Blue badge rules

[Wishingplenty]

So if a blue badge holder drives to a location and parks only where a blue badge holder is allowed to park. Then let's someone else out of the car and waits for them, is this technically breaking blue badge rules because they are not the ones doing the walking but the able bodied person is?

If a disabled person turns up with the intention of getting out but then can't and won't be, they can move to park in a normal space

They don't always know they won't be for the duration of a trip, but if they're parked in a 'normal' space then they won't be able go get out.

Once they know they won't they can move. Like I said.

It's really not.

Okay but how would someone looking on and judging know this? Someone getting wound up looking on at someone daring to remain in the car isn't to know that they might be planning on getting out in a minute?

My blue badge booklet is in my car! You wanted me to go outside that late at night and photograph my blue badge booklet?!

You're misinterpreting the rules on that site to fit your own narrative. A disabled person CANNOT remain sat in the car when parking in a disabled space. Fact.

It’s not about just someone looking on it’s about being checked by an inspector etc

Both me and my husband have no obvious disabilities so someone might look and think he / she isn’t disabled - couldn’t care less but if I was sat in the car in a blue badge bay and an inspector came to check car and found my husband had gone to do the grocery shop alone then I would lose my blue badge as no justification to using a blue badge bay if the disabled person is just having a run out in the car and sat waiting

Has anyone ever actually lost their BB this way?

They don't, therein lies the problem, where you get other people harassing people parked in a BB space, from a cursory visual, thinking that they have a right to question people.

There really is no grey area here if the disabled badge holder is not moving from the car then they must not use a designated blue badge bay or park on double yellows where allowable - it is misuse and if checked they will lose their badge.

Realistically the checks are so infrequent to be rare it is a small risk so really it comes down to moral compass

@sugarflub

I appreciate some people may need to sit for a while before doing so, or that they may sit then realise actually they can't manage getting out and going off at all. But once they know they definitely aren't getting out they should move, do you disagree with that? Or do you think it's acceptable to remain in a disabled space knowing full well you've decided you won't be getting out the car?

There is also the option of moving to a normal space then moving back to a disabled space if you decide you can get out after all. Of course they may all be full with other disabled people sat in their cars not getting out though. Which I imagine would be frustrating...

whe sitting my legs function fine but when I go to walk I can’t guarantee that I will be able to walk normally, my disability affects me at any time. I could have the best intentions of getting out of the car but can’t and yet another time you could see me walking as I arrive and you would think that there was nothing wrong with me but when I leave it’s extremely difficult for me. I may need to sit in the car for 10/15 minutes before I can get out so what do I do? Park in a blue badge space, move out of it and then drive back to it when I can get out of the car? If my mobility is ok when I arrive what do you suggest I do when it deteriorates when I’m out?
this person legitimately was parked as his wife (the badge holder) was in the store and and someone who thought he didn’t look disabled challenged him which resulted in his death. We can’t win whoever is in the vehicle. If a badge is displayed, move on it’s not yours or my place to question another person about their disability.

My local shopping area is low on blue badge spaces, but does have a rather nice M&S with cafe.
I recently spent half hour driving my giant disability van round and round while 3 (older) men in blue badge spaces sat reading their papers while wife 'ran in' to the store 🙄
Extremely frustrating especially as the regular car could park in any space my van cannot 🙄

I agree with you @coastalcalm

No one other than appropriate parking enforcement people should be asking to see badges and nor should Joe blogs ever be giving anyone a hard time. But to me the op wasn't about that, or whether these things get enforced, it's about our moral (and in fact legal) obligation not to take the piss.

I don't misuse our badge because one I don't want to lose it which would greatly disadvantage the holder and two, knowing how hard it can be for a bb holder to get out in the first place, why would you want to be a dick to other badge holders by misusing your own.

'You should not use the badge to allow non-disabled people to take advantage of the benefits while you sit in the car.'

This is not the same as 'you must get out of the car'. If that was what was intended, that's what would have been said, as it's much simpler to understand. 'You must get out of the car' doesn't allow for all the nuances of wanting and intending to get out, but not being able to, that have already been discussed.

