Ticketing Handicap Parking Violators
This morning I saw something you don’t see often, a police officer ticketing a car parked in a handicap spot. I stopped at the Walgreen’s at Broadway & Gasconade (a Walgreens? Yes, I know…) and as I entered an officer was ticketing a car that lacked any handicap parking permit either via license plate or hang tag.
As I was leaving a young woman got into the ticketed car. Hopefully she will learn.
The irony here is the police are sometimes guilty of blocking the handicap entrance to the 7-11 at Bates & Virginia. They’ll leave the designated space empty but will park next to it so as to block access to the ramp.
I’ve always been a stickler about these spaces. As a kid I’d report to the librarian at our local branch when people were parking in the handicap spaces. Now that my parents are older and have medical reasons for using the handicap spaces I’m even more aware of thoughtless violators.
What are your thoughts on handicap parking?
– Steve
Not to be down on the police officers, but I wonder if the ticketing has anything to do with that Walgreens being a police sub station. Sounds like a ticketing of convenience. Now, don’t take that statement wrong. I’d like to see more ticketing of inappropriately and illegally parked vehicles, but capricious ticketing doesn’t seem right either. I’d really like to see enforcement of no parking within 10 feet of intersections, but the police in the city really do have more important things to do than ticket cars that aren’t raping or murdering people.
[REPLY – I think it was entirely convenience but that is OK. If the officer was going into or leaving the Walgreen’s and spotted the offense I’d much rather him take a few minutes to issue the ticket than simply ignore it as not being important. It shows he cares about the little things that could make a difference to someone that truly needs that space. – SLP]
I see quite a few people driving with the blue handicap tag hanging from their mirror who don’t seem too handicapped to me. What criteria exactly does the city use in issuing them? My tenant, a 50ish woman, has one and she is definitely not handicapped.
[REPLY – One does not need to be physically confined to a wheelchaire to qualify for a handicap parking permit. Various medical conditions will qualify someone for a handicap permit. – SLP]
Slightly off-topic, but nonetheless, I recently heard from an airline employee that pregnancy is “considered a disability” for the purposes of pre-boarding. It sounds like a good idea for mothers-to-be to be pre-boarded along with those that have handicaps, but I would think it slightly offensive to those mothers and other rational people to refer to them as considered disabled. It is great that some stores, such as the Target on Hampton at Chippewa, reserves spaces for expectant mothers, but it is also nice that they make a clear distinction between being pregnant and being disabled. It just seems slightly offensive to me, but I could be wrong.
Honestly, most (if not all) disabled people take offense to the term “handicap” which is derived from “hand-in-cap” — as in beggar. I know most people don’t think about it when they use that term since it has been accepted for so long, but I think if we need to go about labeling people that we at least do it with respect.
Yes, there are a myriad of disabling conditons that qualify one for special parking priveleges. However, doctors dole them out as freely as they do prescription drugs, it seems. My impression is most anyone over 55 need only ask. The sad thing is while many people rightfully deserve closer parking, I suspect there are a great deal of them who would benefit healthwise from a little longer walk from their car to the front door.
Right on Dustin. Most of the people with handicapped badges are lard asses. If you’re not in a wheelchair for bona fide medical reasons, then you shouldn’t park in the handicapped spots.
[REPLY – I’ll agree to a point. My parents, both in their late 70s, with one recovering from a major heart attack and one with a long medical history certainly should be entitled to such spaces.
how ’bout people with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and/or amputees that aren’t in a wheelchair, but might have trouble walking longer distances? they certainly can use the cards and the closer parking.
and saying that most people with cards are lard-asses is the most asinine thing i’ve read all day.
defining magnitude of disability is something those with invisibile disabilities struggle with; how’d you like to be told that your disease isn’t worth as much as others, because it’s not visible all the time? it’s a dangerous thing to start labeling who ‘deserves’ cards and who ‘doesn’t deserve’ them.
[REPLY – Some criteria must be applied to determine qualification and discussing the possibility they are given out too liberally is a valid point to consider. If given out to to often it will namely reduce the availability for those that have a genuine need. – SLP]
Bigger picture, if you’re going to have a law, it should be enforced . . . while I, too, support ticketing for the illegal use of accessible parking spaces, I’d put a higher priority on enforcing actually stopping at greater St. Louis’s myriad four-way stops!
