Disabled Parking apparently for everybody?

From my observations, most of the people with disabled permits on their windscreen are only disabled by the girth of their belly. Why can a fat person, who needs exercise more, get a parking spot as close as possible to the source of their problem – food?

Queen_of_the_Bun said :

Genie said :

Maya123 said :

Genie said :

Gildrsleeve – My mother and father have disabled stickers, as does my aunt and before she passed away my grandmother also held a disabled sticker. I was granted a temporary disabled sticker after I had a car accident.

The disabled stickers ARE handed out like candy, once you have one, there isn’t much paperwork needed to keep it.. the majority of them are even issued for 5 years.

I have worked with plenty of people in my years who managed to get a disabled sticker so they can park for free while sitting at work all day. Heck I could even give you the details of people who have disabled stickers so they can park at the door in the disabled car spot, but then go for a 5km run at lunch time.

Are you sure that the person going for the 5km run is not using someone else’s sticker? This commonly happens.

Very likely the case…

If it’s their own sticker, I’m sorry, yes alot of disabilities aren’t obvious. But if you can run 5kms then you clearly don’t need a sticker.

It’s possible that the 5km jogger has a severely autistic child and has a disabled parking permit because they need the extra space and distance from a busy road so that their child doesn’t fling themselves into oncoming traffic. It’s also possible that a parent of a severely autistic child may need the respite of a 5km jog to keep themselves sane so they can keep caring for their child. If they choose to use their parking sticker to get a good park even though their child is not in the car with them, who are we to judge?

You’re right, how inconsiderate would it be of a person in a wheelchair to come along thinking they should be able to occupy that spot when it is clearly more important for an able bodied person to feel better about their self.

Genie said :

Maya123 said :

Genie said :

Gildrsleeve – My mother and father have disabled stickers, as does my aunt and before she passed away my grandmother also held a disabled sticker. I was granted a temporary disabled sticker after I had a car accident.

The disabled stickers ARE handed out like candy, once you have one, there isn’t much paperwork needed to keep it.. the majority of them are even issued for 5 years.

I have worked with plenty of people in my years who managed to get a disabled sticker so they can park for free while sitting at work all day. Heck I could even give you the details of people who have disabled stickers so they can park at the door in the disabled car spot, but then go for a 5km run at lunch time.

Are you sure that the person going for the 5km run is not using someone else’s sticker? This commonly happens.

Very likely the case…

If it’s their own sticker, I’m sorry, yes alot of disabilities aren’t obvious. But if you can run 5kms then you clearly don’t need a sticker.

It’s possible that the 5km jogger has a severely autistic child and has a disabled parking permit because they need the extra space and distance from a busy road so that their child doesn’t fling themselves into oncoming traffic. It’s also possible that a parent of a severely autistic child may need the respite of a 5km jog to keep themselves sane so they can keep caring for their child. If they choose to use their parking sticker to get a good park even though their child is not in the car with them, who are we to judge?

Maya123 said :

Genie said :

Gildrsleeve – My mother and father have disabled stickers, as does my aunt and before she passed away my grandmother also held a disabled sticker. I was granted a temporary disabled sticker after I had a car accident.

The disabled stickers ARE handed out like candy, once you have one, there isn’t much paperwork needed to keep it.. the majority of them are even issued for 5 years.

I have worked with plenty of people in my years who managed to get a disabled sticker so they can park for free while sitting at work all day. Heck I could even give you the details of people who have disabled stickers so they can park at the door in the disabled car spot, but then go for a 5km run at lunch time.

Are you sure that the person going for the 5km run is not using someone else’s sticker? This commonly happens.

Very likely the case…

If it’s their own sticker, I’m sorry, yes alot of disabilities aren’t obvious. But if you can run 5kms then you clearly don’t need a sticker.

Genie said :

Gildrsleeve – My mother and father have disabled stickers, as does my aunt and before she passed away my grandmother also held a disabled sticker. I was granted a temporary disabled sticker after I had a car accident.

The disabled stickers ARE handed out like candy, once you have one, there isn’t much paperwork needed to keep it.. the majority of them are even issued for 5 years.

I have worked with plenty of people in my years who managed to get a disabled sticker so they can park for free while sitting at work all day. Heck I could even give you the details of people who have disabled stickers so they can park at the door in the disabled car spot, but then go for a 5km run at lunch time.

