Posted on 10/16/2008 6:26:30 PM PDT by SmithL
As the number of disabled parking placards in San Francisco continues to go up, so does the level of frustration among city officials who have yet to get a handle on the rampant abuse. The city has beefed up its force of parking cops targeting disabled parking abuse to eight (soon to be 10) officers, but the problem persists. The city loses out on parking revenue and there's less turnover of curbside parking spaces.
As of August 2007, the most recent data the California Department of Motor Vehicles has on hand, there were 48,282 permanent placards issued to San Francisco residents; that's up nearly 1,000 from the year before. What the numbers don't take into account are the people from out of town with the placards who drive into San Francisco and park on city streets, as well as the temporary placards in circulation, which add a couple thousand more to the roster.
The placards are akin to a free parking pass. Holders don't have to plug the meters or adhere to time restrictions in legal curbside spaces.In the year that ended June 30, the city confiscated 1,100 of the placards and issued 1,093 citations for misuse of them. Supervisor Jake McGoldrick recently alerted the city's parking cops when he saw a third of the parking spaces near Laurel Heights taken up by cars with disabled placards. Eleven were using the placards illegally. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Placards can be too easily abused. It should be part one’s license plate, so the placard cannot be duplicated or passed around.
Many jurisdictions (State College, PA comes to mind) have short parking meters for handicapped drivers. Why doesn’t San Francisco try this approach?
</sarcasm>
7.5% of San Francisco is legally handicapped?
Why not just make all spaces handicapped? Wouldn’t this solve the problem?
Many disabled people don’t drive, but are ferried around by various drivers. That’s why the placard should go with the person, not the car.
The problem is that the sticker does not denote a handicapped car, it denotes a handicapped person.
For instance, I sometimes go out to dinner with an elderly former teacher of mine. I drive, and she takes her handicapped sticker along so she doesn’t have to walk an ungodly distance.
OTOH, not all disabled people are in wheelchairs.
There is a terrific amount of abuse of those placards. It’s quite common for people to take a deceased person’s placard and use it for years. Many college students use them.
We can thank George H. W. Bush for this handicapped parking BS.
As one who used to have a placard, you only get one and have to move it between cars. Most states limit the # of handicapped plates. In MD it used to be 2.
Having really needed it for a while, I am pretty rabid over placard abuse. It ought to be a seriously expensive ticket.
it NEVER was meant for people with a sore back, or sore knees, or elderly just because they are elderly....
the abuse of the system started when they let middle-aged people with dubious "disabilities" get the placards and now they are thrust around like trophies....it makes me sick....
funny me though...I thought disabled people were in wheelchairs or using a walker...didn't know that it meant you could get a really close spot next to the huge casino...
so its those darn chickens coming home to roost .....govt you allowed this, now just suck it up ....maybe next time you dream up another idea to benefit a few you might think about it first....
example of the insanity...my inlaw got a placard AFTER she had medicare pay for her knee to be repaired....so why do the surgery if she was going to claim more disability aferwards....geesh....
Actually that's not true. There are some with COPD or vision problems who look perfectly normal but have real mobility problems.
Of course if they're wearing 4" high heels and walking briskly you have to wonder. I usually say to them, in a loud voice, "My, you're walking so much better these days!!"
Interesting observation. I’ve noticed that many (not all) of the folks with placards would get around better if they lost 50 or more pounds. Hauling around all that extra weight really is bad for knees.
Well thanks doctor for defining what you think is an acceptable disability.
Not all disabilities are visable.
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