Handicapped parking spaces: why do you use them if you are not entitled?

Question

I have an official handicapped sticker because my husband is disabled, and ill. I see cars parked in the handicapped spaces without stickers or tags; what's the story, there?

Do I have the right to ask the store manager to have them removed? Or, should I just key their fenders?

Opinions, please?

Bosnian Lady: Are you suggesting that I am retarded...? That may pass for humor in Bosnia, but around the U.S., it'll get your lights punched out.

Don't panic, folks; I wouldn't REALLY key a fender; I love my car, and know others love theirs, too.

I might shoot the offending vehicle the bird, though.

Answer 1

They are lazy bastards. I have a handicapped sticker. I have a bad foot, 2 bad knees, a bad back and emphysema with 80% lung capacity. It's a problem for me to walk any distance. I have reported these violators to the store manager where I USED TO SHOP for groceries. He said he wouldn't call the cops, because by the time they go there, the car would be gone. I called them on a pay phone, they arrived within minutes and the violator was given a $185.00 citation for parking in a handicapped spot. After all was said and done, I went back into the store, told the store manager what I did and then told him that his inaction cost him my business, about $1,000.00 a month.

Answer 2

I think you do have the right to report their licenses. I go to a local community college, and there doesn't seem to be alot of disable people there. Yet the handicapped parking lot is always filled to the brim with cars that have no handicapped sticker on them.

I have to admit I only parked for a few minutes in a handicapped spot once when I reported a hit & run (car to car, not person). It was somewhere else, where the handicapped parking and other parking was all in one lot, and was really small & packed. So I didn't want to keep driving while calling the front desk of the building I was trying to park & enter myself...afraid I'd cause an accident myself or forget the licenses, while talking on the cell phone. So I pulled into the space long enough to call the front desk and tell them that a person with one license plate hit another car, gave that license plate, too so the owner could be made aware. When I was done on my cell phone, I left that spot and just drove around until I could find a legal one. I don't mean to make excuses. I did something right, but while also doing something wrong, although for a few short minutes.

Even though it was for those few moments, I felt bad about it. I know it's not a total excuse for using a handicapped spot. So I agree that it is inexcusable as a general act. The way I see it, at the time, I over-concerned myself with the idea of "if someone were to hit and run my car when I didn't see it, but someone else did, I would want them to report it." But I realize now that I still could have caused a disabled person an inconvenience, even though there were good intentions as to why I did it at that moment.

But, I would never park my car in a handicapped space and leave it there...unlike the numerous people at my community college who are nowhere to be seen when their non-handicapped stickered cars are left for hours in handicapped lots. Some students are attending there from 8 AM to 3 or 5 PM. If what I did was inexcusable, how do these people get away with what they continue to do just about every day, and for hours at a time?

I know if I park for a few minutes in a handicapped spot, I should get a fine if I'm caught. So I don't think it was necessarily 100% right what I did for those few minutes. But I can't believe those who repetively do the same wrong thing over and over, and either don't get caught or don't learn on their own. I didn't get caught that one time, and at least I can see that I was wrong for using the handicapped space for those few minutes...and that my only good deed was in reporting the hit and run.

Anway, it doesn't have to be just the handicapped parking issue that people abuse...it could be repetitive drunk driving. Why does the law keep putting the repeat offenders back out on the road? That's an even worse issue to repeat because someone is bound to be killed sooner or later.

Something else regarding handicapped parking at my community college is that the teachers' parking lot is closer to the school than the handicapped parking. I've never been considered disabled, but I still feel that they should reverse how those 2 lots are reserved.

Answer 3

I do not use them, but only because I don't want to pay a hefty fine. I'm sick of every space within half a mile of any store having a wheelchair painted in it, and sitting empty. And what about people with a handicapped sticker who park in one of the few spaces still left for the non- handicapped. I've seen this happen a lot of times when handicapped spots were available. Why shouldn't they be fined for that? Why not make a separate entrance in the back with its own parking lot for the handicapped, and let the poor suckers who work and pay for everyone else have a parking space somewhere within sight of the store? I even had some idiot yell at me one day for parking NEXT to a handicapped space. And yes, I use the handicapped stall in the bathroom if it's empty, and woe to the person who has a problem with that.

Answer 4

What I'd like to know is where the other poster's live that there is an abundance of handicapped spaces. I have a disability and a parking permit, and I often have a difficlut time finding a handicapped parking space at the mall, Walmart, Target and my grocery store if I go at the wrong time of day.

My husband went to the store one day with out me and out of habit parked in the handicapped stall. When he came out of the store there was a police officer waiting for him. He got a ticket for parking in the handicapped stall without me, for having an expired placard (I'm still unsure about this, I had both the expired and current tags in the car since I had just replaced the expired tag and I thought I was postive the current one was up, but I could have put up the old one by accident), and they confsicated both my expired and current placards. We ended up paying over $700 for his mistake. A mistake he's made sure to never repeat.

Before I had my placard I never parked in a handicapped stall, regardless of how much pain I was in. I recently went to the store and parked in the handicapped stall. I couldn't figure out why I was getting dirty looks from the people in the car next to me when I got back in my car. I thought it was because they were thinking that I was faking or using someone else's placard. As I pulled out of the parking lot I realized that I had forgotten to put the placard up in the first place so it looked like I had parked illegally.

Answer 5

Two wrongs do not make a right and you should not damage anyone's property, regardless of how ignorant parking in a handicap spot is. Remember that if someone sees you..YOU will be the one that is looked at as the wrong person.

People are typically very lazy creatures and some people are also quite inconsiderate at times. You absolutely have a right to request the store manager to remove the car. I think if more people removed the cars from illegally parking, more would think twice before doing it again.

Answer 6

That annoys me as well.. I have a sister in law who is disabled and SO many times we have had problems finding a place to park with her.. What bothers me even more than that tho is relatives of handicapped people borrowing their relative's visor clip so they can park closer to the store.. so many times i've caught teenage kids getting out of cars in handicapped spots and i'll ask if they have a sticker and they'll say "my GRANDMA has a clip..see?" Like just because they have the handicap parking permit in the car, it's available for use by the whole family- handicapped or not.

Answer 7

I think the real question is why are there so many handicapped spaces. I totally agree that disable people should have special spaces alloted, but in places it's getting out of hand. Entire large parking lot sections are alloted. I have never seen all of the handicapped spaces filled anywhere I've been. If there were a few less handicapped spots then maybe stupid rude people wouldn't park in them.

Answer 8

Don't key their fenders; that's a crime. Yes, have the store manager remove them.

I don't drive. If I did, I don't think I'd park in a handicapped spot because that's a major inconvenience for the one who really needs it!

However, I almost always use that roomy handicapped stall in the bathroom. (That only takes a few minutes!) I am overweight and middle-aged, so in a way, I am handicapped!

Answer 9

All the answers I see to this Q, are filled with excuses for making their use of handicapped parking spaces acceptable when in fact it is illegal if there is no permit visible and morally wrong and inconsiderate if there is no handicapped person in the vehicle. This act and the attitude of discourtesy and lack of regard for the disabled who really need those larger spaces for their bigger vehicles or special needs is truly inexcusable and reprehensible.

Answer 10

no offense but when there are like 10 handicap spaces all at the front of the building and you just need to run in and out of the store...its just easier. And think about it, how often do you ever see ALL 10 spaces filled at one time? You dont.

I dont think its necessary to report someone as long as you were able to get a spot. I tihink thats a waste of time...by the time you come out of the store, that person may be gone.