Are you sure that the person going for the 5km run is not using someone else’s sticker? This commonly happens.

Gildrsleeve – My mother and father have disabled stickers, as does my aunt and before she passed away my grandmother also held a disabled sticker. I was granted a temporary disabled sticker after I had a car accident.

The disabled stickers ARE handed out like candy, once you have one, there isn’t much paperwork needed to keep it.. the majority of them are even issued for 5 years.

I have worked with plenty of people in my years who managed to get a disabled sticker so they can park for free while sitting at work all day. Heck I could even give you the details of people who have disabled stickers so they can park at the door in the disabled car spot, but then go for a 5km run at lunch time.

Genie said :

Personally, too many people hold disabled stickers and they need to be reviewed.

They hand out disabled stickers like candy these days and there aren’t enough parking spots.

Exactly. I am about to lodge a complaint (if indeed this is allowable) about someone who uses a disabled parking spot every working day, all day, and goes about working on the site of a commercial building renovation. I don’t fancy my chances as the parking people, (Office of Reg Services), already told me that he has the permit legitimately. They failed to point me in the direction of the Dickson Motor Registry which deals with these permits. That’s because they obviously don’t care about the disabled person who may need that spot for even just half an hour of that day.

Obviously he may have a disability, but it’s one that does not stop him pottering around the building site. And leaving bags of waste asbestos about.

I have two comments on this one. First, kaitaz, you are absolutely right: people are inconsiderate idiots much too often when it comes to disabled parking. But then, why are there so many people who feel the need to do this? Simple: there aren’t enough parking spaces for the amount of use the buildings/facilities around the car-parks are attracting. More often than not, an illegal parker has simply been unable to find a legal parking space (examples: Weston Creek/Cooleman Court; several ‘shopping courts’ in Phillip; anywhere in Civic; anywhere where there are busy doctors’ offices). I’ve been known to scrap plans to do some non-essential shopping in certain mini-malls just because I couldn’t find a legal spot (now, aren’t I a virtuous citizen, not giving in to the idiot temptation? 😀 )

In a country as wide open as Australia, but especially in a ‘garden city’ capital, why oh why are builders and planners so stingy with allowing enough space for the cars?

It’s not good enough to say that conscientious authorities want to encourage people to take environmentally-friendlier public transport instead of driving their own cars. If that were true, the public transport system in Canberra would be way more passenger-friendly than it is. Nobody with a car will choose to spend 3-4 hours (round trip) getting to, say, a hospital to visit a friend or relative during official visiting hours; or attending a court hearing; etc., if it means taking 2 or 3 buses each way, with time-wasting waits at every change. I know there will always be a few daggy nose-thumbers taking disabled spaces just because they can, BUT if public transport were more efficient, there might be many fewer people driving and parking so stupidly.

Second comment: I suspect Genie has not only never needed a disabled sticker, but hasn’t even been acquainted with someone who did. These permits are not ‘handed out like candy’; maybe you believe it is because it sometimes seems as if perfectly healthy people have them. Well, sometimes they do — that’s because they’re usually the relative or friend who is driving the permit-holder!

I have an older family member who had a catastrophic illness, which kept him in hospital for two-and-a-half months. When he was able to be released, we had to ‘prove’ (aka ‘jump through hoops’) the need for a disabled permit. He needed it for about a year, since his illness left him with severe muscle atrophy and deep but intermittent pain. He eventually healed enough that he could manage walking from non-disabled carparking into shops, malls, and work, so at that point his permit was not renewed.

In the meantime, I got to see first-hand what kaitaz is experiencing, as I was his driver most of the time. Staying home was not a healthy option for this patient, according to his doctor. Getting out into the community was emotionally healing; getting out and about physically helped re-build his strength. But some folks have utterly selfish notions about accommodating the disabled, and just can’t manage to bother themselves with even a small sacrifice of their own convenience — as if inconveniencing all those with much greater needs is such a better way!

* ‘nother rant over*

Genie said :

Personally, too many people hold disabled stickers and they need to be reviewed.

They hand out disabled stickers like candy these days and there aren’t enough parking spots.

Disabled car parking spaces serve a dual function. They are a place for the disabled to park – and the police know that something like 80 per cent of drivers who park in disabled spaces while able-bodied have a criminal record, so they keep an eye on them!

Personally, too many people hold disabled stickers and they need to be reviewed.

They hand out disabled stickers like candy these days and there aren’t enough parking spots.