Are there now too many disabled parking spaces?

[Ladywithabagonherhead]

I know I will sound like an entitled cow, but I wonder if I am alone with this. I am all for helping people who have disabilities in any way we can, that is decent - and if you are disabled yourself reading this, this is not against you at all.

I more and more think that we are overdoing the whole disabled parking slot deal. It's been happening these last few months everywhere I go, shops, high streets, supermakets, vet, etc.. Everyone is struggling to find a space, while there is a whole row reserved for blue badge holders, with one maybe two parked there. Meanwhile, there are fewer spots for family cars with small children, for example. Surely... surely there are way more families with kids than disabled parking needs (and I don't even have kids, just an observation). Not to mention the rest of us. Again, yes, we need dedicated parking spots, but aren't we overdoing it? As in, it's not really balanced. This is what I experience where I live, at least.

Yeah people like that are arses

No

Where I live is a bit of a retirement hot spot & I suppose as people get older they are statistically more likely to need a blue badge. I often struggle to find a space close to where I’m going (middle aged blue badge holder) so in my location I would say no, we definitely could do with more!

I only really see parent & child spaces at supermarkets and I would say there are probably the same amount of each at most places. The benefit of being able bodied is you can always park at the back of the carpark across two spaces if you need more room, whereas if you’re walking disabled you probably can’t.

"I'm all for helping disabled people having things as long as it doesn't impact me too much" 🙄

Yes. The planning rules are over generous. Large numbers of spaces unoccupied. Always. Most planners recognise this.

FINALLY, someone with common sense who understood the background of the question. I even spelled it out and said that it's not against disabled people or prejudice of any kind. Purely asking about the ratio that is completely off. Take the big Sainsburys near me - 1.5 rows of disabled parking, I don't even know how many that is exactly, but it's always completely empty, with 2 cars using it, maximum! with the 0.5 lane for families unsurprisingly being full, as well as the normal parking. ALWAYS. that ration is off, no matter how i look at it.

Like many others, you completely fail at getting the point. I spelled it out like I would for a preschooler so it can be understood, seems like it is not enough. It is purely about the ration, regardless of who is disabled and who isn't.

If you ever need blue badge parking you will all too frequently meet them. It seems to be getting worse now. I used to drive my dad when he had a blue badge about 20 years ago and there wasnt a problem finding parking. Now its a very regular thing.

Interesting!

Yeah. I don't say we should take away disabled spots to benefit abled bodied drivers at all. I agree

That too, actually.

Maybe around your area - in which case the ration is off there, too! just the other way

Since we are spelling things out for people with low comprehension-

Do you think they would go to the expense of making a carpark with a few blue badge spaces, monitoring the usage, and then adding more in. Or do you think they would just put in a minimal amount and then disabled folk are just told to fight it out for the minimal spaces because they won't add more in?

Parent and child spaces near the store entrance are unnecessary. Park in the empty spaces at the edge of the car park - quiet and empty of room to get in and out of the car. The P&C spaces near the store could become additional disabled spaces.

I'd like you to come out with us for the day and see the battles I have trying to park our WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle) on a daily basis. It's too tall to fit under most height barriers, it won't fit in a multi-storey because it's too tall. At the local supermarkets I have to fight with non BB holders parking in BB spaces because they are closer to the door/cash point. Our local hospital have parked a bloody great MRI scanner over 10 BB spaces reducing the car park's capacity for BB spaces, last week I had to park half a mile away, on double yellows, walk my sick 6 year old BB holder to the ward where he was held down while being cannulated the whole time being conscious that I needed to get back to the vehicle and move it inside the three hour limit.

Where I live there are not nearly enough.

neither are viable options. I have no idea how the professionals responsible of calculating i would go about it. There is surely a method which I am not privy to. You just see the outcome of off ratios. Where I am, it is off because they are always empty, while other are fighting and struggling to get a spot. It doesn't need to take sides to understand that it is indeed off. But people are talking about their areas where the disabled spots fill up quick and there's not enough - so the ratio is off there too.

That is your opinion - maybe parents with children don't agree with that.

i have DT’s so plenty of experience of shopping with children

That sounds rough. I am sorry about how difficult it is to manage over there. But see, I could easily say come out with me for the day where I am and see that you'd have ample parking with your WAV, even if you park sideways, taking up more at the same time somehow. In your area and mine the calculations are off - just differently

There’s probably a huge number of disabled spaces everywhere I go because most of them seem to be taken up by cars not displaying a blue badge so to give blue badge holders a chance there has to be loads of spaces

that is underestood. But I am pretty sure not all parents with children would share your view about P&C spots.

But it is part of the point
It's impossible to ensure there are the exact number of disabled spaces needed at any one time, so it's better to have spare capacity just in case, and if that means that those without disability cannot always find a parking space, then they can park further away and walk.

It’s the sort of thing Boris Johnson would say. Or have you been reading Adrian Mole? This from “The Cappuccino Years”:

”I wish everyone over fifty would commit mass suicide and give the rest of us a break. No old age pensions to pay out, no homes for the elderly to maintain, and at least half the disabled spaces outside Marks and Spencer’s reclaimed by the young and able-bodied. Once again I thank Pepys, the god of diarists, that my journal will never be read in my lifetime. I wouldn’t like to be thought of as an uncaring ageist.”

This. There are not nearly enough, where I live.