has an able bodied driver with he/she.[/QUOTE]

    If you knew about disabilities requiring wheelchair usage and those who drive you would know that the mobility part of DLA can be traded in for those adaptations enabling a wheelchair user to have a car that may indeed mean the wheelchair user who drives does enter through the back of the car and wheel forward into the correct driving position think about practicality if you where in a wheelchair on your own a driver and unable to transfer out of your wheelchair it would be very difficult to go in via a drivers door in your wheelchair the ramp to get in would have to go right out in to the road blocking other road users and would need a turntable device at the top to enable correct positioning etc etc.

    and no I would not park behind the car, My sister uses a wheelchair so i know the nightmare reality associated with parking and wheelchairs.
  • cw18
    cw18 Posts: 8,615
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    edited 12 August 2009 at 9:08AM
    BigSky wrote: »
    I’d park in a “family” parking bay though even if I was on my own. Why should people that decide to bring their screaming, fat, badly-behaved kids round the supermarket get special parking bays?
    Some people have no choice but to take their children with them - there are a lot of single-parent families, and a lot of two-parent families where one has to work away/travel (eg. lorry drivers) or works shifts. Besides, if the children aren't taken shopping, how are they going to learn about that aspect of life - and, let's face it, they're the shoppers of the future !!! The spaces are a boon in that it's easier to ensure children are 'installed' into their seats properly, and saves many a banged head when trying to get a young child into/out of a car seat when not able to open the car door very wide. I do, however, think that the parent and child spaces are available to parents with children much older than is really necessary.

    The fact they're "badly behaved" is a totally seperate issue.......
    americanv8 wrote: »
    Maybe but i'm basing that purely on the amount of disabled drivers who think its ok to park in parent & child bay because there's no disabled bays free. I can't park in a disabled bay with a baby and toddler when there's no parent & child bays available.
    I can only say i'm pleased that ASDA & Sainsburys are now fining people who abuse both sets of bays.
    Not sure I agree that it's so terrible for a disabled driver to use a parent and child space....... whilst a parent with child(ren) may find it more inconvenient to walk from further across the car park (and accept it's not always easy to manipulate youngsters into/out of car seats when you can't open the car door wider than a normal space allows - though I always had to do this as parent & child spaces didn't exist when my children were young), it can be IMPOSSIBLE for a disabled driver or passenger to get in/out of a car in a normal space. Certainly if it's a disabled driver I would say it's acceptable. If it's a disabled passenger then maybe (depending on disability/how safe they'd be if left at the entrance for a few mins) the driver could drop off the passenger before parking in a normal space.
    Cheryl
  • alanbradley
    alanbradley Posts: 7 Forumite
    edited 12 August 2009 at 7:37AM
    Cloudane wrote: »
    No...

    Parking in a disabled space is illegal, I think? Even if this is a loophole since it's not a designated disable space, no. I'll leave that to the 4x4 and Audi drivers.

    I would definitely not park my 4x4 there. :rolleyes:
    An accident could put you on the receiving end!
    By the way - when you are in a wheelchair, some folk really DO think you don't exist. My wife was pushing me around B&Q in one of their (free) wheelchairs & I asked a guy a technical question about an electrical item. He gave a really helpful reply - but not once did he look or reply to me and spoke to my wife all the time!! I can laugh about it now - but it was a really telling moment.
    A friend's mother is wheelchair-bound through arthritis and a waiter once asked his father "does she take sugar?". He can just about walk now but may have trouble fathering children... :D

    A
  • tindella
    tindella Posts: 108
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    Of course not! But I do think it's time people learned how to park properly anyway. How many times do you see a car (usually a 4 x 4!) parked across two bays because
    a) "I've got a 4 x 4 so I can park how/where I like - because I'm bigger than you"
    b) The driver of the 4 x 4 is incompetent and not in control of a vehicle too big for him/her to manoeuvre properly
    c) "S*d everybody else, I've got a parking space"
    d) "What are those white lines for?"

    Grrrrrr!
  • YES.
    This is an easy one. All the other driver has to do is to exit the parking space into the roadway, where he will have the space necessary to get the wheelchair in and out of the boot.

    Selfish idiot.....
  • Would i park there? Probably not on purpose. If I was the one coming back to my car and was blocked from getting in on pupose "because it was just a few minutes" i would be livid! Why should anyone else dictact what is a suitable amount of my time to waste.

    OT, but parent and child?? pfft! I take children shopping and am capable of getting them in and out of a car without damaging the nearby ones, and guess what.... the extra 20 yards I have to walk dont kill me or the kids! Ban em I say (from someone entitled to use them!)
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