[REPLY Boy, I hear you. However, all these 4-way stops are really bad for the environment. We need Seattle’s roundabouts in our residential intersections rather than 4-way stops. – SLP]
Missouri law has changed effective August 28, 2006, to require all new signs say “Accessible Parking” instead of “Handicap Parking”.
See HB #1035.
Information on what the City of St. Louis Office on the Disabled requires for an accessible parking permit in front of one’s residence may be found here:
Joe Frank
A note to Pete…
It is the state that issues handicap placards and plates, not the city. You have to have a signed waiver from a doctor before you can get one. Unfortunately there are doctors that will fill out the waivers without even thinking. Just sign the name and it is done. Also, the waiver has to submitted when the placards and plates are renewed. My wife and I are going through this process right now since her plates are due.
Another point to remember is that there are a lot of folks who know the loopholes to the laws regarding these parking spots. If the sign is not installed per the law, the ticket can be contested and nothing is done.
Max…
The short term answer on 4-way stops would be simply going back to alternating two-way stops every two blocks, instead of a 4-way stop every block!
Max alludes to what I think is a very good point as to the root of the problem: unscrupulous doctors who sign the necessary paperwork for an under the table fee. My conversations with local police tell me this is a very large problem, one that renders them helpless: in many cases unhandicapped are parking illegally in the reserved spots, but with perfectly “legal” placards. Makes it very hard for the PoPo to enforce the existing rules, and many have given up on enforcement of any kind.
Cracking down on these dirty MDs will lessen the need for any conversation regarding the worthiness of the applicant.
As a son of an amputee who uses his placard only on days where walking long distances is painful, this issue really pisses me off. Lazy bastards and greedy doctors. Great combo.
[REPLY – Yes, good points. I wonder how we get more attention paid to the issuance of these permits? – SLP]
I don’t know from under what rock some of the posters here have crawled out from, but getting a parking hang tag has gotten harder, not easier.
You have to get an “official” state form, then get a signed letter from your MD, then present yourself at the local fee office to get it. If you don’t have that form, you have to get it at the office and start the process. Good luck trying to get a parking spot there if you go on the wrong day.
Yes, you can get a tag for a lot of things, but if you also notice, some tags are temporary, if your condition may improve.
I have handicapped relatives that I have to transport regularly, so I speak from experience.
The biggest pet peeves:
1. People using the tag to get in and out of somewhere when they’re in a hurry and the person will not get out of the car.
2. People parking in the striped areas. Good luck finding a cop to write a ticket for that one.
3. People with a hair up their backside when they see me get out of the car first. I’m removing the F*)(*&^ wheelchair or walker, idiots.
Don’t be so quick to judge. You just may need one of those tags soon yourself.
Disclaimer: I was not born in the States, but I have lived here for the past 6 years.
I think the societal obsession with the disabled here is quite abnormal, and it has gotten past the point of reasonableness.
If you need a special parking spot because you cannot walk for an extra 10 feet, YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DRIVE.
I imagine that as you are reading this, angry thoughts are rushing through your mind: “What a jerk! How can he or she not be sensitive to the drama of people with disabilities?” So let me help you out, by saying this again:
“If you need a special parking spot because you cannot walk for an extra 10 feet, YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DRIVE.”
Is it clearer now? This is a simple argument. Cast aside your distracting thoughts about the plight of the disabled – which I agree, can be awful.
“If you need a special parking spot because you cannot walk for an extra 10 feet, YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DRIVE.”
Any one of us could be run over by a car at any time, and many of us would be lucky enough to survive it, maybe paralyzed, or otherwise marked for life. It is terrible. However:
“If you need a special parking spot because you cannot walk for an extra 10 feet, YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DRIVE.”
You can’t park because you have ‘lack of depth perception’ or ‘blind spots’? DON’T DRIVE. Would I want for you to run over my son at a crosswalk because ‘you couldn’t see him’?
You can’t walk because your leg is paralyzed? DON’T DRIVE. Would I want for you to crush my wife underneath your truck because you could not break on time to stop at a red light?
You cannot walk another 10 feet because you have a weak heart and may have a heart attack? DON’T DRIVE. How will my mother console herself when you have a heart attack at the steering wheel of your car, swerve against oncoming traffic, and hit me at 65 mph?
