Handicapped parking for well people?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by SurfDoctor, Oct 2, 2013.

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  1. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I was out running errands today and parked next to a handicapped space. As I was leaving, someone with a handicapped placard on their car pulled up into the handicapped space and got out. This person sprang out of the car and just about skipped into a business establishment. She was not handicapped in any way.

    I thought, OK, probably the granddaughter of a handicapped person abusing the privilege. The next place I went, I again parked near a handicapped spot and saw the same thing again. A perfectly whole person getting out of a car with a handicapped sticker on their license plate.

    This really ticks me off. What's up with that? More importantly, where can I buy a placard so I can have preferred parking everywhere? (sarcastic joke)


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    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 2, 2013
  2. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Application for Disabled Person Placard or Plates [pdf] (State of California DMV)

    And you can rule out 1, 2, and 3 especially based on having watched someone walk a few meters?
     
  3. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Invisible wounds bring controversy in every community. Even ours. (Torrey Shannon, torreyshannon.com, December 29, 2011)
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Not too long ago I saw something that I enjoyed. Someone parked in the handicapped spot without justification (no sticker, no placard, nothing. A person in a handicap van pulled up saw the situation and parked behind the first car, effectively blocking them from leaving. As the handicapped person was leaving their vehicle that parking abuser was leaving the store. As you might guess a discussion ensued.

    "get out of my way."
    "you're parked illegally."
    etc.

    a bit of a crowd gathered (you know, these small towns ) and the illegal parker was badgered for a period of time, long enough for the handicapped person to finish her shopping and leave the area.

    People who steal handicapped slots should be fined.
    People who use handicapped placard illegally should be fined.
    People who forge handicapped placards (please believe me, this happens) should be jailed.
     
  5. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I'm am sure there are those kind of situations out there. However, the young lady I saw bounding into a fast food restaurant would not qualify as disabled in any way. She was healthy and even had a spring in her step. You can not deny that there is a large number of people who abuse the handicapped parking situation. She did not even have an eye patch.
     
  6. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    I had a Marine, who left the service after several deployments. He claimed to the VA, and he received 65% disability rate. Now, with that he can get a disability parking permit easily. Even though he can run 3 miles in 18 minutes, and 20 pull-ups just a joke for him.
     
  7. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    You know she didn't have a heart defect? Arthritis? You did observe her walking, but apparently only for a few moments after a long period seated. You know she wasn't bounding quickly to the washroom to manage a flare-up from her ulcerative colitis, or an enteric or urinary ostomy? You know she wasn't in the first term of a high-risk pregnancy? You have to be somewhat healthy to get pregnant, but you and your child could still be on a knife edge of risk; I note that the health care providers who can sign off in California include certified nurse midwives, and I see reports elsewhere about physicians approving temporary disabled parking permits for women with high-risk pregnancies.

    I don't. We agree on this, and I agree with Kizmet.

     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 2, 2013
  8. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Actually, let me clarify my agreement: I can't deny this. I agree that a number of people abuse the disabled parking system. My loosely educated guess, stated in subjective terms, would be that a fairly large number of people abuse it.

    But you or I don't really know that this number is large. If our data set consists of anecdotes and the anecdotes usually depend on judgments by an untrained observer watching someone walk very briefly, our data is almost useless.
     
  9. Spoken like a scholar.
     
  10. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    That's good to know, since I've been hitting up the broccoli again. Send all your data my way, please :Flush:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 2, 2013
  11. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Thank you Cogitus and, uh, Maniac, I think.
     
  12. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I'm all for enforcing handicapped parking, including careful regulation about issuing permits. That said, I really don't care about violators, even though they're shameful and shameless simultaneously. They're a small price we pay for providing more opportunities for people to live as normally and with as much dignity as possible.
     
  13. lawrenceq

    lawrenceq Member

    That's why I always walk with a limp when I use my wife's grandmother placard. :saevil:
     
  14. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Ahhhh, now the truth comes out. LOL! Can I buy one from you? :shhh: JK of course.
     
  15. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Yes, I know she was perfectly healthy. I can not prove it because I did not give her a medical exam. Hey, maybe the taco place served some sort of tacos that could cure colitis, high-risk pregnancy, heart defect or arthritis. I should go back and ask if they make therapeutic tacos there.
     
  16. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    I don't think these are novel observations that

    • pregnant woman crave weird fast food
    • fast food places are good bets to have washrooms available including for non-customers
    • even people with arthritis and heart defects can eat tacos, etc.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 3, 2013
  17. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Surf Doc: If you saw my 73-year-old mother get out of her car, I doubt that you would notice that she has arthritis or that she's had both knees replaced.
     
  18. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    My dad has arthritis and has had both knees replaced too. He does not park in handicapped spaces. He is 86.


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    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 5, 2013
  19. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    You can argue the point all you want, but you were not there. Sometimes it is obvious. You can't be telling me there is no one who abuses the system. Can you? Surely not.

    Given, there are many individuals with handicaps that are not apparent, but there are also many well people who are using the placards when they have no right to do so. I know someone who obtained a placard because of a handicapped grandparent, yet he uses it for his own purposes.
     
  20. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Let's say the DMV appointed a bureaucrat to make its disability determinations who refused to look at any applicant's medical form, refused to talk to any applicant, anything, and did nothing more than watch people walk for some number of seconds. After an extended time seated, viewed from a distance.

    You can't deny that that making this guy under these conditions the disability judge wasn't very well thought-out. Almost everyone with a serious disability affecting their mobility that wasn't a missing or completely nonfunctioning limb, perhaps excluding the elderly, would be subject to nonsense denials.

    I agreed with this clearly and repeatedly.

    Exactly. Even to you. Even to me.
     

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