Parking - in the new day an age - Rant

[Torvy]

Just because she could walk,does NOT mean that she is not handicapped. What kind of comment was that!

It does get far afield from the original intent of handicapped parking spots. They were written into law so people who had wheelchairs or walkers could get in and out of their vehicles with their appliances.

Modern interpretation has led to many with an inconvenient health problem claim to be handicapped. I have a dear friend and vet. A couple years younger than me. He had a stroke a few years back. He is recovered...plays golf and everything. Still 'qualifies' and uses handicapped plates. Contrast that with my dad who has qualified for the plates since they were 'invented'. He just got them now that he is 90 and on O2. He needs the space for his bottle.

While there are likely a few cases of legit handicapped that don't appear to be so, they are vastly larger numbers of people whose doctors give them placards because it 'hurts' to walk sometimes. Smh.

 

[SgtSluggo]

I've seen many handicapped stickers on cars at work where the occupant is fully capable of walking.

Capable of walking isn't the standard of who gets a handicap placard in any state. In Tennessee the qualifications are

• are confined to a wheelchair.
• walk with difficulty or uncertainty.
• have 20/200 vision or worse with corrective lenses.

In other states, it is even more broad. If you have a problem with that, then you can lobby your state legislator to increase the restrictions.

I know people with handicap tags that need them. I know people with handicap tags that "use" them. The difference is easily discerned.

I think the difference may be easily discerned when you know the person. I would say that it would be challenging to identify many disabilities just by looking at the person or the car.

They were written into law so people who had wheelchairs or walkers could get in and out of their vehicles with their appliances.

The original intention of handicap parking spaces is irrelevant. Only the current laws on the issuance of handicap placards is relevant. See above for Tennessee's list. I would bet that most people could not identify someone with 20/200 vision by looking at them given how good glasses have gotten.

I also know many patient's with MS who can walk just fine on their best days, but on their bad days can barely get out of bed. The days in-between may have them able to look normal but really struggle to get in from farther out parking spaces. And I know for a fact that you couldn't look at any of them and tell this.

 

[MossRoad]

So your wife could walk?

My mother in-law can walk. She's had a liver transplant, and when she walks, she runs out of breath in about 20'. She's extremely weak. There's all kinds of reasons why people have handicap plates/tags that may not be apparent to you. Be thankful you don't need one and leave the people that have them to their own business.

 

[turnkey4099]

So your wife could walk?

with difficulty, yes? Why?

 

[Jstpssng]

Wow, I learned something today. Guess that I need to pay more attention to whomever is using the handicapped spots so that I can judge who needs them and who doesn't.

I'm just thankful that I'm not one of those who do, and hope that it stays that way for a long time. As long as I can walk I will continue to park on the back side of the lot, leaving closer spots for those who need them.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

While there are likely a few cases of legit handicapped that don't appear to be so, they are vastly larger numbers of people whose doctors give them placards because it 'hurts' to walk sometimes. Smh.

Hope it never hurts you.

 

[lman]

I remember taking my dad to his cardiologist when he was 92. I said something about a H/C permit and he said that was for crippled people. We walked some distance through the parking lot and he had to stop to catch his breath a couple of times. His Dr. said that he would die in about 6 months and he was right.

 

[cqaigy2]

Not to add to Handicapped parking but i learned something with this encounter.

The other day, i pulled into a spot a ways from the door of a restaurant. I'm waiting in my car, waiting for the down pour to lighten up a bit, and in zooms a big white pickup, pulls into and straddles both of the only handicap spots. A car with two people, and handicap placard, stops for a bit, then continues on and parks a distance away from the door. Drive gets out and walks over to the parked pickup, taps on the window and starts to talk to the person in the truck. I get out of my car and walk toward the store and the beginning of an escalating argument between the driver of the handicap car and person in the truck. The gal was a driver for the handicap person in the car and was cursing out the pickup driver and yelling about, 'you know how many goddam times i've had to go park someplace away and ask a person that didn't need the spot, to move so that i can park there, and then have to argue with the person about it?' Apparently it happened almost every time and sometime multiple times on the day she drove. I wasn't hanging around to be entertained by the confrontation, but maybe help deescalate if needed. I talked to the gal after the truck stormed off, i have to say, i thought by the way she walked that she was the handicapped person, but she was the driver. I hung around a bit and helped her get her handicapped passenger out and we all went in and ate lunch. Pretty pleasant lunch all in all, but they did say that it happened very often where someone will pull into the open handicap spot, "just for a second".

 

[ovrszd]

Capable of walking isn't the standard of who gets a handicap placard in any state. In Tennessee the qualifications are

• are confined to a wheelchair.
• walk with difficulty or uncertainty.
• have 20/200 vision or worse with corrective lenses.

In other states, it is even more broad. If you have a problem with that, then you can lobby your state legislator to increase the restrictions.

I think the difference may be easily discerned when you know the person. I would say that it would be challenging to identify many disabilities just by looking at the person or the car.

The original intention of handicap parking spaces is irrelevant. Only the current laws on the issuance of handicap placards is relevant. See above for Tennessee's list. I would bet that most people could not identify someone with 20/200 vision by looking at them given how good glasses have gotten.

I also know many patient's with MS who can walk just fine on their best days, but on their bad days can barely get out of bed. The days in-between may have them able to look normal but really struggle to get in from farther out parking spaces. And I know for a fact that you couldn't look at any of them and tell this.

Should a person with 20/200 vision be driving? If that qualifies them for a handicap parking spot shouldn't it also prohibit them from driving?? That's funny right there!!!!

 

[ovrszd]

As long as I can walk I will continue to park on the back side of the lot, leaving closer spots for those who need them.

As do I. As does Buckeyefarmer.