I posit that most situations of people with disabled permits parking in a handicapped spot are either:
– people that are legitimately handicapped but should NOT be allowed to drive under any circumstance
– people that are acting as chauffeurs for people who are legitimately handicapped => in instances like this, the handicapped could stay home, or could be wheeled from the car in a handicapped chair from wherever they may happen to find a spot
– people with no legitimate reason to park there, but who somehow managed to get their hands on a handicapped card
– people who abusively park there
To this foreigner, it is all nonsense.
[REPLY – A big premise of the “accessible” parking spaces is just that — access. Namely, access to the ramps which make it possible to be relatively independent via wheelchair. Even for those that do not drive, they have a right to get out of their house. So, if they are driven to a location it is good of us to provide adequate space for them to get their wheelchair out — for those using a lift this requires additional space.
And why should it bother you if they have a couple of spaces close to the door, you came simply walk an extra 10 feet. – SLP]
it takes ONE leg to drive but most people use TWO feet and legs to walk. it takes one person to blow off on a subject that requires no brain that does not have the luxury of knowing the slightest thing on disease or handicapped persons to stop trying to be independent and responsible. and as far as don’t drive goes that is so worried I might run over their son go back to where you came from and then you don’t have worry about it.its easy to SOLVE PROBLEMS IF YOU KNOW IT ALL ISN’T IT? may you never have to deal with a crippling disease that has robbed you of a quality of life but what is more devastating to have someone to rob you because of stupidity.
Wow, the comment by “me” who is too cowardly to leave a name is quite harsh. I guess it shows how North America is more advanced when it comes to the treatment of people with disabilities. Societal obsession with the disabled? Are you on crack? Should we go back a 100 yrs to when people with the slightest disabilities were treated like animals? It;s people like you who make the world for those with disabilities harder. The funny thing is, you could become disabled at any moment in your life, and if that happens maybe you should remember your cruel words you ass hole!
in response to the original post, I could have been that person you had seen, only I live in Austin. I googled “Walgreens Handicap” because I just recieved a $300 ticket. The problem was that theisigns were not clear. I would NEVER park intentionally in a handicap spot. The yellow marker on the asphalt was so faded and indistinguishable, the sign was out of range for where I thought a sign would be (16 feet away and 5 ft 5 inches high, nearly two feet above where my head level was), there was partial obscurity by a suburban in the neighboring non-handicap spot AND I had just passed two spaces before it (the suburban) because they WERE handicap. I am on a very limited student income and have a young daughter with no child support. This really hurts me financially and ticks me off because I feel like I’ve been tricked.Apparently there are no regulations for how close the sign needs to be, although most businesses will put the sign on a POST directly in front of the space or a reasonable distance to it. Anyway, I googled “Walgreens Handicap” to see if it was common for people to get tickets due to their placement of signs, since they all seem to stick theirs on the sides of their buildings, unlike other businesses. Maybe some people purposely park in those spaces, but I’m sure there are a lot of cases where it was not apparent to the driver, especially at Walgreen’s.
At age 52, hockey injury, broken ankle. I got the temporary disabled hang tag, as it’s more difficult using crutches to get across a parking lot. I think most would agree it’s OK for me to use the Disabled Parking.
Just to highlight my position on Accessable/ Handicapped/Disability tags/plates. 1. I’d never let my wife or others use it because they’re in a hurry. 2. When my tag expires, I’ll destroy it. 3. I really hope that everyone would be considerate and not cheat the intent of the system. 4. I’m proud that I’m active and when I park a little further out, I get the benefit of more exercise. 5. Trust me, I’ll never get a tag/plate just because I’m old. Only if I truly have a disabling condition, not simple aches. 6. I try to be a decent person, I may not be good at it but God knows I’m trying.
In summary, be nice, considerate, honest people. Use tags only when you need them.
Under the law a person with a disability is defined as a person with, “(A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; (B) a record of such an impairment; or (C) being regarded as having such an impairment”(ADA 12102.2). This means that a handicap is not always visible. An amputee may not look disabled as modern prosthetics have lifelike appearances. Internal and mental diseases and impairments (like severe arthritis, asthma, and cerebral palsy) are also covered. Your state may have specific permits for each type of disability or other laws regulating this, but their laws may not superceed those of the federal government.
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