On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 08:25:45PM -0400, John Sessoms wrote: > > What I do question is whether you or any other person who is NOT > eligible for the handicap placard should be using her placard to park in > the handicap spaces when she's not there with you?
That's not allowed (although that doesn't stop everybody, as we both know). Maybe if a few more people lost their handicapped placards because of it there'd be a bit less of this kind of abuse (and other similar activities; apart from allowing you to park in a handicapped spot, a handicapped placard also means you can ignore time limits on parking bays, and to park in a metered bay without paying). The only time I'll park in a handicapped spot when my wife isn't in the car is when I'm picking her up; she'll be in the car when I drive away. Most of the rest of the time I don't even have her placard; it will be in her car. > It doesn't really matter to me, since I don't have a handicap placard > and don't park in handicap spaces, but I can see it might be a > disservice to someone who really does need privilege and can't find a > handicap space because of non-handicap persons abusing the system. Even when my wife *is* in the car we won't always use a handicapped spot; if I can get a reasonably close parking spot, and most of the handicapped spots are full, I'll park elsewhere in case somebody with a wheelchair wants the spot. But that's got harder over the last year; I've noticed that the number of handicapped spots has been reduced in several parking lots. I don't know why, but it has been a significant change. One thing that is legal, although liable to get a raised eyebrow, is using a handicapped spot when my wife stays in the car and I nip out to make a quick purchase at a store. Again it's not something I'll do very often, but it is permitted - if my wife needs to come after me for any reason she doesn't want to walk further than necessary. > It's kind of obvious when some guy pulls into the handicap space, JUMPS > out, grabs his gym bag and sprints up the stairs to Gold's Gym. > > And I have seen that happen. Well, he _could_ be delivering the car to his wife. But I doubt it :-) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
