"Something has to be done," Birdsall said. "It's gone unchecked for so long."Posted on 09/08/2007 4:03:33 PM PDT by SmithL
For years, Lafayette resident Maureen Birdsall would take her brother, who has cerebral palsy, to appointments and then drive in circles hunting for an empty handicapped parking space. It irked her to see able-bodied people pulling into those spots or using a handicapped placard that she suspected was not theirs.
Birdsall now is doing battle with handicapped parking violators. She launched the free Web site http://www.handicappedfraud.org to give people a place to report the license plates, handicapped placard numbers and locations of cars suspected of abusing the law.
"Something has to be done," Birdsall said. "It's gone unchecked for so long."
Her site has struck a chord with those equally-frustrated. It averages 1,000 hits a day. More than 1,000 entries have come in from around the country, sometimes with comments peppered with exclamation points.
Birdsall is sending the information to departments of motor vehicles in 26 states to check if those who have been reported have broken the law and to push for violators to be held accountable.
About 166,000 permanent and temporary handicapped placards were issued in Contra Costa and Alameda counties as of August, said Armando Botello, a DMV spokesman. Handicapped placards and plates are issued to people with limited mobility or other certified conditions such as heart or lung disease or visual problems.
People with handicapped placards or plates can park in designated blue spots. They also can park for free and for as long as they want in metered areas.
It's illegal to borrow someone's handicapped placard, use the placard of someone who has died or park in a handicapped space without a placard. Violators can be fined $250 to $3,500 or face six months in jail.
Walnut Creek resident Susan Pray and her mother-in-law, Elsie, recently found a handicapped parking spot at the Walnut Creek Library, but that's not always the case. Elsie Pray, a senior citizen who cannot walk without her cane, estimates that about 30 percent of the time, she sees cars without handicapped placards parked in handicapped spots.
"So I have to park maybe a block away," Elsie Pray said.
It's up to police to ensure the laws are enforced. In Concord, calls about suspected violators flow into the traffic hot line on a regular basis. Officers investigate these reports and ensure handicapped parking laws are followed on their regular patrols, said Kathy McGlothin, who works in the city's parking enforcement division.
In addition to police patrols, Walnut Creek has a trained volunteer who goes out each week to make sure handicapped parking laws are followed, said Sandra Mulligan, who works in parking enforcement. They check to ensure people are legally parked in those spaces and that no one, including handicapped drivers, parks in the hatched mark areas flanking a handicapped spot. Wheelchair-users need the hatched mark areas to maneuver their chairs and to lower wheelchair ramps from vans.
The DMV does its own investigation of complaints and conducts stings with local police, last year issuing 136 citations and making 40 arrests, Botello said. In March, a sting at California State University Northridge found two dozen students and faculty members had used placards issued to someone else, including living and dead relatives and friends.
Officials caution that some people with handicapped placards have a legitimate health issue that might not be obvious. Others are handicapped but may forget to display their placard.
Birdsall, the creator of http://www.handicappedfraud.org, acknowledges she and others aren't medically qualified to tell who is handicapped. She leaves that up to officials to determine but said the Web site and those who use it can help crack down on violators by making people more aware of the issue and shaming violators out of blue parking spots.
She isn't suggesting people confront suspected violators, she added. Instead, people should copy down the license plate and handicapped placard number, if there is one, and leave a Post-it note with Birdsall's Web site address on the windshield if they want.
Birdsall has mailed 250 free sets of the Post-its, she said.
"We want them to go 'hey, people are watching' and change their patterns," Birdsall said.
People around here think those "hatched" areas are for motor cycle parking.
Able bodied people who park in handicapped parking have a special kind of handicap that you can’t see!
Obligatory Seinfeld Reference:
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-handicap-spot
The Handicap Spot” is the 22nd episode of the fourth season and the 62nd overall episode of Seinfeld. It aired on May 13, 1993.
Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The group travels to buy an engagement gift for their friend “the Drake”: a widescreen television. George parks his father’s car in a handicapped parking space, since they figured they will only be a few minutes. However, they are mistaken and are in the store for much longer, and in the time that they were gone, an angry mob trashes the vehicle when a disabled woman gets injured because of the illegal parking.
While George is contemplating the punishment that he will get for the vehicle’s damage, the rest decide not to go to The Drake’s engagement party. While visiting Lola, the injured handicapped woman at the hospital, Kramer falls in love and feels compelled to replace her wheelchair. George and Kramer go on to buy a used wheelchair which is much cheaper than a brand-new one. Jerry and Elaine go to have lunch with The Drake after missing his party and discover that he and his fiancée have broken off their engagement.
George’s father Frank Costanza receives an award for outstanding service in helping the handicapped. In the middle of receiving the award, he is arrested for George’s parking in the handicap spot, as Frank is the registered owner of the vehicle. As a result of the accusation, Frank’s award is taken away from him. George becomes his father’s butler as a punishment after getting the idea from George’s idea for the pilot episode that he is writing with Jerry.