'If a disabled person turns up with the intention of getting out but then can't and won't be, they can move to park in a normal space.'

But you don't necessarily know that when you arrive. All you know is that they can't get out right away, but they're still hoping they may be able to if they rest for a little. While they do that you don't have to stay with them, you can go to shop A, and then come back to see if they're up to it now. According to some people's interpretation, that's already misuse. Would it then become OK if the disabled person finds they can get out at that point? What if they're so exhausted by getting out that they can't make it to shop B? Would that be OK because they've got out? If they went back to the car to wait would that be OK or do they have to hope there's a nearby bench they can make it to?

In my reading of the rule all these situations would be OK because the disabled person has used the badge for themselves to try to go shopping. They have not used it to deliberately allow a non disabled person to take advantage. The non disabled person may sometimes get an advantage but that is incidental. It happened because of the disabled person's condition at the time, not because of anything they allowed.

To be clear, I completely agree that taking up a disabled space when everyone knows that the disabled person won't be getting out is the wrong thing to do. I also understand that if you've never had to face the reality of keeping some hope alive while living with an exhausting, progressive illness that drains you of everything, you probably think that some of the scenarios I've put forward are unrealistic. I wish they were.

There are a lot of arguments about technicalities here.
Here is my situation
I have been orange/ blue badge holder for 40 years.
I have moderate Cerebral Palsy. I can walk, but not 20m without stopping now.
In order for me to actually have a life, the use of a disabled space can be the difference between going to the cinema/ shop/ restaurant/ pub or whatever.
No problems with orange badge as society was a different place then
Now a blue badge is seen as a perk and no regard is given to others.
Just because the Paralympics has been invented It doesn't mean we can all win a medal if we just try harder.
I could go on....

And I always think of this sad unnecessary death, and so never ever ask people if they need the blue badges space.
Really sad.

@JeanLundegaard as I said, once you know you DEFINITELY won't be getting out, you move.

This probably applies more to people who have a passenger who's toddled off on their way and will be back later. If you're alone I would imagine once you know you definitely aren't getting out you leave anyway so it's a non issue. But hanging around in a disabled space waiting for your passenger to return when you know you DEFINITELY won't be getting out is not acceptable.

How would you know what the exact circumstances were? They could have been parked perfectly legitimately. I find these sorts of comments problematic, and do not understand how people can come to such conclusions based on a snapshot. If it was the wife's BB, then whether she ran into the shop, or crawled, she is using her badge lawfully.

Indeed, I do understand in areas and particular car parks where disabled spaces are often full which causes issues of course; but DB has been given shit in car parks with numerous free disabled spaces at the time its wild. They're always quite sheepish when they realise just because he doesn't fit their stereotype of someone who looks like they have a physical disability at first glance or through a car window, he in fact does need the space.

@JetskiSkyJumper this works if the disabled person is the driver but not if they're the passenger.

Edited to add - on second thoughts maybe it wouldn't. If the disabled person moved the car while their passenger wasn't there, how would they know where to find them?

@JeanLundegaard and I've never judged anyone using a bb in public because I have no idea of their situation. I dont why you've automatically jumped to the assumption that because someone points out on a forum that what's being posted about is misuse of the badge and is in fact illegal that they must go around violently confronting people. It's an odd assumption to make tbh.

That's true. But I'd argue the passenger shouldn't leave until the bb holder does. Otherwise they still are taking advantage of the bb in a way we're told not too.

You can also park in a BB space with the disabled persons badge if you are picking them up from somewhere.

So I drop DS off to training and park in BB space with his badge for him to get out.

If I leave and go back later I park in BB space for when he needs to get back in.

But no, you can't park in one of the disabled person so t using the space for their benefit.

@JetskiSkyJumper the point that I'm trying to make is that the rule is not that the non disabled person must not gain an advantage. It is that the badge holder must not use the badge to give them an advantage. Essentially it's about cause and effect rather than just effect.

There are two questions. a) how did the badge holder use the badge and b) did a non disabled person gain an advantage. You have to consider both of them.

I meant driver not passenger, can't edit on my app. You think not knowing where to find the car is a valid reason to misuse a disabled space?