Disabled Parking Bay 1

[Thargy]

Folks,

Where I work, there's a disabled parking slot, right outside the front door, for obvious reasons.

It's got a 'deliveries' slot right next to it, for equally obvious reasons.

Some of the 'managers' have taken to parking in the disabled bay, even when there are plenty of other spaces available.

I've objected to this through the appropriate channels, and a 'quiet word' has been had with the individuals responsible. However, these special people resumed their anti-social parking the next day. I am not letting this go, and it's been escalated to the CEO, who is due to take action shortly.

What bugs me, is the mentality of these people. Their convenience comes before the genuine need of the disabled. They'll say "Nobody disabled works here" or some such, but what they're really doing is breaking a minor rule and getting away with it, because in their puerile little consciousness, they're important. This is a subset of "If I can break one little rule, then why not two?", which is a subset of "The rules don't apply to me" and you can take it from there.

Does anyone out there have any similar experiences with such dweebs in the office, and if yes, how did you deal with them?

Regards

Tharg

Grinding away at things Oracular

 

[mrdenny]

Call the local police and have there car ticketed. Parking in a handicapt spot is not breaking a rule, it's breaking the law.

Here in California it's a couple of hundred doller fine. Once they get one or two of those they won't park there any more.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000) / MCTS (SQL 2005)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[sleipnir214]

In Louisiana, they don't just ticket -- they tow.

I don't know what the cost of the ticket is, but you can add a towing fee on top of that.



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[mrdenny]

That could get very expensive on a friday afternoon. With the added in weekend towing fees. That would definetly get the point accross.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000) / MCTS (SQL 2005)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[sleipnir214]

What really makes it fun in my town, Lafayette, is that there is no central impound yard for cars that are towed. The towing company that lifts your car takes it to their yard. And in order to keep any one towing company from getting a monopoly on the business, the cops are required to rotate towing assignments across a fairly sizeable number of towin companies. And some of the towing companies are little mom-and-pop, one-truck organizations with yards out in the boondocks of the Cajun prarieland

So here you get a parking ticket, a towing fee, and a scavenger hunt all in one.



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[langleymass]

I would not be concerned with the parking offense as much as I would be concerned with the mentality and attitude behind it. There is little doubt that such people reflect the same attitudes in other actions as well.

 

[tazuk]

I am not letting this go

Kudos to you for taking a stand against this type of selfish behaviour.

TazUk

Blue-screening PCs since 1998

 

[BJCooperIT]

When my father was alive, he had the sticker that allowed him to use handicapped parking. Without those parking spaces he would have been unable to go grocery shopping or even to the doctor. His heart was so frail that he never could have walked across the parking lot without collapsing.

In the small town he lived in there were several ladies who decided that it was OK for them to park in the two handicapped spaces at the post office because, after all, they were "just going to be a minute". One day, after circling the post office for 20 minutes, my dad was upset that both spaces were occupied by cars that had no business parking there. He parked his truck across the back bumpers of both vehicles, squarely blocking them in. He slowly made his way in to pick up his mail and even stood in line to buy stamps (which he didn't need). By the time he got outside there were two very indignant ladies waiting for him. How dare he inconvenience them was their attitude - until they saw him shuffle out. He gave them the obligatory speech about the purpose of the spaces but they were already very red-faced. They never parked there again.

Tharg, you wouldn't happen to have a handicapped friend that would like to drive to your place of business for a long lunch?

^{Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~George Bernard Shaw}
Consultant Developer/Analyst Oracle, Forms, Reports & PL/SQL (Windows)
My website: Emu Products Plus

 

[ecobb]

Awesome story, BJCooperIT! Your father sounds like mine! My mother has a handicapped sticker, as well as my cousin who's been in a wheelchair most of his life. It burns me up everytime I go somewhere like the grocery store or the mall and see vehicles without the special handicapped sticker or license plates parked in handicapped spots. I just want to go over there an leave a note that says "Being stupid is not a handicap. Find somewhere else to park!". It just amazes me at how selfish some people are.

Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies

http://www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[BocaBurger]

"Being stupid is not a handicap. Find somewhere else to park!".

You should this printed as a sticker, but change the wording a bit:

"Beind stupid and inconsiderate is not a legal handicap."

Stick it to their rear bumper.



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[chiph]

<embarassed>
I once parked in the "Expectant Mothers" spot at the supermarket. I was wondering about the strange looks I got as I walked to the store, but didn't notice the sign until I returned to the car. Ooops.

Chip H.


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If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[Thargy]

Sadly this behaviour is going on in the company car park, so it's private ground, and not subject to the Road Traffic Act.

However, my father is disabled, and if he came to visit one lunch time, maybe he could park across the bay, with his disabled badge plainly visible, and block in an offender. Then off for a long lunch, and shamble extremely slowly (his absolute pedal to the metal top speed is about 2 mph in bursts) to the nearest cafe, where we could chat.

If he could delay his departure until after the idiots wanted to go home for the evening, that would be splendiferous!

Thanks for the ideas,

Tharg

Grinding away at things Oracular

 

[AnotherHiggins]

So much for 'leading by example', eh?

Even if the parking lot is private property, there is probably a towing company on retainer with your company that, if called, would come out and tow away any car without the required sticker/tag that is parked in the handicapped spot.

Parking used to be dreadful at my office (improved parking conditions are one of the perks of surviving a massive layoff). At the height of parking-hell, some would park in another company's spots, but no one parked in the handicapped spot without a sticker.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.

 

[mrdenny]

Even on Private property (at least in the US) the police can still have a car towed which is in a handicapped spot.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000) / MCTS (SQL 2005)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[hawks]

Here in FL (at least my area) they have parking lot police. It's community service people that drive around and look for cars in Handicapped spaces that are not suppose to be there, and yes private parking or not they can ticket and/or have them towed.

 

[langleymass]

BJCooperIT,

That's a great story about your father.

 

[BJCooperIT]

Thanks - my dad was a character.

I think the lesson I learned from that was that sometimes being subtle just does not work with some folks. They are so self-involved that they tend to put their needs first and do not take the time to consider the needs of others. Once in a while, you just have to make them ashamed of themselves.

Of course there are some people who never learn, for them I leave one of these on their windshield!

^{Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~George Bernard Shaw}
Consultant Developer/Analyst Oracle, Forms, Reports & PL/SQL (Windows)
My website: Emu Products Plus

 

[lionelhill]

I saw a lovely picture of a sign once - I hope it was real, and not faked - that carried a disabled parking logo, and underneath a statement:

"The vehicle parked in this space belongs either to a severly disabled person, or to an inconsiderate oaf"

And what about the people who have a disabled sticker in their car because their aunt is old and frail, and think that means they can park in disabled spots when aunty's not with them? Grrrr!

 

[BocaBurger]

Some doctors fill out disabled forms if you have a severe hangnail. I can't tell you the number of times I have seen a physically healthy person jog to their vehicle in the rain, with a disabled tag in their window.



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[LFI]

I am completely on board with thargtheslayer's post. Good for you for seeing it through!

I would like to try and nip in the bud comments deriding people that have stickers that don't need them.

Okay, if they TRULY don't need them (like in the case of someone who has one because they chauffeur their disabled aunt around but are currently without her), yes, you have a beef.

All too often, however, people just assume that because someone looks okay, they can't be handicapped.

I broke my foot once and got a temporary sticker for work. I was on the mend and walking fairly well, but got looks because I was still using the sticker which had an expiration date. In my mind, I needed to heal and using the sticker to its expiration date was, to me, like taking antibiotics for 10 days even though I feel better after 4. It reduced how much I had to be on my foot.

Also, people with Meniere's Syndrome or vertigo (etc.) might get handicapped stickers and, if they're not having an episode, won't show any outward signs of being handicapped, but being able to park close to a store will help ensure that if they DO have an episode, it will be where someone can see them and not out in the middle of a parking lot.

Do people abuse the system? No doubt in my mind. Let's just be careful who we accuse of doing it.

Thanks.

Dave

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce
they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does