Later, Lola’s wheelchair’s brake gets stuck as she rolls down a hill, injuring her again, leading to her and Kramer breaking up. George’s first job as his father’s butler is to retrieve the wide-screen TV at The Drake’s house so that it can be donated to charity. The episode ends as George and Kramer take the TV and wheel it out of The Drake’s apartment.
A younger co-worker tried to fight his ticket for parking his motorcycle in the zone. He wouldn’t listen to those of us who knew better. He lost.
D’oh!
You mean, the one between their ears?
Bumper sticker I saw read:
Stupidity is not a handicap!
Park somewhere else.
I think they should leave the handicapped placards out of this. Yes, they can be used illegitimately, but her group is looking for trouble on this one. As far as turning in license plates goes, yes. As the baby boomers age, I think we’re going to see requests for more handicapped parking spaces.
My husband has a heart problem and uses spaces when he can find them. In the city he commutes to, he would have to pay a fortune to use handicapped parking in a garage. He refuses. I made him get a luggage carrier for his briefcase and laptop. He has a long 3 or 4 block walk and has to stop to rest every few minutes.
Laziness.
Just before I left Concord to move up here to the Oregon Coast 20yrs ago the problem was bad.
I have a lift van for my son and asked a man at the bank to please not use the space for convenient parking. He was youngish 30 with his girlfriend.
Ragged looking couple he got so pissed at me for confronting him he kicked our van.
Then we had a Dr. who was my son’s surgeon who had 1 WC spot to park in a tiny lil lot on a curbless block making it a real hike of blocks away if we could not park there.
One day the owner of his building parked there and I went in an aske who had the Mercedes without the Handi Sticker....she turned to me and snobbly said I Own this building I can park where I damn well please.
I turned away went to a local phone boothe called police and reported her....I drove back to find an officer giving her a ticket.
The office staff was thrilled.
Handicaps can be deceiving. Not all handicapped people are in wheelchairs. An otherwise healthy looking young person could have any number of mobility problems such as arthritis and rheumatism, emphysema, permanently damaged joints, fatiguing illnesses, nervous disorders such as MS and MD, etc.
And some handicaps can be intermittent. Half the time they can walk normally, the other half they have to cripple.
And, if you hadn’t guessed it, the healthy looking person may be the driver for someone who is handicapped. Just because a handicapped person owns a car doesn’t mean they can drive it most of the time. But they still have to walk to and from it to get places. If they are being transported, the handicapped tag is valid.
States are often pretty strict about handicapped plates and permits, with annual doctor certification for renewal being a standard requirement.
So while this woman’s intentions may be good for her brother, she is going to make life harder for a lot of people whose lives are already hard enough.
And yes, maybe catch a few offenders at the same time. But how many blind beggars do you want to snarl at because a few of them aren’t really blind?
Several months ago I went to my local post office. Directly in front of the entrance to the building it has three vertical handicapped spaces, and the hatched mark area. A huge (it towered over my SUV) Ford 4 wheel drive was parked, not in one of the vertical handicapped spots, but instead was parked horizontally. As a result, this one vehicle was blocking not one handicapped spot, but two of them, plus the hatch marks. The Ford had no Handicapped license plate, nor a handicapped permit hanging from the rear view mirror. When I came out of the post office around 5-10 minutes later, the Ford was still parked there.
Here's the part that will delight the Bush/Republican haters: On the rear bumper of the Ford was a small, faded W 04 sticker.
Texas, as of September 1st, implemented new rules regarding Handicapped Parking Placards. Placards issued after the above date now contains the following: the county number of the issuing county, the first 4 digits of the holders drivers license number, and the holders initials. All this info is written on the front and will be checked when suspicion warrants.Handicapped parking has long been out of control. Those of us that have “real” mobility problems are not able to attend movies, sporting events, etc., because of all the: old, fake, stolen, unnecessary, grandma or grandpa’s being used by junior, etc.
That would be me. I've had numerous reconstructive surgeries on both feet, and one is permanently broken. Considering the damage I get around fairly well but do have bad days. Heat and humidity are not my friends, and neither is ice!
My area has a large number of senior citizens so handicap spaces are generous. I have a blue tag for days that I need it and when I do, I try to avoid the van accessable spots. There are others who need them worse than I do.
Maybe the large number of seniors is what keeps illegal parkers down to a minimum here. I honestly don't see that many. Hey, older ladies with canes can be vicious! ;-)
What am I? The websites publicist?
People in my corner of Texas are good about respecting handicap parking spaces. They just pull up next to the front door of the grocery store they’re going in.
good story about that building owner. I wonder what the going rate for a ticket of that kind is. if it isn’t substantial, it should be.
That strikes me as a matter of choice, rather than a matter of medical necessity.
Economic inconvenience is not a legitimate excuse for dodging the rules.
http://www.tomslighthouse.net/special/Phone/ImpalaPhoneMessage.wma
http://scottrope.typepad.com/scott_rope/files/voice_mail.mp3
'She's hittin' him with her Bible!' (interview with the Jack In the Box phone guy)
Houston County GA must be the place to go, we’re swimming in handicapped accessible parking here and I rarely see them filled, there’s so many.
On the other hand, down in Sanford FL, my sil uses my mom’s placard all the time, and Mom is hardly ever with her. (shame!)
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